I picked to take this picture to
show the difference in gender roles between children's toys. As children a
girls first toy is usually a baby doll; some of you might think there is
nothing wrong with it. There is not a problem with giving a girl a baby doll
however; you are participating in gender role toy picking. Girl toys consist of
doll houses, barbies, kitchen sets, and most popular the baby doll. All girl toys
are something to either take care of or it’s a glamour's cleaning tool. At a
young age we teach our daughters how to hold a baby and take care of them by
getting the baby doll new clothes, bottles, pacifiers, strollers, etc. When I
went to the boy toy section in target to see what types of toys they can choose
from, it was mostly Nerf guns. They had other toys to pick from like trucks,
Legos, and action figures however; there was two aisles of just straight Nerf
guns. All the boy toys seem to express creativity such as building stuff with
Legos. Also, the boy's toys seem to be violent and to cause destruction such
as, knocking things over with huge trucks. Even their action figures are made
with huge muscles and most with beards to show they are manly. When I was in
the little girl section in Target, the only thing they had to pick from is
dolls. There were no fake guns, Legos, action figures, trucks, nothing. In the
story we read The “Two Cultures” of Childhood, it talks about how there
is a segregations between boys and girls, “Segregation both allows and
encourages girls and boys to develop separate social worlds or ‘cultures’
characterized by different activities, interaction styles, and social rules”
(Two Cultures 1). Boys and girls live in two different worlds. The way they are
brought up, the way they act, their emotions, they are just completely
different. “more rough-and-tumble play by boys, more doll play by girls”
(Martin & Fabes, 2001). Because boys play “more rough” their toys are
designed to be violent and destructive; and since girl toys are more geared
towards dolls they have more of a gentle gender role. As Bem once stated,
“Children quickly develop strong gender schemas,” and what a lot of people do
not self-consciously realize is the toys they pick for their kids defines the child's
gender schema whether it’s gentle or rough.
1 comment:
From: Adam Gary
This picture truly embodies the gender stereotypes that we are given from birth. It's almost unsettling in how clear the line is drawn from masculine and feminine. There is a clear divide between the two, almost telling young children that it's somehow dangerous to even dip into the opposite of your assigned gender. This picture speaks volumes because we can all resonate with it, somehow I vividly remember this picture but from my own childhood. It rests on a society that tells young girls they need to be dainty and demure, while young boys are told to be active and ambitious. It tells young girls to be reserved and conceal their ambitions but teaches boys the complete opposite.
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