When a little boy chooses a barbie doll over a monster wheel truck , what do most parents say? No, you need to get the truck.. They do not like the idea of their male child playing with a toy marketed to girls. They then make the child get the toy they think is appropriate for their child's natural gender. This may affect the way the child thinks for the rest of their life. They may think from this point on that toys marketed to boys are for boys only and visa versa. Not teaching them that gender neutral toys encourage kids to be less biased about the gender role society expects of them.
Most toys are targeted to a specific gender. Which may been shown in many girl toys when they are coated in pink and boy toys are splattered blue, which teaches them that the color pink is too feminine, and blue is too masculine. Blue and pink are the main colors used in children's toy and the wide usage of the colors may reinforce the stereotypes associated with the all too familiar colors. Another way toys are targeted to a certain gender is …show more content…
It allows parents to become comfortable with the gender specific role that society expects of their child and will make them less likely to allow for cross-gender toy play. This allows for gender specific toy advertising and marketing to pigeonhole children in gender expected roles. Dr. Elizabeth Sweet, a sociologist and lecturer at the University of California, Davis, whose research focuses on gender and toys, explained, “Studies have found that gendered toys do shape children’s play preferences and styles. Because gendered toys limit the range of skills and attributes that both boys and girls can explore through play, they may prevent children from developing their full range of interests, preferences, and talents.”(Sweet, 1 ). Sweet is showing that toy with appeal to both boys and girls will develop less traditional ideas of male and female