Gender Study

Gender Study

The toy selection at Toys'r'us was basically segregated by gender. Upon walking into the store, I immediately saw a balance of colors. One side had blues and reds while the other had pinks and purples. This separation was clearly to make shopping easier. The boys would head towards the blues and reds section, while the girls would head toward the pink and purple section. As I observed each sections toys, I gleaned several stereotypes from the toys. There is definitely a relation to these toys to how children are brought up.

In the boy's toy section, I found a majority of the toys to be some sort of fighting toy. From toy hand guns, to ninja stars, to military weapons, and to monster action figures. Each toy had a sense of masculinity to it. There was always a photo of a child playing with the toy. The expressions on their faces were faces of passion; sometimes they looked as if they were happy "hurting" other toys. For example, there was a military action figure fighting with another figure. The child had the look as if he intended to literally kill the other toy. Violence was common in the majority of the boy toys. These toys shape the way boys grow up. It gives boys a sense of strength and power. Aggressiveness and masculinity go hand in hand. As boys grow up, these characteristics become almost reflexive. It becomes a part of them. Some of these toys, such as military figures, or toy fireman trucks, or even monster tonka trucks, can help gear children to jobs in that field in the future. Children form attachments quite easily, and if they obsess over these kinds of toys, it could transcend into the future.

Most of the boy toys came in packages with blue, red, and green colors. This was most likely to help separate it from the girl toys. Due to this, at an early age, young boys are already being set up with the stigma that blue is for boys, while pink is for girls. Colors in themselves are neutral, yet because of these gender stereotypes, these colors have become genderized. Now the colors are being segregated from each other. The more manly colors go to the boys, while the more feminine colors go to the girls.

In the girl's toy section, I found a majority of the toys to be some sort of doll. Dolls ranging from baby dolls to Bratz dolls or to Barbie dolls. Every toy had a sense of femininity to it. The packaging always had a photo of a young girl playing with the toy, or a cartoon character from a popular girl television show. The expressions on these girl's faces are classic. They always portray a happy child. I also found that a lot of the toys had motherly characteristics to them; cooking toys, or baby doll cribs, or toy shopping carts with toy groceries. These toys help girls grow up with a more motherly attitude