Toys, Toys, Toys

There are numerous toys displayed and sold in toys stores in our communities. Although there are toys that all children aspire to have and/or play with, many of the toys marketed to these young individuals are gendered to either boys or girls. Through packaging, advertising, use of colour, etc., each toy is targeted to a specific individuals. These gendered toys influence individual identity and how children see themselves. "Identity messages circulate through merchandise that surrounds young consumers as they dress in, sleep on, bathe in, eat from, and play with commercial goods decorated with popular culture images, print, and logos, immersing children in products that invite identification with familiar media characters and communicate gendered expectations about what children should buy, how they should play, and who they should be" (Wohlwend, 2009). Since these products are advertised on clothing, lunch bags, water bottles and many everyday tools, these gendered messages are constantly influencing children. Children modify their behaviour to live up to these gendered expectations. When comparing toys, it is evident that girl and boy toys portray opposing images and messages from one another. Boy toys consist of weapons, cars, superheroes, etc., while girls toys consist of barbies, dolls, stuffed animals, etc. Varney notes, "that toys carry such different fantasies for each gender ensures separate dreams, separate expectations, and quite different self-identities" (Varney, 2013). These different expectations, fantasies and self-identities influence how children see themselves compared to others surrounding them.

Looking at the selection of Barbies, I noticed various accessories and roles these dolls were assigned. They each had roles that are stereotypically female. These dolls were hair and makeup artists, gymnasts, flight attendants, vets, princesses, etc. These roles influence young girls to believe that they must live up to these female expectations and be like these dolls. They each had accessories that result in young girls feeling as though they need makeup, nice clothes and bags to be "pretty" or "girly". With that being said, the boxes, clothing, and accessories all utilized the colour pink. The use of pink in everything automatically causes children to refer to these as girl toys. Including a variety of colours and a variety of jobs/roles would create amore gender neutral toys. Gender is socially constructed and does not define who we are. By targeting boys and girls separately, through marketing toys, we are influencing children to behave according to the gendered expectations represented in their toys.