From: Vung
The way I had set up my picture was to portray a Toys R Us I went to. Toys were separated by the gender it was marketed towards. Stereotypical boy toys such as trucks, cars, and action figures have a picture of a boy to show that those types of toys are meant to be played by boys. Dress up costumes, home, and dolls have pictures of girls playing with those toys which shows that those toys are "girl" toys. The reason why my picture is laid out this way is to show the separation of what society believes children should be boxed into. Girls should be learning how to dress up, be a nurturer, and a home maker. Whereas boys should be learning mechanical skills through playing with cars and trucks. The skills they acquire through these toys crafts them for their future. Women tend to work in fields that have lower pay and those types of careers are portrayed through the toys they played with as children. Men tend to work in higher paying fields that require skills that are honed through their childhood toys. Through these toys, gender is socialized.
7 comments:
This photo really grabbed my attention, just alone with the color. I like the way you simply exposed the gender differences. If there is one place you don’t need a map to find things it’s a toy store. The colors alone, just like you captured in your photograph, let you know at all times where you are and who they’re catering to. I actually never took the time to examine the signs and wording of those signs when I found myself in toy stores. That also says a lot of how immune society has become with the social construction that goes on with children and the toys that are sold to them. “Home & Dress –Up”, “Dolls”, “Cars & Trucks”, how ridiculous I feel it is when I see a little girl with full on make-up and a casual kid playing with a truck in the posters. I’m imagining a child who does not want to play with a certain toy that is advertised to them, the confusion they may feel, as well as the frustration. The child must ultimately fall into the circle and change their desire, for example a little a girl that is maybe characterized as a tomboy. She might feel that she might not be excepted if she doesn’t conform to playing with dolls or dress up, or a little boy who might find it fun to play with a vacuum and wear an apron. I wonder what kind of a reaction it would be like if toy stores began to mix toys together, instead of separating them into different aisles? Would there be a little bit more choice expansion when it comes for girls or boys to buy toys? Your photo again raised all these thoughts and questions in me when I saw it.
This picture really shows how society differentiates young boys and girls. Every body knows that pink is a girls color and blue is a boys color, but nobody knows why. The same goes with associating cars and trucks with boys and home & dress-up with girls. Everybody knows that trucks are a boy’s toy and dress-up is a girl’s thing but nobody knows why. The fact of the matter is society tells kids through images like these that boys are suppose to play with things suck as cars and trucks and “manly things” and girls are suppose to play with things such as kitchen toys and dress-up stuff and if they don’t then they are doing something unacceptable in society. However, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Boys and girls are going to play with what they feel like playing with. It doesn’t matter if a boy plays with kitchen toys; men are cooks also. And it doesn’t matter if a girl plays with a toy car; there are women race car drivers too. This picture shows how society separates genders. However when it comes down to it, kids are going to do what they want especially if it gets on somebody’s nerves.
This photo effectively displays how children's toys are seperated into gender appropriate sections. Coming from someone who played with barbies and toy cars as a child, I don't believe it is appropriate to label different types of play into certain genders. In each one of these sections, there are examples of toys that would be appropriate for males or females. For example, boys like to play dress up too and frequently dress up in superhero and firefighter costumes so I do not think it is appropriate to use a little girl and pink signs to represent the dress up section.
Many stores are set up like this now days to define that girls are to play in this section and that they are over here, and that they boys are to play in this section and they are over there. I personally think for toy store's they should mix up the isles. Like if they have a whole shelf half should be barbies and half should be action figures so if a boy wants to get a barbie or a girl wants to get an action figure it would be fine. Also it would not cause as much attention from seeing a little girl in they boys area. There would be no boys area and girls area.
This is such a good example of society putting boys and girls into seperate spheres. Girls are associated with the color pink, and with babydolls. Boys are associated most of the time with the color blue, and playing with cars and action figures. This occurs from the time they are born, they are either given a blue or pink baby blanky. I know that when i was born i was given a green and a pink blanky, and honestly i liked the green one better. Yeah i went outside the box, but society wants it to be known that their children are either male or female.
I really like what is shown in the picture of how even a toy store has separated boys and girls. There is also a great point given of how at a young age, toys may shape children’s future. Also, the fact that toys being sold for girls are encouraging them to grow up to have jobs that pay much less than the ones for boys. So does this mean girls can’t buy a toy from the male aimed section? Well no, she certainly can but I’m sure many would find it very unusual.
This picture is such a good example of something that a lot of people overlook. Something as simple as toys can have such a huge influence on gender socialization. Without even realizing it, people are telling kids to be a certain why and to like certain things because of the toys that are given to them. I like this picture a lot and think it's very effective in showing how boys and girls are separated.
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