Toys That Gender Stereotypes Essay, Research Paper

To Great of a Toy

Toys describe how children should act. Adults expect girls to play with dolls like Barbie and Cabbage Patch dolls. They expect boys to play with action toys such as X-men, GI JOE dolls, and Hot Wheels. This sexually stereotypes a kid, because this is suggesting that they girls to chase after so called cute looking guys at the mall and always be interested in fashion and money. For boys they are expected to be tuff and buff and shed no tears they are the ones with the racecars, and the toys also makes them violent. Toy is a major contributor to sexually stereotype girls and boys.

Barbie dolls help stereotype girls by making them the airheads type. Mattel Toy makes the doll with big breast and always a blonde hair doll that always has a boyfriend to the side of her. The always have things that includes with her like with its line of dolls outfits and accessories. For example Mattel toys recently introduced Cool Shoopin’ Barbie with an unlimited credit limit MasterCard that sings credit approved when run through a tiny toy scanner (Hua 1998) This makes girls want to shop and go out and do things like an older woman. This is showing that girls are suppose to be which the girls are going to want do in the near future. A recent article in the Corvallis Gazette-Times Newspaper demonstrates the stereotypical marketing tactics used by a major toy company, Hasbro. Hasbro is targeting little girls in their marketing by reintroducing the

toy My Little Pony and by developing new toys such as the McDonaldland Happy Meal Girl and the Dial-A-Doctor Baby, which includes a cellular phone to call the doctor when baby is sick (Schlank). In a real-life survey made by Oregon State University, they found out that 40% of the respondents said they would buy a toy truck or car as a gift for a little boy. 61% percent answered they would buy a doll as a gift for a little girl. More importantly, the majority of the gifts for boys included activity and/or violence-oriented toys such as legos, games, sporting goods, sling shots, and guns. The gift list for girls included gifts such as stuffed animals, dress-up outfits, toy houses, kitchen sets, and medicine kits. This again shows how the stereotypical gender roles are introduced to children by the toys they interact with, which are introduced by adults. This teaches them that Rachel is learning how to be a good mother. She is learning the importance of nurturing her children, which implies that the female role is in the home (Goodman, 52).

GI JOE toys are another factor towards sexually stereotyping but this is towards boys. They provide a stereotype by having the toys are have a lot of muscles, they have ruff or mean names. Also when boys tend to play with GI JOE they want to be the good guy who wants to fight crime. Another toy, which is Tonka Construction Kit, it includes tools like a power saw, drill, and screwdriver. This is teaching boys that they have to use their hands instead of thinking. They are the ones who always have to fix up things.

Tonka also makes a toy called Tonka Car Kit, this includes tools and car parts that the kids have to connect and try to build a car. This is teaching them that they have to have a fancy car, always add new things to the car, and always have to fix on it. Another

toy that contributes to this is an electronic game system called Nintendo, mostly all the games are targeted to boys. They mostly have games that are has violence or sports game. There are very few video games for children so boys play the sports and the fighting games.

Toys stereotypes kids in a big way. They represent whom they are and what they are suppose to do. Girls are supposed to be going to the malls and chasing after the guys and are the ones who have to stay home and raise babies. As for as boys they are suppose to be the ones who has to be the ones who have to stay in shape and be look mean and be tuff. They also have to be able to work have cars and play with tools. Toy is a major contributor to gender stereotype boys and girls.

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