Children are taught at a young age about different social worlds depending on whether they are a girl or boy. Over time, the more boys play with boys and girls with girls, the more gender typed their play activities become. (Rudman and Glick pg.59) Not only do you see this segregation when boys play with boys and girls play with girls, but also with the toys they play with. Some toys are “for girls” and some toys are “for boys.” American children spend much of their time playing with gender-neutral toys (e.g., crayons) as well as gender-specific toys (e.g., tucks vs. dolls), but children rarely play with toys associated with the other sex (Rudman and Glick pg. 60) Children often do not want to be seen playing with toys associated with the other gender. While they may want to play with toys of the other gender they feel embarrassed. In the picture “Guns & Dolls” there is a 7-year-old boy named Johnson with his father Andy. Andy and Johnson are in a store picking out toys. Johnson walks into the toy isle that seems to be a “girls toys” section. It seems like a “girls toy” section because of all of the pink. Johnson picks up a Barbie of the shelf and his father immediately tells him to put the Barbie back because it’s a “girls toy”. Johnson continues to ask for the Barbie when Andy grabs a Nerf gun from the next isle over to convince Johnson to take the Nerf gun instead of the Barbie. Andy wants his son to play with the “boy toy” not the “girl toy”. Johnson feels embarrassed for wanting to play with the Barbie. There is a fear created by society that if a boy plays with “girls toys” it put his masculinity into question. That’s why when a boy is playing with an action figure he is very quick to point out that it is an action figure and not a doll. Kids should be able to play with whatever toy without fear of their sexuality being questioned, without fear of being judged, and without fear of being made fun of.
1 comment:
From: Tasha
In this photo “Guns & Dolls”, we see a boy holding a Barbie doll and a man holding a nerf gun. The boy is defying gender norms holding a “girl’s toy”, while the man is going in line with gender norms. The boy is looking down with an uneasy look on his face. The boy looks like he could be embarrassed. The boy is small in the frame. This along with the posture of the boy makes him feel small and weak. This represents how people can be made to feel when they defy gender norms. The man, on the other hand, takes up a lot of the frame and is standing tall. He is empowered holding a toy that correlates with his gender role.
Society pressures us into gender roles. To the right we see an older male holding a nerf gun. He is a role model for the child. The boy holding the doll has caught his attention, and this makes us wonder how he will react to the boy holding the doll. The man is a big influence on the boy so the boy will take to heart his reaction. If he approving maybe the boy will continue to show interest in playing with “girl’s toys” But if he gives the boy a funny look or teases him the boy will think twice about playing with “girl’s toys” in the future. I hope that he was given encouragement to play with the toy. No child should feel embarrassed over their choice of toy.
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