A Visit to Toys’ R Us

A call in to Toys R US How Toys ar touch on Gender Roles in Growing Children Ji-Young Kim 2012-05-21 forthwiths chat up interject is the Mecca for children. Although more traditional toy stores aim died unwrap due to the advent of electronic toys, grownup stores corresponding Toys R US have survived by flexibly by absorbing its in the altogether adversaries. Now, they sell a actually wide arrange of toys, from orthodox toys standardized dolls and military action figures to toys that traceed technologys evolution, compar satis factor iny electronic book readers and of course, video spicys.However, turn toys have evolved, it became clear from my observation that the purchasers attitudes rough what toys are assume for each wake has not changed frequently. Also, although galore(postnominal) previous mascu tilt ascendantd toys have scram sex activity-neutral, still many more gender- prepossessioned toys accommodate messages of what boys and missys are e xpected to grow up. Still, I could expect signs of improve custodyt oerall, and consider that as long as there is style for improve custodyt, gender bias amongst children allow for little by little disappear.As I coursed through the aisles, I observe that the store shared itself into several split boys, girls, electronic games, and gender neutral. I prime it amusing that the part for the girls toys was in the precise back of the store. I false that this would result in girls acquire a taste of the boys toys, but not vice versa. It would be profitable for the toy store to push through the girls section in the front, because ignored products are often lay in the some valued vagabond (e. g. shelves that meets eyelevel), but I guessed that the toy store assumed that it would hear complaints from the parents if they decided to pop toys that way.The front of the store, excluding the girls section, was divided into half by gender-neutral toys and toys for boys. Interesting ly, the section for boys and gender-neutral sections were not label boys but provided the types of the toys (e. g. action figures), but the section for girls was cl un agely marked as girls. Firstly what I see was the gender-neutral heavens contained mainly storybooks, board games, Lego, sports and melodious instruments. I noticed that many toys that were traditionally considered masculine, the likes of drums and skateboards, were now in the gender-neutral area.However, secure close to toys we consider traditionally gender-neutral like sports equipments, had no tap colored items (lacrosse sticks), maculation virtually separate equipments, like tennis rackets, which were countersinkd right next to the lacrosse sticks, came out in both(prenominal) pink and blue. I assumed that there was no market for pink lacrosse sticks, or it wasnt significant generous to fit into a toy store. get along with games roughly unceasingly showed ageism and strengthened sex stereotypes on their cover when depiction men or women. It is also cost noting that toys that are completely free of gender bias are based on themes completely unrelated to social activities (e. . prophylactic dinosaur models). One interesting board game for niggling children, named Battle of the Sexes by Imagination, was about testing the opposite sex about the interests of the players sex (e. g. The second of football players in a team). Outwardly, this seems like an excellent game which allows you to get to d n primeval what the opposite sex is like, but is in fact reinforcing intellects about the norms of the opposite sex into children. The gender-neutral section also included the well-known Lego series.Although I call this a gender-neutral toy, it is only so because it has a small amount of pink-colored comes containing pieces that are in the main women. Despite the Lego series seemingly gender-neutral concept of building blocks, more or less of the toys are themed around to the highest degreely masculine activities. Many, if not most, depict warfare, a theme based on violence, which is mostly considered masculine. risk themed Lego toys have no women characters involved it always depicted men who are dig up a desolate ornament and fighting mummies with, of course, pistols and swords.Maybe, as shown in a video contrary but couple, boys lead have a repair initial magnate to construct Lego blocks creatively due to their superior space apprehension skills, but they allow for be able to further reinforce their abilities by playacting with the blocks frequently, and eventually resulting in reinforcing the idea that this ability is male-oriented. However, as recent studies show, women have just as much potential to do as well as men do on those areas. Sadly, parents who have daughters may be ignorant of these facts and may be intent on getting their daughters dolls so nonpareilr than block toys.Still, the fact that there are Lego toys aimed for gi rls can mean things have modify such as Lego Friends, for only a decade ago it was even lowering to find women figures in Lego products. It may be that some parents are shifting their paradigms and outset to get children what they wish for. The electronics command was make full with toys that included characters symbolizing the peak of masculinity. For instance, the notable Super Mario series from Nintendo that has lasted for more than 30 years as a bestseller series, almost always depicts Mario, the main hero of the series, rescuing Princess Peach, the traditional aidless princess from danger.Mario has mustaches and grows in size and mogul when he consumes mushrooms, symbolizing the masculine features of a man, while Princess Peach wears pink frilled dresses, is always helpless and carries an umbrella, not to invoke wearing makeup and jewelry. I believe that the video game company is loth to discard this facet of the game, because it has sold well for more than 30 years b y creating games that live up to gender stereotypes.In rare cases the main character was a heroine, the pistillate is either wearing a robotic conform to that covers the entire body and has a gunslinger in the place of her hand (Metroid, Nintendo) or dressed up in ball dresses (The Island Princess, Nintendo). It was clear that the former was meant for boys and the latter for girls. some video games for boys were about destroying or somehow vanquishing the opponent, reinforcing the idea of control and power, and ultimately in aggressive behavior.The section with toys for boys was alter with items that emphasize masculinity, especially action figures. Figures of men (especially superheroes and professional wrestlers with bulging muscles and tattoos) show boys from an early age how an perfection man should human face like. These toys will very likely rails to respect of power from a very early age, and will affect their terminology style and ultimately reinforce differences in gender roles. Other than action figures, other notable toys were racecars and other automobiles, especially combatant planes.These toys would most probably give boys the idea of what would be cool or what a cool job looks like. These jobs have a thing in common they are all risk-taking, and therefore toys are statement boys to be risk-takers from an early point of their lives, as described in the video Different but Equal, although we have outlived the play off age. On the other hand, the girls toy section was the polar opposite the whole area was an oversized dollhouse covered from runner to end with pink. Merchandises included basic make-up, small frilly dresses for children and of course, dolls.All dolls were very slim and tall, and mostly had makeup on their faces, showing differentiate to the tattooed and muscular action figures. These dolls will help keep future women in line by building an image of an ideal woman within a girls head, from a very early age. One intere sting feature was that while there were Caucasian and African American dolls, there were none depicting Asians, maybe because Asians have a longing for washragr skin, and opt Caucasian over Asian dolls. It explicitly shows the place of Asians in American indian lodge a race that aspires to become Caucasians, both in and outwardly.That clearly affects Asian girls, or Asian mothers, as there seems to be no market for Asian dolls, and therefrom reinforces the traditional female sex behaviors white girls are often encouraged to equal (Lips, 203). On the day of May 19th, 2012, I got a chance to query Berj, one of the jitneys of the store. He had short black hair, raunchy shiny eyes, and was wearing a equivalent of white pants and a shirt with the ToysRUS logo stitched into it. Every time before he started to speak, he cleaned his throat with a weird sound. Our short ten-minute interview began in a small managers room at the corner of the store.The interview with Berj revealed t hat the directions for the fix of the toys came from higher up, specifically from a manual distributed from the main company. This showed that the positioning of toys were carefully planned to make the most profit possible, and was considered a major factor in profit-making. Such systematic supply showed that the company was much more unbidden to cope and follow the current set system of sexual assignment, rather than quarrel it. I could not fault them much companies are profit-driven, and it is only natural and easier to follow the ules rather than challenge them. In the toy store I could see a whole generation resorting the footsteps of its former. Parents will buy for their children what they think is right and appropriate, and will enforce those regulations on them if necessary. And so, children who grow up accustomed to those restrictions and bonds will naturally repeat the former generation. Most, if not all boys will play with action figures depicting machismo men, and m ost girls will always prefer dolls over toys. It was like seeing a aeonian cycle in Buddhist terms, samsara. as luck would have it though, I could see signs of hope.By the works of immeasurable feminists beforehand, we can see childrens movies like Mulan, where the heroine actually takes his fathers place in war, or skateboards created for girls. Although these examples arent completely free of gender bias in that Mulan is still a slim and dishy girl and those skateboards come in pink, I believe that girls (and boys) who grow up experiencing these new changes will become adults who wont enforce their views as strongly as their parents did, and maybe someday Americans will be able to overcome this typical bias as we can never imagine.It wont be anytime soon, but someday they will. Reference The Human Sexes (Part One) Different scarce Equal. The Human Sexes (Part One) Different But Equal. Web. 20 May 2012. . Hillary Lips, Gender role socialization Lessons in femininity. Pp. 1 97-216 in Jo Freeman (ed. ),Women A Feminist Perspective. Mountain View, CA Mayfield, 1989.