Gender identity is so important in the developmental stages of children. Identity development in children crosses physical, emotional, and social barriers. Most people believe that gender identity is not an issue until the children hit puberty. However, children develop gender identities I believe starting as young as infancy. Some research has shown that there are three stages to child gender identity recognition.
The best time to see how these differences are encouraged by our society is during the Holiday season. The toys I have seen for boys are mainly Star Wars action figures or Nintendo 64 games. The toys advertised for girls were mostly easy bake ovens (that now makes M&M cakes) or Barbi dolls with various accessories. I am not saying that a Barbi doll is necessarily a bad thing, besides the fact that some of her outfits are frightening, but I would rather have the life like rocket that can fly a 100 feet up before it returns to the ground. This discussion might appear superficial at first, but there is an underlying problem to why a parent might want to encourage their young daughters to play with a science kit instead of deciding what evening gown Barbi looks best in.
The Effect of Toys on a Person's Psychological Development You probably remember your favorite game from early childhood—many people do. The game most likely involved your favorite toy, perhaps a truck, or a doll. In fact, when you think about memories from your childhood, toys should be among the first things to come to mind to evoke a strong image of early childhood. Toys have been greatly underestimated by their possessors and especially by adults, dismissed as the "supporting role" in indoor or outdoor pastimes, which they literally are. However, toys affect a person's psychological development to a higher degree than we may realize.
Parents must not advocate gender biased toys and, instead, provide their children with toys that promote cognitive and social development. Toys have a long history in widespread cultures. Over time, children’s consumer culture and global toy industry has sky rocketed. During childhood, the types of toys children play with across cultures have a wide effect on how they develop. They are a major contributor to stereotyping gender, representing children’s identities, and creating their roles to follow in life.
When taking a closer inspection at the girl’s toys, similarly to the last assignment, almost all of these toys expressed the similar themes as the infant’s clothing did at Target. They were focused on beauty, sexuality, delicateness, and domesticated roles while exhibited an overall sense of what our cu... ... middle of paper ... ... we would have played in a different way. I am really happy that I grew up in an environment that did not limit my imagination or influence me to conform to specific gender roles. I was able to develop as my own self without the negative influence of the media and toys. I feel that kids should not be told what, where or how to play..
The configuration of the toys clearly states that color, themes, and character representation are irrelevant to infants and toddlers, while parent’s attitudes about color and gender may be important aspects of unintentional socialization in the maturation of children. Marketing strategies appeal to children, but adult’s perception of ... ... middle of paper ... ...ed on their desired outcomes for deliberate and intention socialization. The function of toys in children’s lives has a relevance to the socialization of girls and boys in accordance with gender roles and society’s perception of what is appropriate for girls and boys. Gender stereotypes are learned parts of cultural adaptation and agents of socialization. Society defines what is masculine and feminine as well as the natural inclinations of girls and boys to play in different ways.
Along the same lines, Body image studies have been done across the world, on multiple age groups. Many studies have revealed that body image had become of concern to an individual when they were younger. When growing up, many children go through a time period of socialization. Granted that there are multiple forms of socializations but one-form effects the way that both females and males may look at their body image. The University of Nevada, completed a research that stated, “The use of dolls in play may influence the development of one’s body image and may result in a child comparing his own body to that of a doll’s” (Pedersen and Markee).
So why would a genderless society be unattainable since the primary factor of childhood gender-shaping is the parents? In fact, from the socialization theory, it could be deduced that genderless society might be achieved if parents would act in other way round- allow boys to play w... ... middle of paper ... ...A day might come when boys might play with dolls and girls might play with trucks, but people would surely notice this. Since our mode of life- morals, physical, social, gender, etc are being modeled, nurtured, and influenced by many factors of our immediate environment such as our family, culture, peers, society, education, community. If on the other hand, the environment nurtures or influences us the way the “fabulous baby X” was nurtured, there might be a success of a genderless society, but this will sound too strongly unattainable and an illusion of reality! WORK CITED PAGE Cohen, Jack and Ian, Stewart.
In 2012, C. Auster and C. Mansbach completed a content analysis on the Disney Toy Store website to evaluate what kind of toys are available to children and what is considered when categorizing a toy as a girl toy versus a boy toy. The researchers analysis was based on the color of the toy and whether it was labeled as "for boys" or "for girls". The data represented the idea that toy companies expect girls to choose a mixture of both feminine-centric and gender-neutral toys and expect boys to primarily play with masculine-centric toys, as the toys “For Girls” were an equal mix of girl (pastel) colors and gender-neutral colors and “For Boys” toys were primarily boy (bold) colors. Along with the colors, 44% of the toys under “For Girls” were also
Lastly, what are some toys we played with when we were younger and how did it affect us? We all had very different experiences and toys growing up. One reason why we had diverse experiences growing up is because we are all from different places throughout the world. Where we either played with the stereotypical toys, such as sport or action figure toy that were directed for boys, or we had little experiences growing up with toys. People that play with the stereotypical toys it enforced that stereotype on them, where