Assignment 2: Gender Stereotypes

For this assignment I went to the Walmart located 1650 TX-351 in Abilene Texas. I went on October 26th, at 2:30 in the afternoon. Right when I walked into the toy section I saw the pink glow of toys to my left and then the dull dark blue to my right. It was very obvious which isles were attended for girls and which isles were attended for boys. This was the case for all of the isles except for the infant toy aisle. The infant toy aisle was very gender neutral in the aspect that all of the toys and packages were covered in vibrant bright colors, but this is probably only the case because bright primary colors are used to increase baby stimuli. I feel like gender stereotypes are driving the market and companies are making more money because …show more content…
The first two shelves were filled with legos that were obviously aimed for boys. These legos were Star Wars themed and in dark blue and black packaging. Above the Star Wars legos were pretty pink lego boxes with girl lego characters and pretty pink presents on the box. It was very clear which legos were meant for boys and which were made for girls. After researching more about this I discovered that lego released the lego and friends toy line which is aimed for females and is all about beauty and nurturing instead of building like the boys playsets encourage. This got me thinking about the impact that toys have on children. I think that toys have a huge impact on children and believe that by gender stereotyping toys, it doesn’t allow children to choose what or who they want to be. Children are influenced by their surroundings, so when toys are grouped into separate male and female sections, it shows little girls that they can’t play with the action figure toy set and instead should be sticking to baby dolls and cooking. Not only does the separation of toys impact who a child thinks they need to be, but it also impacts the child’s brain functions. Action construction and technology toys, also known as boys toys, help with spatial skills, foster problem solving and encourage children to be active. On the other hand, social role play like dolls and kitchens which are geared for girls and are good for fine motor skills and perseverance. By separating these two categories it makes the child less well rounded and parts of their brain won’t be as developed. Boys aren’t learning the speaking skills they need and girls aren’t getting the math and problem solving skills that they