Monday, January 9, 2012

Gender Specific Toys

This is my first of two blogs for Wednesdays class. It coincides with the article on children's gender specific toys.





It's just as Riley says, if boys want to play with princesses and girls want to play with superheros, then they can. Why should girls have to be tricked into buying pink toys?







I thought this was an interesting video because even though the girls knew they could play with the firetrucks if they wanted to, they still chose the dolls. As babies, most girls are given pink clothes and dresses, and are kept in pink bedrooms with pink curtains ect. Boys however are given blue clothes, and kept in rooms with blue themes. My theory is, that as early as your first days of life, you are programmed to be comfortable and to enjoy the gender specific colors that surround your life, because as a baby they really do surround your life. If a baby grows up surrounded by pink, goes into infancy surrounded by pink, and then goes to pick out a toy at the store, chances are they will be attracted to the pink aisle because it's all they know. That's my guess. That children are exposed to gender specific stereotypes as soon as they are born.

5 comments:

  1. Haha that was hilarious... Riley knows whats good.
    Very true about the exposure of young children to gender stereotypes. That exposure is going to influence how they perceive gender roles later in life.

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  2. Wow. That was priceless. I definately agree with Steph and Riley that the early exposure to gender stereotypes veer a child's wanting and needing to play with gender specific toys. There is a big debate on the nature vs, nurture realm. But it's funny because while shopping with friends for a 2 and 4 year old (a boy and girl), the parents were very specific on the colored clothing, blue and pink, and gender specific toys. Nice videos Steph.

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  3. Haha! Riley is so enthusiastic about this topic! Super cute. I'm not sure if you saw my post titled "good reads" But I posted a few documents and the one titled "We Are All Works In Progress" touches on the "pink and blue" topic of girls and boys if you're interested in reading it. I just figured out how to use Google documents so I'm not 100% sure if it works yet lol

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  4. I'll definitely check it out Kayla & thanks for commenting everyone. I'm glad you guys loved the videos so much

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