A Quick Looks Shows Children's Toys are Gender Specific

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Recommended: Gender stereotypes in the toy industry

Gender roles in toys are overwhelmingly obvious. The breakdown has not changed in so many years that we all comply with and follow without question. Taking a trip to the local Toys R Us store showed me just how obvious the line was drawn for the sexes, showing a specific division of the two. The stores layout clearly establishes the line between girl’s toys and boys toys. There are very few isles that will intermingle within the sexes. For this project I selected the following age groups; infant, preschool and school age with a focus on girls toys.
Infant toys were the one age group where the genders comingled. My first selection is the Laugh and Learn Love to Play Sis. This plush dog displays dominate colors of pink and purple, has a bow in her hair and is wearing a skirt. Sis has some non specific colors including blue, green, yellow and the dog is brown. This toy is marketed as a toy that can sing and teach the alphabet, numbers and songs. The company is conveying to the consumer this toy will entertain and teach your young child, preferable a girl, at the same time. The second toy that I looked at was the Wall & Roll Rider. This gender neutral toy is being marketed as a learning to walk toy. This rider is advertised as good for both sexes the packaging shows both a girl and a boy playing. The main colors of the Walk & Roll Rider are blue, yellow, red & orange. Next, we move to the 3 Lil’ Piggies Playhouse. This gender neutral toy is advertised as a shape learning toy for any infant. The package shows a Caucasian non gender specific baby with neutral colored clothing on, smiling and playing. The final toy for this age group was the Sit to Stand Music Skool. This gender neutral toy does show a girl on the package, but w...

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... electronic hand puppet is just a new and interesting way for boys to gross people out.
The fine line between boys and girls when it comes to toys is established very early in life. This segregation is created by the parents showing children what is socially acceptable for each gender to play with. This segregation is also played out in movies and television shows alike. Ideally it would be great to see a boy not get teased if he wanted to play with a doll or a girl with a ninja warrior. It may be more socially acceptable for a girl to cross over the norm than it would be for a boy. In my opinion the worst toy that I found was the Uggly’s pet, this pet was encouraging bad manners and virtually no imagination. The toys that I found were the best was the movie character additions. These toys were gender neutral and would be socially acceptable for both genders.

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