The Shining Star Example

From: Bethany  

This picture is used to describe the effect of gender standards and expectations that make their way into children toys. Everything in this image shouldn't be taken at face value. All these objects were arranged into one of two sides, a figurative form of the gender binary. ‘Boy’ toys on the left, and ‘girl’ toys on the right. A lamp was placed in front of the set, acting as a sort of spot light. Many of the toys are hit by this spotlight, highlighting what each side is best known for.

The left side, the ‘boy’ side, has toys like robots, action figures, a video game handheld, and a Goosebumps book. All staple toys for the average male childhood. Then, in the back are 3 female images. All three, the comic book and the two figures beneath it. The woman are highly sexualized, their cleavage most notably, and made with the male gaze in mind. The side is much darker than the other from the dark colors used in the objects. Based on these toys, boys would believe that they're meant to be active and strong. They also see the type of women they should see in life and who the type that should be idolised.

The right side, the ‘girl’ side, is full of stuffed animals, childish accessories, and books geared towards girls and young women. The toys are soft, overly pink, and designed to be cute and adorable with big eyes. The books are based around girls being cute and being free, the Boys over Flowers book specifically deals with the main character and several highly attractive males trying to ‘woo’ her. Every color is bright and not jarringly shiny. Based on these toys, girls believe they need to be coddled, aesthetically pleasing, and expect boys to romance and love them once they've become teenagers and beautiful.

Each side highlights what is seen on the surface and is expected of ‘girls and boys’. However, because of the harsh lighting, it obscures smaller objects and hides them. The objects hidden are what’s deemed ‘taboo’ for those genders and are better left to be dirty secrets or rejected entirely. Objects may also line the sides, symbolizing how the genders maybe even set aside their likes in favor of the ‘proper objects. Such as the ‘boy’ side that hides a tiny pink pony figure, a trading card of a red pony, and a pink spool of thread. All these objects are covered up by the ‘proper boy toys’ all barely visible as it’s almost entirely unacceptable for like anything ‘pink and girly’ because the objects are labeled as feminine. Then on the right, the ‘girl side’ has a horror comic in the back with a skeleton leg, more bones, a skull, and circuit board are in the lower right hand corner hidden by the pony, and bleeding heart necklace is on the side.These objects are slightly visible, but have little light on them and are vastly over showered by the larger and cuter objects.

The entirety of the image all comes back to toys being an advertisement to how children are meant to identify themselves as and who they need to grow up to be. It puts children into these strict ‘either or’ categories that give them only one choice. The way toys are marketed make boys think they have to be masculine and discard anything feminine entirely. Then for girls, anything ‘gross’ or ‘obscene’ is sometimes okay, but shouldn’t be the main feature.

These toys wind up defining how to be as a kid and how one should be when they’re older. Anything that goes against that binary set-up should be put away or hidden from view. Eventually anything against the gender scripts should be suppressed and labeled as inappropriate. Forcing children, one of the definitions of freedom and naiivity, that who they are born as doesn’t matter and to pick and chose who the aren’t. Fitting into the gender binary is made priority and damaging a child’s frail psyche.