Analysis As I walked through the toy section of Target, I felt like I saw what I’ve seen ever since I was young enough to shop for toys in this section with my mom. When I was little I would go straight to the pink, Barbie aisle and then venture into the other pink aisles as well. This time, though, I looked through all of the toy aisles (including the boy section) and looked at the toys and dolls and games through a different lens. The color choices for the toys themselves and then the packaging as well are very specific to the gender they are targeting. And each age range appeals to its buyers in different ways.
When I looked even closer into the details of the toys, appealing to specific races and social classes were more apparent than I had realized as well. Like stated before, identifying the girls’ toys and the boys’ toys, is still very easy. Toys for girls are usually pink and/or purple and are right by each other with their own aisle. The boys’ toys are also grouped together on an aisle, but the colors are usually always blue, red, and/or green. The toys that are more gender neutral don’t ever have pink on them (which I find very interesting).
They are multicolored and are more common among the section for the youngest ages.
So, the colors are what catch everyone’s eyes first, whether we consciously recognize that we do it or not. Now, the kid models that are on the packaging of many of the toys are either boys or girls, or both. This is the next most obvious sign of gender identity since they aren’t as noticeable to the eye as colors are on every single toy. But looking at the kid models really does help the initial clarification of the gender identity of the product. I remember toys like the Corn Popper, Mr. Potato Head, and all kinds of instrument, which are still being sold. There are also some new additions, though, like the cell phone and laptop.
The Term Paper on Effects Of Gender On Education
This topic is also well discussed in many of the standard textbooks, but a bit unevenly and a bit oddly. Thus Haralambos and Holborn (1990), or Barnard and Burgess (1996) have good sections specifically on gender and educational achievement. However, rather strangely, the section on education is treated almost entirely as a sort of empirical matter and not linked very well to the other admirable ...
As a whole, the kids section in Target still looks very similar to what I saw when I was little with just a few critiques that are kept up to date with modern technology. Now, when we look at how the girls’ and boys’ toys differ, there are very many things and aspects that stuck out to me that I had never really noticed before until I consciously looked for things that certainly control the socialization of genders. The product that comes to my mind first that I saw was the pink vacuum. Obviously, this is targeted to girls. Thus, the message that is being sent is that girls need to learn how to clean.
I did not see any “boy” toy that had to do with cleaning at all and that was not surprising. This isn’t surprising because the boys’ toys that stuck out to me were a guitar, toy and life-size cars, and toy guns. This encourages the development of skills that are more active and less peaceful than girls, like shooting and being violent. This proves the statement in our powerpoint that boys are “more aggressive, competitive, and argumentative”. I think that this also is a direct effect of why guys are “not supposed to cry” or can’t be sensitive and dainty like girls.
Playing an electric guitar and driving a care differ greatly from a girl’s playhouse tent or a purse or a sewing kit that teaches us, as women, that are to shop, and sew and engage in things that are not as active. While there are the toys that aim for specific genders, it is encouraging, in a way, to see the toys that are aimed for both boys and girls. The reason this is only sort of encouraging is because it shows there is less socialization of genders happening, but the products that are gender neutral are what can be disheartening.
There is never a purse or a princess or a Barbie or gun or sports product that is targeted toward both boys and girls. These seem to have to be for either a boy or girl. What are for both genders, though, are puzzles, stuffed animals, animals in general, and Disney characters (that are not girls).
The Essay on Crossing Gender Lines Boys And Girls
Corrie Mole naar 11. 16. 01 Engl. 1210 Sec. 001 Joy Ellen Parker Essay #2 Crossing Gender Lines Author and feminist Alix Kates Shulman said once: "Sexism goes so deep that at first it's hard to see, you think it's just reality" (McEneany). That quote sums up perfectly the way our society runs. There is no class teaching children how to act according the their gender. Yet little boys and little ...
You can tell that this is targeted to both genders because they aren’t in either a blue or pink section, but are any color and in the middle of the boy and girl things. These products don’t develop any specific skills either. Puzzles help all genders learn (and these puzzles have either the alphabet or animals on them).
Animals teach kids about each one, which doesn’t require any socializing. And then Disney character are from movies that all kids watch and like, that are not particularly “girly” or “boyish”. It is all about subconsciously teaching each gender what is acceptable for their personal association. If we differentiate the toys and ways they are marketed based on the age ranges they are assigned, there are some obvious differentiations that I had honestly never noticed before. All of the infant toys are much more neutral colors, and less pinks and purples. This applies to the fact that at this age, the socialization does not set in quite as much.
As a sidenote, though, I find it interesting and little bit frustrating that “gender neutral” colors never include pink and purple, but include red and blue and green and brown. Thus implies that it is more acceptable for girls to buy a more boyish toy, and it is not acceptable (not even available) for boys to buy anything with pink or purple on it because it is “too girly”… What a perfect depiction of the Social Status Theory that says girls are more likely than boys to choose neutral or cross-gender toys and activities. Anyways, for infants are much more gender neutral when you compare the toys for 5 year olds.
When you enter these aisles are when the everything is either pink or blue for the most part. Then, going even deeper, the pink products have either a female doll in them or a female model on the package looking very delicate and sweet. In contrast are the blue and red toys that are pretty much either action figures, cars, or guns. The boys that model these products, for example, are boys looking fierce and holding up a nurf gun or water gun to shoot. As we move on to pre-teens, the toys are still gender specific, but not as much drastic as the 5 year olds.
The Term Paper on Comparsion and Contrast Essay the Welcome Story and What Its Like to Be a Black Girl
Trying to Fit What do you do when you feel like you just don’t fit in with the society you live in? Since the beginning of time blacks women, have been recognized as women who don’t fit the traditional ideal of beauty. A woman of color comes in all different shades of skin tones Caramel, Golden bronze, Cocoa brown and Dark brown. Their hair comes in a quite few different textures, from tight ...
The pre-teen products are much more technological, like computer games, that are more acceptable for any gender. Lastly, diversity in other aspects of gender, like race, social class, are apparent in advertising as well. These are definitely not aspects that I would have noticed as a child, which worries me. The middle and upper class are the obvious groups of people that are mainly being sold to because of the types of toys that are being sold. Not everyone has a laptop or a cell phone, and these toys prove the types of families that would by these products.
Lower class families are practically being discriminated against with this, which then leads to race as well. The only races that I saw in the entire toy section were white, Black, and one Monopoly board game had a Hispanic family on the cover. The Hispanic family stereotypes Hispanics as being family oriented that many of us view them as. One of the two most surprising things I saw in the girls section in relation to race was a black version of a doll that was a “ice cream server” in comparison to the white doll that was a “camper”. Is this a subliminal message that Black people work or “serve” the rest of our population?
And the second thing was on every Princess box. I noticed that five Disney princesses were in multiple toys like a music box or a audio book, but there was always a black princess I didn’t recognize on the front of the packaging. She was not a part of the toy though, she was just in a picture. On every princess toy was this black princess with a green dress that did not actually belong in the collection, but showed up on the packages. I finally saw her as a Barbie in a package with the other Disney princess Barbies and she was labeled as “Tiana- only in Target”. Target created their own princess to appeal to Blacks.
And then as I scanned the rest of the toys I noticed if there was ever a black kid in a picture, he or she was with a white kid. A black boy or girl was never alone in a picture. This applies to idea that black are inferior to whites. And as took a deeper notice, it seemed that every black model was a very light shade of black. This entire assignment highlights the term “gender typing” and brings it to life with how specific each product obviously appeals to each gender. When I reflect on when I got new toys as a little girl, I am sure that the social learning theory applied in my life especially by observation and imitation.
The Essay on Gender Roles & Family Structure Changes
Today, people realize and see that there is not the same consensus of family dynamics and lifestyles that the 1950's demonstrated when "the family life and gender roles became much more predictable" (Coontz 36). An analysis of Stephanie Coontz's, What We Really Miss About the 1950's, along with the episodes of Leave It To Beaver, have revealed certain roles and structure of a quintessential family ...
Commercials for all the new toys that were out is where I would observe and imitate what the girls in the commercials liked and did. I eventually and very quickly matched my behavior with what was culturally expected, which is where the Cognitive Developmental Theory comes in. I began wanting to do “girl things” that the culture obviously sets for us to “want” to do. This project really brought all of the content of these chapters to life by proving the effect that gendered products have on our view of different genders, races, and social classes, along with what is expected of each group of people.
