Blog #5

In the pop culture of toys, what people give their children to play with is almost entirely gender stereotyped. For the girls they are usually given stuffed animals, baby dolls, and cooking toys like easy-bake ovens. Whereas, for boys they are given sports equipment, action figures from popular action films, and violent video games. Such a difference can drastically affect the viewpoints children have about who they are supposed to be and how they are supposed to act even from an early age.

First, let’s consider girls’ toys. According to Dipika Mirpuri for About.com, the top ten girls’ toys last year were all either dolls, animal games or toys, decorating kits, or spa toys.. These toys even in their description on the website are described as “the very things most girls enjoy” and “girls jump at the chance to try their hand at conjuring up perfumes from far away lands and body scrubs.” Even looking more trivially, most of these toys are stereotyped “girl colors” of pink and purple and other pastel colors. The others are soft and fuzzy. Also, in most commercials for girls’ toys there is usually some kind of light and happy music playing in the background of the commercial. What do these clues tell girls about themselves? First, with the claims from the advertisements that most girls enjoy these, what if a girl doesn’t like perfume or glitter or stuffed animals? These claims from the ads tell a girl that if she doesn’t like these items then she may not fit in with other girls and could potentially be outcast from them. Then with the colors, not all girls like these stereotyped colors and to make most toys that color is not fair to them and also pressures them to conform the same way that they claims in the ads do. With the soft and fuzzy toys, and also with the pastel colors of the toys, this is a more subtle clue to girls that they are supposed to be delicate and gentle and like gentle things. The same message is heard from the music in the commercials, that as a girl you should like light and happy things and be happy. But these clues can place undue pressure on girls to be contrary to who they are. What then happens to the girls who are more tomboyish and like sports or, dare I say it, more boyish colors like blue or green? They are told that what they like doesn’t matter and that they should conform to the world’s standards and not be themselves. These types of toys also influence girls that their play style is to be nurturing and submissive (as fuzzy puppies and dolls and pastel colors are all characteristic of submission and are less prominent as solid lines, sharp edges, and bold colors). This play style then translates in to the girls’ adult life and pushes them to be less independent and prominent for whom they are.

Now let’s look at boys’ toys. According to the same source as the top girls’ toys, the most popular boys toys of 2008 were all active games (like Nerf guns and laser tag guns) or action figure toys (like Star Wars masks and Transformers figures).. These toys are bright and boldly colored and hard (made from solid plastic). These toys, in contrast to girl’s toys, tell boys that they should be more active and should be more violent. The colors themselves, as being more bold, also tells boys that they should be bolder in their actions. Usually, too, in boys’ toys commercials the music played is more energetic and intense, almost signaling the boys that they need to be energetic and boisterous. This active and aggressive play style in childhood can also come into power in adulthood for boys when they enter the workforce and strive for the top position often in very aggressive manners. This aggressive view of themselves can also lead males to think they are more important and daring than women. Also, a lot of these toys for boys come from more popular films. These films have fairly high ratings (PG to PG-13), significantly higher than the G-ratings of the girls’ toys. This almost goes so far as to say that boys should not be shielded from violence and gore in films, but girls should. That girls should maintain their innocence for as long as possible. Shouldn’t that work both ways? Children are only children once and not for a very long time. Shouldn’t both genders be shielded from violence and taught that violence really isn’t the answer to life? The same problems from stereotyped girls’ toys happen with boys’ too. The toys pressure boys to behave and think certain ways about their gender and if they don’t then they run the risk of being outcast or ridiculed by their peers, pushing them to conform.
That’s not to say that I myself haven’t conformed to these stereotypes in my own life. I personally like stuffed animals (as long as they’re cute) and glitter and my favorite color is pink. But I’m more than that. I like action games too. I enjoy laser tag (I would like it more if it weren’t so expensive) and I enjoy Star Wars and Lord of the Rings toys like any “good” boy does or did when they first came out, just as much as I enjoy action and epic films as much as romantic love comedies and stories. But just because I was able to grow beyond the stereotype doesn’t mean that all kids these days are. Hopefully though, they are getting the message from somewhere that they can be interested in other things and are free to do what they like.