From: Jasmine
My goal in taking this photo is to capture the difference in advertising between young boys and girls in the toy industry. We see the toy marketed to boys being dangerous, a wrestling brand one showing two buff men fighting next to the motorcycle. On the other hand, the girl's toy is a baby wrapped in pink and domestic duties, the player feeding and cleaning up after the doll which makes noises that a real baby would. Boy’s toys are “active and tough; aggression… a strong theme”, girls' toys are “domestic… assuming family roles” (Two Cultures). The motorcycle is about hurting people and doing violent stunts, and the doll is about being soft, calm, collected, and doing nurturing duties. These toys are meant to reinforce the roles assigned to the sexes by traditionalists, to teach children about the gender binary and reinforce it in their heads while they’re young and impressionable. The line on the backing wall that cuts between the toys represents the gendered divide between the two sexes in advertising, with the white and blue backgrounds being respective colors of that gender. Normally the girl color is pink, but white is also acceptable, representing the purity that is asked of women. The white area leaks into the blue to show how girls are accepted to leak into traditionally male things, but not the other way around. You may see young girls playing with male toys, but you most likely won’t see a boy playing with girl toys. The statement I want to make here is that these toys should not be gendered, there shouldn’t be a line separating the two to begin with. Children should be allowed to play with whatever they want, what they would have most fun with. The unnecessary gendering of these toys just reinforces harmful stereotypes and stamps out creativity and possibilities. Children should be allowed to let their minds flourish and to decide what toys they want to play with, whether it’s something traditionally masculine or feminine. We shouldn’t have this gender binary in toys to begin with.
Work Cited
The “Two Cultures” of Childhood (Canvas)
1 comment:
From Phillip
Your photo captures something I have noticed for a while now but have not been able to place. Advertising for young boys is always intense, dramatic, and in your face. Everything has to be loud and explosive in advertising targeted at young boys. This impacted my childhood because I was never one for the explosions and screaming, so I never really felt enticed to ask for any of that stuff. Your picture does a wonderful job of contrasting the advertising for young boys and girls. Not much more needs to be done other than placing them side by side because the difference is night and day.
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