Gender Norms for Children

From: Cierra

In this picture you will see pictures two different things that I took in a well-known retail store, Walmart. The theme of this picture is children’s toys specifically Nerf toys for boys and girls. The girl’s side of the pictures shows the products that Nerf has to offer young girls who have an interest in Nerf. There are way less action based toys to choose from as a girl’s who expected to act dainty and expected to not want to be involved in action toys, but Barbie dolls and baby dolls. Nerf offers things such as bow and arrows and small 9 millimeter looking Nerf guns for them. The selection of toys for the girls to choose from was slim and the display took up about three feet of the shelving area that was there. On the other hand the toys were all pink and white with the occasional light blue and green added. These colors are more geared towards feminine soft colors; pink especially. On the other side of the picture there is the boy’s display that is put out. The first obvious and drastic difference is the way the display is set up. Where the Nerf sign is there are large military sized guns that surround the name “Nerf”.  The toys that are offered for boys are things from small handheld toy guns to ones that require two hands to hold. There are also footballs, bow and arrows, and foam swords. All of the toys had the same color scheme; blue, orange, green, black, and gray. When looking at these toys there are many obvious differences that the toy makers who created the toys did not try to hide. Whether girl or boy Nerf is a gender neutral toy in my opinion the difference is in how you play with it.