As children grow they learn gender roles. As infants children play with gender neutral toys such as fisher price learning toys. Girls and boys begin to show differences in activity and toy preferences as early as the toddler age. (Rudman and Glick, 60) With the help of the toddlers parents and family children are shown what toys they are expected to play with. Boys are shown that cars, trucks, and action figures are what makes them tough and girls are shown that Barbie’s, baby dolls, and kitchen sets are what makes them a good caregiver. Children rarely play with toys that are associated with the opposite sex, and this happens in less than 5% of children’s playtime (Rudman and Glick, 60). I chose to take the photograph at a department store because it shows the difference in” boy culture” and “girl culture”. Boy toys and Girl toys are always seen in two different aisles or on two different sides of the store. In my photograph shows that boy toys and girl toys are on separate shelves. Hot wheels are advertised for boys, and the Barbie dolls are advertised for girls. This photograph goes along with the chapter of “Two Cultures of Childhood.” The hot wheels teach boys that they should be interested in cars rather than kitchenettes, because it makes them more masculine. Barbie’s teaches girls’ beauty as in what they should look like and what it is meant feminine. Barbie’s and hot wheels are sending the wrong messages to our children. Teaching our girls that they should look like an hour glass could give them the impression they need to go on a diet to look beautiful. Teaching our boys that they should take interest in cars could take away our male fashion designers. In the end our children are force to play with their specific gendered toys to prevent the risk of being bullied by their peers or criticized by the public.
1 comment:
The toys are being stored on a metal rack with hard square edges. This could represent the rigidity of society’s expectations. Masculine and feminine gender scripts are difficult to break free from just like a metal cage or prison. All of the toys remain in their boxes and nothing seems out of place. Most people stay within the guidelines or boxes constructed for them and rarely brake out of the norm. None of the toys look like they have been played with and no one has had fun with them. That could represent the emotions many feel to fit into traditional gender roles. We are expected to be happy embodying our prescribed gender but often times there is more pressure from expectations to conform. There is a hard line where the two photos meet in the middle. Nothing seems to be trying to overflow or break through to the other side of the photo. Society sees gender as binary or two halves of the same picture. Very few people are brave enough try and break the wall build between feminine and masculine.
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