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Toys and gender socialization Conclusion
Gender roles and kids toys
Gender roles and kids toys
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Recommended: Toys and gender socialization Conclusion
Promotion of Gender Roles Before Adolescence
Jennifer Scanlon analyzes four popular board games for preteen girls in her essay, “Boys-R-Us: Board Games and the Socialization of Young Adolescent Girls.” She describes the attributes of each game in great detail and concludes, “these sex-stereotyped games promote damaging stereotypes, passive rather than active play, and skills that fall short of girls’ cognitive abilities” (480). The characters in each of the games are portrayed in limited gender-specific roles and promote male, race, wealth, and heterosexual privilege in our society. Based on the fact that the objective in the majority of these games is to get a boyfriend, Scanlon suggests that young girls are being taught subservience to men and forming a personal identity based on relationships with men. She concludes by stating, “these board games…frame a world of limited possibilities for girls” (480).
I agree with most of Scanlon’s arguments in her essay about the dangers of gender-specific games during the formative years of female adolescence. Games such as these seem innocent to parents and even cool to their intended audience. But the messages that sex-stereotyped games are sending can be damaging to the self and gender-perception of adolescent girls. Gender specific stereotypes can become rooted in a maturing, young girl’s mind and have a negative affect on her sense of self worth and personal abilities. The portion of Scanlon’s essay that I disagree with is the statement, “the least gender-specific toys and games in the stores are, arguably, those in the baby and toddler section” (472). My theory is that children are taught appropriate gender role behaviors through play long bef...
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...y. And if we start this process at such a young age, we will have molded our children into stereotypical citizens very well by the time they are adolescents. The board games that Jennifer Scanlon writes about will only serve to reinforce the gender perceptions children have already learned. In order to raise caring men and assertive women the practice of labeling toys for gender-specific play needs to stop. But as long as babies are wearing their pink or blue booties, that day will probably never come.
Works Cited
Scanlon, Jennifer. Boys-R-Us: Board Games and the Socialization of Young Adolescent Girls. Signs of Life in the USA: Readings on Popular Culture for Writers. Maasik, Sonia, and Jack Solomon. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2000. 472-480.
Toysrus.com. Copyright 1996-2002 Amazon.com, Inc. 2 Mar. 2002.
In order to fully comprehend the how gender stereotypes perpetuate children’s toys, one must understand gender socialization. According to Santrock, the term gender refers to the, “characteristics of people as males and females” (p.163). An individual is certainly not brought into the world with pre-existing knowledge of the world. However, what is certain is the belief that the individual has regarding him- or herself and life stems from socialization—the development of gender through social mechanisms. For instance, when a baby is brought into this world, his or her first encounter to gender socialization arises when the nurse places a blue or pink cap on the baby’s head. This act symbolizes the gender of the baby, whether it is a boy (blue cap) or a girl (pink cap). At the age of four, the child becomes acquai...
Growing up everyone plays games, whether it’s Monopoly, Mario Kart, or Simon Says. Regardless of whatever game you play, you have to follow certain rules. You go to jail if you land on “Go to Jail”; you drive one way in a race; and you do whatever Simon says. But what many don’t realize is that we are all playing a game, a gender game.
It has been nearly three decades since the last time Congress reformed our immigration system. From the Reagan era to the Obama administration, the country has undergone financial, social and political changes yet our immigration policies continue to be the same. Since the implementation of the last immigration reform in 1986, the United States government has spent nearly $187 billion ($220 billion when adjusted to 2013 dollars) in immigration enforcement agencies and programs alone (Meissner, Kerwin, Muzaffar & Bergeron, 2013). The high costs and the increasing public concern has led Americans to recognize the brokenness of our current immigration system and how it has not kept up with changing times. Research has shown 71% of Americans say undocumented immigrants should have a pathway to remain in the country legally (Pew Research Center, 2013). Although Congress and the White House have had numerous failed attempts to pass immigration reform in the past, H.R. 15 proposes an updated bipartisan system that can further secure the borders and solve problems surrounding immigration (Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act, 2013.
Francis’s study analyzes three to five-year-old preschool students as well as their parents about their views about toys and viewing materials based on gender. The study showed that parental beliefs shaped their child 's opinions of gender roles based on the toys they played with. The parent 's idea of what is female and what is male is transferred onto the toys their child plays with which in terms developed their child 's stereotype of what is male and female based on their toy selection and color. In the article “How do today 's children play and with which toys?”, by Klemenovic reference that a child 's view on gender stereotypes is developed by their parents who train them on how to use the toys. Klemenovic (2014) states "Adults start training in the first months of a child 's life because knowledge of objects is the outcome of other people 's behavior towards us" (Klemenovic, 2014, p. 184). Young children’s development of gender stereotypes is largely influenced by his or her parent’s actions and view on what they consider male or female. A parent’s color preference and toy selection can influence a child’s gender bias or association to a specific
Society cements certain roles for children based on gender, and these roles, recognized during infancy with the assistance of consumerism, rarely allow for openness of definition. A study conducted by Witt (1997) observed that parents often expect certain behaviors based on gender as soon as twenty-four hours after the birth of a child. The gender socialization of infants appears most noticeably by the age of eighteen months, when children display sex-stereotyped toy preferences (Caldera, Huston, & O’Brian 1989). This socialization proves extremely influential on later notions and conceptions of gender. Children understand gender in very simple ways, one way being the notion of gender permanence—if one is born a girl or a boy, they will stay that way for life (Kohlberg 1966). “According to theories of gender constancy, until they’re about 6 or 7, children don’t realize that the sex they were born with is immutable” (Orenstein 2006). The Walt Disney Corporation creates childhood for children worldwide. “Because Disney are such a large media corporation and their products are so ubiquitous and wide spread globally, Disney’s stories, the stories that Disney tell, will be the stories that will form and help form a child’s imaginary world, all over the world, and that’s an incredible amount of power, enormous amount of power” (Sun). Because of the portrayal of women in Disney films, specifically the Disney Princess films, associations of homemaker, innocence, and dependence are emphasized as feminine qualities for young children. Thus, children begin to consider such qualities normal and proceed to form conceptions of gender identity based off of the movies that portray the very specific and limiting views of women (...
Girls are told to stay indoors and play with their dolls or bake, while boys are encouraged to go outdoors, get dirty, and be adventurous. Wade and Ferree also state “sports are squarely on the masculine side of the gender binary” (Wade and Ferree, 174). Hence, we are brought up with the understanding that playing and talking about sports is a boy’s thing, which further promotes the notion that sports are a very masculine thing. Furthermore, as playing sports is competitive and is a way to show excellence, young boys are considered as “real boys” and “real men” later on. However, when boys do not talk about or play sports, they are considered feminine or “not real men.” The same rule applies for young girls. If young girls are too into sports, they are considered to be “too masculine.” This is true for me too. When I was younger, I was told to not play too much outdoors and to behave “like a girl.” The stigma that only boys should be allowed to play sports and it is not a feminine thing needs to be erased for us to welcome a more gender-equal
Young children are typically raised around specific sex-types objects and activities. This includes the toys that that are given, activities that they are encouraged to participate in, and the gender-based roles that they are subjected to from a young age. Parents are more likely to introduce their daughters into the world of femininity through an abundance of pink colored clothes and objects, Barbie dolls, and domestic chores such as cooking and doing laundry (Witt par. 9). Contrarily, boys are typically exposed to the male world through action figures, sports, the color blue, and maintenance-based chores such as mowing the lawn and repairing various things around the house (Witt par. 9). As a result, young children begin to link different occupations with a certain gender thus narrowing their decisions relating to their career goals in the future. This separation of options also creates a suppresses the child from doing something that is viewed as ‘different’ from what they were exposed to. Gender socialization stemming from early childhood shapes the child and progressively shoves them into a small box of opportunities and choices relating to how they should live their
Children learn the differences between men and women’s roles in society from a young age. It is not something that is biologically instilled; rather it is something it is taught by observing the roles each gender partakes in their respected fields. When it comes to employment, children distinguish jobs like nurses and teachers are usually for women and firefighters or presidents are for men (Jacobs 2008). This may because they see members in their family holding these positions or being taught in school that certain genders usually hold certain positions. The same is true for children and associating gender roles in sports. Men usually become basketball, football, or soccer players. Women are not the first gender children think about when it comes to being athletic in competitive sports. Boys start to understand what masculinity is because of participating in sports and do not want to be called “fag” or “sissy” (Douglas Hartman 2008). They may kick the ball around with a male family figure, like a father, who instructs and criticizes...
In this male driven era, women are perceived to be fragile and submissive. This, in turn, affects the purpose and outcomes of the products offered by the gaming industry. Production companies strive towards games that recognize males as alpha models that control the realms of the universe. Females, if at all included, are recognized as delicate flowers that need to be rescued or as seen as the ultimate prize. In the Sex Roles journal, the authors emphasize, “Female characters rarely appear, and that when they do, they are mostly in a submissive, secondary role” (Jansz & Martis 2007). Gender stereotypes are evident in most AAA games, such as GTA 5 and Temple Run. However, the few exceptions lie within indie games such as Even Cowgirls Bleed where women take the main lead. The representation of gender stereotypes in games is studied through the analysis of Temple Run and Even Cowgirls Bleed.
Devor, Aaron. “Gender Role Behaviors and Attitudes.” Signs of Life in the USA: Readings on Popular Culture for Writers. 6th Edition. Sonia Maasik and
I will not impose “gender specific” toys on them or tell them that it is not acceptable for a boy to play with a baby doll or tell my future daughter that it is not allowed for her to pretend sword fight. My children will be able to decide what they like and what they do not like and I will not allow anyone to decide that for them. This assignment has definitely opened my eyes to the market that is out there stereotyping children without much notice. Taking time to actually look into what is being done with toys and society with children has broadened my understanding and awareness of the impending problem that children are being faced with. I hope that one day we will see an end to gender stereotyping so that my future children will not be forced to feel out of place if they do not identify with a specific feeling or emotion that a boy should have or a girl should have. It sickens me and breaks my heart that things so minuscule such as toys can have such a negative effect on lives, especially on such a young children. This ideology of gender segregation should not be supported or further produced because it is harmful to the children that are directly or indirectly being affected by
Children start to define their gender identity in early preschool (Zhumkhawala 47). This means that the toys children are given go a long way to further (or help change) gender stereotypes and inequality. In general, boys are given trucks, blocks and doctor’s kits, encouraging them to build, explore how things work and be a...
Dill, Karen E., and Kathryn P. Thill. "Video Game Characters and the Socialization of Gender Roles: Young People’s Perceptions Mirror Sexist Media Depictions." Sex Roles 57.11-12 (2007): 851-64. Print.
Toy stores are perfect places for a sociologist to use their sociological imagination. Gendering and racism is thought to be something that is socially constructed as opposed to biologically constructed. Gendering starts during infancy, and around 2 years old children start to internalize these gender differences. I argue that children’s toys help socialize children into gender specific roles. Toy stores, like Target and Toys R Us help us understand what types of toys help to gender children. I will explain how the toys in the toy aisles differ and compare. Not all toys are either male or female, some toys are gender neutral.
The research discusses different experimental studies to evaluate the impact of video games on gendered attitudes. The overall research revealed how the sexualization of women has impacted the different forms of media and, in turn, how it has impacted society. However, interest in this topic does not seem to be fading; but it seems to increase with the approach of more women becoming outspoken about sexualization and inequality and independent as well as the fan base for different comic book characters have become more critical of the treatment of their characters in regards to