How has your research on toys and gender influenced your views on the relative influences of environment and heredity on gender and identity development in children?…
Source 1 (scholar article): Auster and Mansbach claim that girls have a greater variation in color choice of toys compared to boys. They are open to choices compare to boys too. It might be caused by “locational gender crossing strategy” used by some retailers to encourage girls to accept “boy’s toys.” For example, Toy R Us stores attract attention of girls to masculine toys by arranging boy’s toys department before girl’s toy department so girls must always pass by boy’s toys in order to get to their own…
Some examples would be Teen mutant Ninja Turtles action figures with playset, Pokémon cards and stuffed animals, Marvel Avengers action figures and Jurassic world Tyrannosaurus rex figure that are typically designed for boys. For girls it would include Bratz dolls, Frozen Elsa sing-a-long, Princess Character dolls, my little pony and Barbie movies with doll dream house with accessories. In general the toys most associated with boys were related to fighting or aggression and the toys most associated with girls were related to appearance. In the data I included, the toys that seem to be neutral gender are games like candy land, connect four, twister, rubric’s cube and hungry hippo which helps develop cognitive and social skills. The toys rated as most likely to be educational and to develop children’s skills were typically categorized as neutral. This data didn’t surprise me when just by looking at the toy aisles you can tell their gender segregated. The toy aisles meant for girls are covered in pink and vice versa for boys with blue. Also movies meant for boys tends to be more action type while girl movies for children tend to be based on…
Although it may be hard for a little boy to pick up a girls “dolly”, I strongly believe that children in a preschool atmosphere feel more comfortable playing with toys deemed towards a different gender. In a preschool classroom there are a large variety of toys and classmates of different genders. Children are encouraged to play together and explore different toys regardless of gender. Children whom are not enrolled in early education tend to be around more gender specific toys and are encouraged to play with the toys they have at home. Therefore I propose that Gender specific toys will influence the interaction between boys and girls, and will have a greater influence on children not enrolled in…
Gender bias through a child’s toy can have a large effect on their behavior. Children model the behavior of adults around them, something from TV, or even a toy. A young boy has the imagination to see his action figure in…
Gendering has become a way for sociologist to view the changing social structure in today’s society. With the sexual revolution of the sixties academics worked to develop a means to label the different attitudes of the new generation emerging. In the documentary Gender: The Enduring Paradox they interview the very young and old white male and female subjects, a noted African American female poet, and an Asian female writer/director. The interviews with the young have leading questions about gender roles and requirements. The elderly give an accurate account of what was taught to them for their generation. The poet infuriated me with her talk of no positive roll models for African Americans and that children raise in single parent home have identity crisis. The writer was the most honest for the stereo type for Asian was on the mark. Judith Lorber a noted sociologist in her essay “The Social Construction of Gender” puts to much stock in the belief that people are uneasy if they can not tell if a person or child is male or female. In both the documentary and essay they describe gendering as how children are dressed and taught. These may contribute to a person’s gender but biological factors have more results than a mother dressing a girl in dresses or pants.…
There are many factors that could cause problems in the research sociologist conduct. Gender is a main point that could tamper a researcher’s results. There are five ways gender can shape research.…
Young boys and girls are influenced by their respectable toys in a manner of ways. While girl’s toys promote an unrealistic version of…
At a very early age, we were taught to be boys or girls by various gender socialization agents. Because of the emphasis of these socialization agents, we can hardly change the images of boys and girls, or men and women. When a baby is born, parents would dress the baby in blue if it is a boy or in pink if it is a girl. At school, teachers may ask boys to do heavy works and girls to do something easy. However, the most powerful gender socialization agent is the mass media. The images of boys and girls, or men and women, presented by the mass media are distinct, and they have had a great effect on the development of our gender roles.…
In my opinion, traditional ideas about gender role socialization in childhood remain strong in U.S. culture today because of our constant interactions with others in society of what is considered accepted socialization. In turn, we tend to follow the accepted norm to avoid rejection or being labeled by our peers, such as being viewed as feminine because men wash dishes or women not seen as gentle because of their CEO status. However, in time I do foresee that they will give way toward a more egalitarian norm. Such examples may include women gaining the right to vote, own property, and the large percentage of women in today’s society entering male dominant fields such as a defense lawyer or engineer. Overall, these such changes take time, especially…
My paper titled toys and gender, is based on the toys of today and how they relate to gender socialization. I decided to go to the local Wal-Mart in Cookeville, Tn. I chose this store because it is a worldwide known large retail store. I concluded that it would be a good store to analyze because it is thought of as a family store where many families go to shop. Therefore, I knew that there would be a wide variety of toys to analyze and collect data. I went to Wal-Mart December the 3rd. I analyzed the toy sections of Wal-Mart and how the toys are associated with gender, color sound, types of play they encourage, types of interactions they cause, and what they prepare children for. With the exception of preschool toys that were sometimes offered in gender-neutral packaging, kids’ toys were largely segregated into different aisles according to gender. And within those aisles, the markings of gender were clear. The “girls’” section resembled the aftermath of an explosion of Pepto-Bismol. In the “boys’” section, there seemed to be a profusion of aggressive, hyper-muscled, weapon-wielding action figures. And in both realms, the majority of toys seemed to be explicitly tied to movies and television…
I decided that the to observe gender socialization by analyzing the birthday cards at Walmart. I looked at the 1-10 year old age group. The girl’s cards were pink and purple, but since the new movie Frozen there has been an addition of some light blue cards. I was shocked to find that there was no glitter or anything shiny on the cards as well. The most used words and phrases were: sweetie, princess, cuddly, little, and perfect. Once again the Frozen cards threw me for a loop; the words BRAVE, STRONG, and INDEPENDENT were on the front. Most of the girl cards had a princess or animal on the front. The boy’s cards of the same age group were socially typical. The colors consisted of darker colors…
Shop layouts target gender specific children by colour coding their aisles. The sections normally begin with newborn/baby toys which are generally gender neutral. This changes as it progresses into toddler toys for young children. Girl sections are filled with bright pink toys such as dolls, dress ups and household appliance sets. These are associated with vanity and domestic and nurturing skills. Boy toys consist of masculine action figures, building machinery and engineering toys. Three popular stores were visited and their toy aisles were investigated and documented. All three stores used gender targeting techniques such as colour coding and likes and dislikes to separate the boy’s and girl’s toys (see figure 1 and figure…
The hashtag I chose for the assignment is #feminism. It is found on multiple social mediums such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. The hashtag manifests the notions of women empowerment and condemns patriarchal, gender stereotypes. It makes the reader reflect on this important issue and communicates the idea that even in the 21st century, women do struggle to access the same rights as men. Recently, I came across this hashtag on Instagram, mentioned in two different pictures. The first picture was of Qandeel Baloch who was an active Pakistani feminist and the second picture was of a woman, wearing a shirt that said, “Nasty Woman”.…
Professor Blakemore of NAEYC did a survey. She asked people to check whether the toys she presented to them were very feminine, somewhat feminine, gender neutral, somewhat masculine, or very masculine. She found that toys that are very gendered are usually not conveying educational or positive messages - very feminine toys are focused on physical beauty, while very masculine toys focus on aggression and fighting. On the other hand, somewhat gendered toys help teach children skills for adulthood - somewhat feminine toys teach about cleaning, cooking and taking care of children, while somewhat masculine toys teach about building. No matter a child’s gender, they need somewhat gendered toys for both genders to teach them important skills for the…