Should The World Of Toys Be Gender Free Analysis

A child’s interactions with the opposite gender at a young age has a much greater effect on their development than the types of toys that they play with. Focusing on how toys should be marketed to become gender-free is a waste of time. In Peggy Orenstein’s article “Should the World of Toys Be Gender-Free?” she has this main focus on the types of toys kids play with. I do not believe this has a great effect on child development. She barely touched upon how boys playing with girls has an effect on development, which she should have done because I think that this aspect of childhood play is much more important than the toys themselves. The fact of the matter is, kids will play with whatever toys they want to play with. It does not matter if the toy is in a pink or blue box. Kids will still want to play with whatever is inside if it seems interesting to them. Changing the way toys are packaged will not have much of an affect at all. If a doll is in a neutral white box then a boy would play with it if he wants. He might choose not to play with the doll because it just does not interest him. The same can go for a girl wanting to play with a toy car in a box, it holds an interest to her.

The society that we live in today has more parents who are open-minded and understand that different toys benefit different aspects of a child’s learning. The world we live in is not perfect though, a parent might be a little hesitant to give a boy a doll to play with. Changing the color of the box or making the doll a boy would not affect this parents decision on letting their child play with the doll. If a parent does not want their child to play with a certain toy based on traditional gender roles, then that parent is closed minded and the changing of how toys are marketed will not affect their decision. Children will find a way to get that specific toy anyway, whether it be from a sibling or a