Everyone has heard something like “Boys don’t play with dolls!” or “That toy is for boys, not girls!”, you could have heard it from a parent, a teacher or even a child. Nowadays, if you take a walk through any toy store, you will notice two main sections: a blue one and a pink one. The blue one will most likely have, trucks, dinosaurs, astronauts, space ships, building toys, action figures and superheroes. The pink will probably have dolls, cooking kits, princesses, doll houses, teddy bears and all sort of pink toys. While “for adults, play is a break from life; for children, especially in the earliest stages of childhood development, play is life, and toys are the tools of early learning.” (Daly), or, in other words, kids learn through playing;
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Looking at toy catalogs from 1920 shows all the stereotypes that existed nearly one century ago. You could see that all the toys marketed towards girls were focused on the household and nurturing. Meanwhile, the toys marketed towards boys prepared them to the work force. Not only that, but the gender labeling was “very explicit”, saying that “this toy is perfect for little girls” (Sweet). During the 1970s, a wave of feminism was happening, and most toys became neutral, so boy and girls could play with them alike, and “less than 2 percent of toys were explicitly marketed to either boys or girls” (Sweet). However, this was until the late 1980s and early 1990s, where gender stereotypes returned to stores, but this time with more fantasy-based themes such as princesses and superheroes. Also, gender labeling is not as explicit as it was before, but they are using other types of cues: while a toy may not say explicitly that it is for girls, it may have a pink box and princesses, therefore, this cues tells the customer the toy is for “girls” . Even though toy makers try to aim to a certain demographic with their toys, children are ultimately the ones deciding what toys to buy, but how do kids chose what toys are suitable for their …show more content…
In a research made by psychologist Marilyn Bradbard, she presented a group of boys and girls some unfamiliar toys and she put them in gender-specific boxes. After that, she found that children used to remember more toys on the box that matched their gender and spent more time playing with those toys. So, labeling can play a big role on defining what toy children chose to play with, but that is not the only thing. Many children choose to play with toys that defy gender stereotypes, but they stop playing with them thanks to peer pressure. There have been many cases of this, and not only children act as “gender police”, but also parents, telling their children what is good to play with and not. This causes that a child stops playing with a type of toy, even if they like it, and this can bring many
Looking at toy catalogs from 1920 shows all the stereotypes that existed nearly one century ago. You could see that all the toys marketed towards girls were focused on the household and nurturing. Meanwhile, the toys marketed towards boys prepared them to the work force. Not only that, but the gender labeling was “very explicit”, saying that “this toy is perfect for little girls” (Sweet). During the 1970s, a wave of feminism was happening, and most toys became neutral, so boy and girls could play with them alike, and “less than 2 percent of toys were explicitly marketed to either boys or girls” (Sweet). However, this was until the late 1980s and early 1990s, where gender stereotypes returned to stores, but this time with more fantasy-based themes such as princesses and superheroes. Also, gender labeling is not as explicit as it was before, but they are using other types of cues: while a toy may not say explicitly that it is for girls, it may have a pink box and princesses, therefore, this cues tells the customer the toy is for “girls” . Even though toy makers try to aim to a certain demographic with their toys, children are ultimately the ones deciding what toys to buy, but how do kids chose what toys are suitable for their …show more content…
In a research made by psychologist Marilyn Bradbard, she presented a group of boys and girls some unfamiliar toys and she put them in gender-specific boxes. After that, she found that children used to remember more toys on the box that matched their gender and spent more time playing with those toys. So, labeling can play a big role on defining what toy children chose to play with, but that is not the only thing. Many children choose to play with toys that defy gender stereotypes, but they stop playing with them thanks to peer pressure. There have been many cases of this, and not only children act as “gender police”, but also parents, telling their children what is good to play with and not. This causes that a child stops playing with a type of toy, even if they like it, and this can bring many