It is difficult to generalize children's thoughts, experiences, and actions. But lets try to imagine a young boy, Dean, at the age of 5 years old living as an only child with his upper-middle class parents who are not home so much. This child can pretty much get any toy he wants from his parents by just asking. When Dean is home he spends most of his time watching Nickelodeon in his blue onesie pajamas. He notices that he has every toy from the commercials that interests him – every toy that boys like him are playing with. He usually does not pay attention to girls in commercials until he notices that one of the toys they are playing with is a dog. A FurReal Friend! Dean has seen commercials for FurReal Friends with girls playing with cats and tiny puppies, yet this one seemed better. So he asked his parents for Cookie, the FurReal Friend toy dog from the commercial. His parents did see anything wrong with it so they eventually got him the toy dog. Dean was really excited to have Cookie because his parents never let him have a real pet that could ruin the carpet.
On his next play date with some of his kindergarten friends (boys), Dean was happy to show off Cookie. His friends though made fun of him teasing him saying it was a girl toy. He ask them, "How is it girly if it's just a dog?" They just laughed and said, "It has pink collar! Didn't you see only girls playing with it?"
From Dean's position as an only child, he never realized what things are girly. How could a child know the stereotypical gender roles if his parents do not show him, if he does not have any girls as friends, and if all he watches are cartoon shows. In this imagined situation, I would say the social problem is not among Dean but his friends. They could have younger or older sisters that wear pink, are girly, and maybe even have that same FurReal Friend as Dean. Or the boys' parents can be forceful in encouraging the boys to be manly. With any of these influences it is easy to connect with the way they teased Dean. Their positionality would be from tiny masculine boys who just respond to their influences.
If the boys grew up like Dean they would probably overlook the fact that Cookie is a girl toy dog. They would just see a regular toy dog. I personally like Dean's view on the toy since he is a child that most likely views things in a gender neutral way. It is beneficial to view objects for their purpose, like toy are for entertainment, and not focus on their genderized influences. With this perspective people can look past traditional gender roles and move forward with gender equality.
I agree with you that toys are often looked at as a gender category. When you were talking about that boy getting the stuffed dog that was influenced for girls, I thought that it could pass off as a gender neutral toy regardless of the color. It's a stuffed animal. Every child has a stuffed animal. So, there was no reason for those boys to just make fun of him for having a stuffed dog with him. When you said that those boys had tiny masculine, I thought that they should have some tiny feminine in them to treat others equally.
ReplyDeleteLike you said, it is easy to see that the way parents bring up their children and what things they teach them is a determination of how the kids will interact with others. Many times parents don't see the wrong way they bring their children up because that is how they were brought up themselves. It's interesting to see how something as silly as the toys kids play can have such a huge impact on human interactions. I have always played with my male cousins and their boys. They loved Star Wars, Ninja Turles, and cars and though I played with dolls and played house, I also played with them with their toys. My mom didn't care what toys we played as long as we had fun. As I grew older and still loved the more "boyish" things like video games, I realized the sort of weird reactions I would get from people like "you play video games? But you're a girl!" The prejudice that we have to face because of out interests is wrong, and we need to instill in our kids and future kids that you should like anything you want, no matter what it it and what gender you are.
ReplyDeleteI agree that toys shouldn't be set for a certain gender, but I don't think a child will learn these rules from parents or siblings only. I think the commercials have a big impact on how children perceive gender rules and the toys that accompany each gender. If you go on any kids channel like cartoon network or nickelodeon you will see two different commercials for almost the same toy. One is a pink and purple bow and arrow from Nerf that shows young girls hitting the targets. The next commercial has a bow and arrow, also from Nerf, in black and orange with young boys doing the same. It's basically the same toy in different colors with the girls with the pink and boys with orange. I think as parents you can try to give your child whatever toy they want no matter the gender it's "meant for" but the child, from commercials, will probably deny it.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with the idea that toys are seen as a gender category. Even within commercials and ads for toys, there's a specific gender that is seen throughout the media. For example, dolls and stuffed animals is linked to females, while in car racing toys, the gender associated on the commercial are males. My cousin has a had a similar experiecen to Dean's. She grew up playing with cars more then dolls. She received dolls as a birthday gift while her other boy cousin received cars. My aunt and uncle were asked by many people why she didn't like the dolls given and rather play with the cars. They gave a response that cued the idea that they let her play with anything she likes and that genderized toys were something they strongly disbelieved in. I completely agree with the fact that toys are meant for entertainment, so it shouldn't matter which toys are made for who, or if they are pink or blue. Every child should have an understanding that toys aren't genderized and they can have a sense of understanding that they are allowed to play with any toy without any consequences just like Dean's perspective on toys.
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