Toys and Books: Tools for Teaching Gender Specific Behavior
Toys are the most obvious, and therefore the least expected, method of influencing a child's behavior. It's a subtle method that starts when children can't even walk yet. At first the toys a child is given are gender neutral toys such as The Little Tikes Go and Grow Lil Rollin Giraffe, Fisher-Price Lil’ Snoopy, and The Playskool Poppin’ Park Elefun Busy Ball Popper. These toys are slowly replaced with more gender specific toys like Thomas The Tank Engine and Minnie Mouse and the Smile & Style Mirror by VTech as babies grow older. These toys are colored coded according to the gender of the child who is supposed to play with them. Thomas The Tank …show more content…
This system then becomes the socially accepted norm along with the behaviors these toys promote. Boy toys are, as a rule, more physically and authoritively demanding then passive. Toys like Nerf Guns, footballs, and sports toys ,require that the players work together to take charge of the situations that arise in order to win the game. Few girl toys promote this degree of physical roughness and willingness to lead. One such exception is the Rebelle Nerf Gun, which has not been around very long, and is only one active girl toy out of many passive girl toys. Girl toys are mainly passive and promote the softer skills in life. Barbie dolls encourage girl children to socialize, choose fashionable outfits, and style their hair. These toys, most importantly, prepare children for their roles in society. Boys are encouraged to play with guns, Tonka construction trucks, police cars, super hero action figures. These toys prepare boy children for their roles as protector, provider, and creator. Girls are prepared for a very different role in society. They are encouraged to play with Baby Alive dolls, Easy Bake Ovens, and various …show more content…
"The Fate of Ten" portrays its male and female heroes in relatively the same way. One hero may be more cheerful than the other, another more brave, or more kind, but there was not a stark difference in gender behavior overall. The male characters were perhaps a little more authoritarian than the females; this is the only substantial difference in gender traits. Ethnicity and social class were non-existent in this book, that is to say, neither were mentioned at all within the chapters reviewed for the purpose of this analysis. “Dumplin’ “is a little like the prior example, but in a lot of ways, it is very different. It is implied that the females in this story are supposed to care quite a bit about their appearance. This is demonstrated in the way the protagonist describes herself and how she compares this to the appearance of her peers. Otherwise, it seems the same sociological roles are portrayed relatively the same with each character. They’re all a little quirky, friendly, and kind. The sociological expectations portrayed in the book build upon the self-image the female characters seem to have. Socially, they’re supposed to care about their appearances, body weight, and what their peers think and say about them. These social expectations for females contrast sharply with the social
Toys are the most obvious, and therefore the least expected, method of influencing a child's behavior. It's a subtle method that starts when children can't even walk yet. At first the toys a child is given are gender neutral toys such as The Little Tikes Go and Grow Lil Rollin Giraffe, Fisher-Price Lil’ Snoopy, and The Playskool Poppin’ Park Elefun Busy Ball Popper. These toys are slowly replaced with more gender specific toys like Thomas The Tank Engine and Minnie Mouse and the Smile & Style Mirror by VTech as babies grow older. These toys are colored coded according to the gender of the child who is supposed to play with them. Thomas The Tank …show more content…
This system then becomes the socially accepted norm along with the behaviors these toys promote. Boy toys are, as a rule, more physically and authoritively demanding then passive. Toys like Nerf Guns, footballs, and sports toys ,require that the players work together to take charge of the situations that arise in order to win the game. Few girl toys promote this degree of physical roughness and willingness to lead. One such exception is the Rebelle Nerf Gun, which has not been around very long, and is only one active girl toy out of many passive girl toys. Girl toys are mainly passive and promote the softer skills in life. Barbie dolls encourage girl children to socialize, choose fashionable outfits, and style their hair. These toys, most importantly, prepare children for their roles in society. Boys are encouraged to play with guns, Tonka construction trucks, police cars, super hero action figures. These toys prepare boy children for their roles as protector, provider, and creator. Girls are prepared for a very different role in society. They are encouraged to play with Baby Alive dolls, Easy Bake Ovens, and various …show more content…
"The Fate of Ten" portrays its male and female heroes in relatively the same way. One hero may be more cheerful than the other, another more brave, or more kind, but there was not a stark difference in gender behavior overall. The male characters were perhaps a little more authoritarian than the females; this is the only substantial difference in gender traits. Ethnicity and social class were non-existent in this book, that is to say, neither were mentioned at all within the chapters reviewed for the purpose of this analysis. “Dumplin’ “is a little like the prior example, but in a lot of ways, it is very different. It is implied that the females in this story are supposed to care quite a bit about their appearance. This is demonstrated in the way the protagonist describes herself and how she compares this to the appearance of her peers. Otherwise, it seems the same sociological roles are portrayed relatively the same with each character. They’re all a little quirky, friendly, and kind. The sociological expectations portrayed in the book build upon the self-image the female characters seem to have. Socially, they’re supposed to care about their appearances, body weight, and what their peers think and say about them. These social expectations for females contrast sharply with the social