Boy Based Commercials
Rather than domesticity, commercials that feature boys contain violent images. For example, in the commercial for “Power Rangers Super Megaforce Double Battle Figures” there are images of ‘blasters’ and ‘swords’, with the Power Rangers fighting ‘evil’ (Bandai 2014). The voice in the commercial is male, and the intended audience for Power Ranger is clearly young boys. The voice says things like “fire your blaster and swing your sword,” as well as “you’re armed and ready!” (Bandai 2014). This is teaching the young boys who want these toys to be violent, and to destroy ‘evil’. There is another commercial that features many young men who are playing with Nerf guns. This commercial is for the “Nerf Zombie Strike Slingfire Blaster,” …show more content…
One reason this may be is because “[boys] are less likely to cross gender lines than girls” (Auster & Mansbach 2012, 375). However, in some cases this can lead to a patriarchal like reproduction in gender neutral toys. For example, at Target, the “Melissa and Doug” brand has several gender neutral toys. Among them there are six dress up outfits with a picture of a little boy and a little girl wearing the outfits to signify their gender neutrality. If it wasn’t for the picture of the little girl wearing the outfits as well it would seem that they were just dress up clothes for little boys. This is because the outfits offered were a doctor, head chef, firefighter, police chief, pirate, and construction worker, which are all typically male dominated. While it is nice that girls are being shown that they can do these things, it is hard not to notice that there is no stereotypical female outfit available to boys, like a nurse. It seems as if girls are expected to want to be like men because they are in some way superior, according to the patriarchal society we live in. Gender neutral toys hold the answer to avoiding gender stereotypes in toys, but in order for that to be truly effective the toys must not lean toward one
Rather than domesticity, commercials that feature boys contain violent images. For example, in the commercial for “Power Rangers Super Megaforce Double Battle Figures” there are images of ‘blasters’ and ‘swords’, with the Power Rangers fighting ‘evil’ (Bandai 2014). The voice in the commercial is male, and the intended audience for Power Ranger is clearly young boys. The voice says things like “fire your blaster and swing your sword,” as well as “you’re armed and ready!” (Bandai 2014). This is teaching the young boys who want these toys to be violent, and to destroy ‘evil’. There is another commercial that features many young men who are playing with Nerf guns. This commercial is for the “Nerf Zombie Strike Slingfire Blaster,” …show more content…
One reason this may be is because “[boys] are less likely to cross gender lines than girls” (Auster & Mansbach 2012, 375). However, in some cases this can lead to a patriarchal like reproduction in gender neutral toys. For example, at Target, the “Melissa and Doug” brand has several gender neutral toys. Among them there are six dress up outfits with a picture of a little boy and a little girl wearing the outfits to signify their gender neutrality. If it wasn’t for the picture of the little girl wearing the outfits as well it would seem that they were just dress up clothes for little boys. This is because the outfits offered were a doctor, head chef, firefighter, police chief, pirate, and construction worker, which are all typically male dominated. While it is nice that girls are being shown that they can do these things, it is hard not to notice that there is no stereotypical female outfit available to boys, like a nurse. It seems as if girls are expected to want to be like men because they are in some way superior, according to the patriarchal society we live in. Gender neutral toys hold the answer to avoiding gender stereotypes in toys, but in order for that to be truly effective the toys must not lean toward one