This picture clearly displays massive fundamental differences between toys either targeted for young boys or girls. First and foremost is the size of the 2 wrestler action figures compared to the smaller doll figure. The wrestlers not only dwarf the doll figure, they have hugely exaggerated bodies. Combined with the fact that these action figures are based off of “real” people this adds an extra false sense of reality for the boys by telling them that A) it’s possible to look like this and B) you have to look like this if you want to be famous, well liked, and strong. Another thing about this is the fact that the boy toys are in fact men. This gives boys a model to always look up to and aspire to reach when they get older, always trying to reach this obtainable form which is clearly unrealistic, but none the less always reaching and pushing thus culminating a fantastic sense of competitiveness at a young age. The girl’s toy in this picture, and throughout the store, were overwhelmingly of little girls and babies. This gives young girls nothing to look up to and in a way seems to makes them want to stay young, innocent and always be cared for, dressed up, and put in doll houses like this figure here. Boys seem to be just the opposite as they can’t wait to grow up and be just like Captain America, or John Cena, or Batman, or whatever figure they may have. In a way just the nature of the toys and what they stand for are telling boys to grow up and always push and strive, and yet the girl baby dolls and little dress up dolls seem to hold them back keeping them in a child phase where there are merely taking care of something which is in fact helping another person grow up.
2 comments:
This photo very well demonstrates how gender codes are learned. By having them as toys, young children would presumably be playing with them and influenced by them.
The colors in the girl’s toy are very soft and feminine (pink and lavender) to show a very girly, bright, warm, and pastel look. The colors in the male toy are very eye catching and aggressive. They use red, black, and yellow to emphasis power and almost borderline rage by using the color red. The girl font is very loopy, carefree, and contains no hard edges to emphasis daintiness and fragileness. The male toy fonts contain very precise, “smart” looking fonts and bold bulky fonts. They reinforce males being dominant by physically taking up more room. They also hint at the idea that boys are smarter than girls but using a high tech “smart” font compared to the girl’s loopy carefree font. The girl toy is very small and girly. It shows a little girl doll with blonde hair who is very happy and her body does not take up much room. Her accessory is a girly bed with flowers and contains the soft pastel colors. The container is also relatively small and contained. The boy toy shows two muscular men with disproportionately large muscles that are shown shirtless to emphasis their physic. They have their hands raised that take up a large portion. The packaging of the boy toys are also very bulky compared to the girl’s toy packaging and is almost closing in on the girls toy to reinforce the idea that the girl’s toy does not belong here.
Putting the girl toy in the center draws your eye in. It’s almost like a dart board with the male objects circling around it and a very small doll in the center. This gives the feeling that the doll toy is inferior and does not belong. To also emphasis this idea, the colors, fonts, and size contrast drastically between the boy and girl toy. The boy toy very well is shown as the dominant toy and the girl toy as subordinate. There are two boy toys rather than one which out beats the girl toy by numbers. The colors, fonts, and content also work against the girl toy and put it in the subordinate category. By having the boy toy features very assertive and tougher, they become dominant compared to the softness and fragility of the girl toy.
These features all work together to influence children who play with these dolls to live up to these expectations. They enforce false gender stereotypes and kids began to try to mimic these ideas presented.
It is interesting how, in this picture, the displays for boy and girl furniture are next to each other. It definitely shows how it is only acceptable for boys to have certain color and toys in their rooms and the same with little girls. This photo really emphasizes such big differences in gender, differences that are taught to us from the time we are born until when we die.
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