My second post will be about the development of children that I found on a website. One of the most popular toy stores in the world, Toys R Us. When you go onto the website there are categories you can choose from such as " Girls Gifts" "Boys Gifts" and "Categories." When you click on the boys gifts section the first subcategory is Action Figures, and for girls the first subcategory is Arts & Crafts. I feel as though the toys for girls are always in light colors such as pink and purple and the boy toys are darker colors such as blue green and red. The boys section consists of action figures and building sets while the girls side consists of arts and crafts and dolls. The boys toys are always very so strong and some times scary and the girls toys are very delicate and gentle, the way both of these genders are perceived to be.
I think the gender stereotype is a major issue in the world today. One of the most common toys for a boy are Lego's and now the creators of this product are starting to create their idea of a Lego collection for girls that they are calling "Friends" In this Lego collection you have the ability to build shopping malls and houses instead of train tracks and large buildings. I feel as though this is a step in the right direction for trying to make the options equal for girls and boys no matter what their interests are. This might be far off, but there is a possibility there are more women in the fashion industry and more men in the construction industry because those are the types of toys they played with when they were growing up.
Toys r us
Lego Friends
I think you made a good point in saying that the toys children play with relate to their future careers and interests. I know that I want to be a teacher but I wonder if that relates to the fact that I played with dolls and played school when I was younger. I also wonder if boys were given "girl toys" and girls were given "boy toys" if it would cause them to change career paths.
ReplyDeleteI think this post was very interesting! Recently the obvious division between "boy toys" and "girl toys" has been bothering me! I agree with you that the toys you play with can have an influence on your career. It makes me wonder if the toys I played with have an affect on what I want to do after college.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I do disagree with you on one point. I don't think making "girl" Legos is a step in the right direction. I think it actually further creates a divide. The fact that the girl Legos create malls is stereotypical of girls, and not every little girl likes malls, they might like trains, so why should they only be allowed to make malls? There isn't anything wrong with girls playing with normal Legos. It was a nice idea to create girl Legos, but I disagree with how they went about it.
I think that both of you comments where very interesting. I just thought that by creating the "girl" Lego's enables the girls to start playing with something that was previously a toy only for boys. Just like dolls are for girls, the Lego's are for boys. I agree that girls should be able to play with whatever they want but i think that by creating this collection of " girl" Lego's might push the girls to start venturing out and possibly start playing with trains.
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