Introduction
Toys are an inseparable part of everyone’s childhood. Since birth, most children are in contact with these diverse objects. Besides entertainment purposes, toys also play an important role in the development of children. Toys are educational tools that help children to perceive a scale model of social interactions in the world. For example, construction sets teach children about the mechanics of buildings and medical playing sets teach children about treatment of disease. Also, toys foster traditional gender roles among children. Toys are often categorized by gender – “girl’s toys” and “boy’s toys.” This phenomenon has perpetuated outdated gender stereotypes as “girl’s toys” are focused on the theme of “beauty and home-making” while “boy’s toys” are focused on the theme of “battle and aggression” (Kawin, 2013, p. 122-132).
Economic factor and capitalistic movements have led to the rise in highly gendered toys, in the early American history …show more content…
Carol J. Auster and Claire S. Mansbach, sociologists of the Franklin and Marshall College, cite several sources and concludes that there were only little changes in the marketing strategy to promote children’s toys. A research study done in 1997 claimed that the consumer culture of gendered children’s toys were persevered and only little changes occurred in toy advertisements since the 1950s. Furthermore, a research that focused on toy commercials appearing on the popular American television children’s channel – Nickelodeon, proved that there was little change in the way they advertise certain toys, where the commercials still featured boys in action, sports and transportation related toys and girls in beauty and home-making related toy commercials. The little changes in children’s toys commercial can be seen by replacing gender-specific colors with neutral colors and portraying both genders in the same
Toys are an inseparable part of everyone’s childhood. Since birth, most children are in contact with these diverse objects. Besides entertainment purposes, toys also play an important role in the development of children. Toys are educational tools that help children to perceive a scale model of social interactions in the world. For example, construction sets teach children about the mechanics of buildings and medical playing sets teach children about treatment of disease. Also, toys foster traditional gender roles among children. Toys are often categorized by gender – “girl’s toys” and “boy’s toys.” This phenomenon has perpetuated outdated gender stereotypes as “girl’s toys” are focused on the theme of “beauty and home-making” while “boy’s toys” are focused on the theme of “battle and aggression” (Kawin, 2013, p. 122-132).
Economic factor and capitalistic movements have led to the rise in highly gendered toys, in the early American history …show more content…
Carol J. Auster and Claire S. Mansbach, sociologists of the Franklin and Marshall College, cite several sources and concludes that there were only little changes in the marketing strategy to promote children’s toys. A research study done in 1997 claimed that the consumer culture of gendered children’s toys were persevered and only little changes occurred in toy advertisements since the 1950s. Furthermore, a research that focused on toy commercials appearing on the popular American television children’s channel – Nickelodeon, proved that there was little change in the way they advertise certain toys, where the commercials still featured boys in action, sports and transportation related toys and girls in beauty and home-making related toy commercials. The little changes in children’s toys commercial can be seen by replacing gender-specific colors with neutral colors and portraying both genders in the same