Stereotypes Of The Toy Store

The Toy Store: Everything Has a Purpose

The toy manufactory industry has implanted the idea that toys that children play with should correspond with their gender. Manufacturers differentiate whom the toy is for by the color of the toy and type of toy. For example, manufacturers will produce the same toy in different colors like the Fisher-Price Bright Beats Dance & Move BeatBo, that comes in two colors (purple and blue), and are side-by-side on the shelves. The toys that I observed at Target, were categorized based on the stereotypes of gender roles, racial groups, and age groups.

For children ages two and under, the types of toys included in their aisles were musical “instruments” that are geared to help them learn. The Fisher-Price Learn

For example, WWE action figures show four very buff males, that are composed of just shear muscle. In the packaging, the wrestlers are flexing their arms to show off their muscles and to show aggression. Also, the wresters are only wearing a pair of underwear and calf length sneakers. Another example, is the Hulk action figure he looked angry and tough, just like another typical action figure found in the boys’ aisle.

In the girl aisle, I saw nearly 95 percent of the dolls were white, and the other five percent represents other racial others such as African American, Indian, and Asian. There was only one Asian doll which was Mulan, and one Indian doll which was Pocahontas. In the packaging, we see that the African American dolls being held by African American girls, and the white dolls are held by white people. There were some dolls, that were dressed exactly the same, looked the same, had different names and a different skin

A man is supposed to take of his family financially. We depend on the predictable division of labor so we assign responsibilities that we assume seem fit for a particular gender. The sociology of gender is basically how social institutions have affected our perception of masculinity and femininity. Masculinity is appropriate behavior for a male, and femininity is appropriate behavior for a woman. We construct gender norms which tells us what are socially acceptable ways we are supposed to act in correlation with our gender. We learn what is expected from our gender at a very young age by parents, school, culture, and media. Toy stores have action figures like WWE wrestlers which are targeted towards boys because in order to be masculine you have to be