Power Wheels

If you go to http://www.fisher-price.com/us/powerwheels you'll find a large sections of miniature play cars.  If you take a look at them you'll find a very distinct difference between the ones aimed at girls and the ones aimed at boys.  You can also see messages in the picture used for advertising them.  

This is a photo of one of the cars that is aimed at young boysand this is the car that is targeted at girls.

In the advertisements there are almost all boys with boys and girls with girls.  You will never once see a boy in a pink car.  There was one advertisement on the fisher-price website that caught my eye: It doesn't seem to be aimed at a specific gender, but there is a boy driving it and the girl has a frightful expression on her face.  It looks like the boy is more superior.

photos

this image came from http://vaginamagazine.blogspot.com/2006/08/sexism-starts-at-toy-box.html

More Interivews

A few months ago I went to interview some kids who were attending an after school homework club at a local elementary school.  I brought two toy boxes with me.  One of them was a box of Bratz dolls and the other one was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Gear.  My goal was to interview three boys and three girls by asking them which one they would rather play with.  All the kids, however, wanted to be interviewed and how does one say no to those big eyes and adorable puppy faces?  I ended up interviewing eighteen children.  

My first interview was with a seven-year-old girl named Sofie.  I gave her the choice between the two toys, and I was very surprised by her honest.  Unlike most of the girls, she chose the TMNT toys.  She at first delivered her words with some humiliation in he voice, but she soon realized that I had no intention of laughing at her and she became more comfortable talking to me and answering my questions.  She said that her best friend, Levi, got her into playing with "boy toys".  I asked her if she would ever play with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in front her her friends.  She said yes, but only if those friends were boys.  I then asked her what she thought would happen if her girlfriends saw her playing with those supposed "boy toys", and she told me that they would probably find it weird and that she would be afraid of them not wanting to be her friend anymore.

Another kid who stuck out was six-year-old Kyle.  When I gave him the choice between the Bratz dolls and the Ninja Turtles he unsurprisingly chose the TMNT gear.  When I asked him  why he liked that toy he said that it was because there was a boy on the cover of the box.  I asked him if he would still like it if it was a picture of a girl.  Kyle answered my question with a simple "no".   This to me is a little bit of proof that Kyle has been conditioned/ brainwashed into being sexist.

Most of the kids' answers were the same.  Almost all the girls chose the Bratz dolls and almost all the boys picked the TMNT gear.  Nearly all of them agreed that boys should play with violent war toys and the girls should stick to their dolls and beauty enhancers and that it would be very weird if this gender role balance was broken.

When I asked the kids what they would think if they saw a girl playing with a "boy toy" or a boy playing with a "girl toy".  Almost all their answers were identical.  They would think of it as strange and abnormal.  Five-year-old Taylor said that if she saw a boy playing with dolls then she should tell him to stop because its not natural.  The same thing applied for a few other kids.  One of the children said that if he saw a boy playing with what he considered to be a girl toy then he would go so far as to take them away from him and tell other kids not to play with him.  Harsh?  Out of all eighteen children, there was one girl who answered my question differently from the rest.  Her name was Carla and she was six years old.  When I asked her what she would do and think if she was a girl playing with Ninja Turtles and a boy playing will dolls she just smiled and told me that she wouldn't mind.

I could tell that not all the kids were being completely honest.  That idea came to my mind  when I heard a group of girls talking about the interview outside of the room where I had been conducting the interviews.  I don't remember every word, but this is what I do remember:

Girl # 1: That was so easy!

Girl # 2: Did you choose Ninja Turtles or Bratz?

Girl # 1: Bratz.

Girl # 2: Good

Now I don't know for sure, but girl number one might have wanted to choose the Ninja Turtles but was too scared to be different from what the crowd was saying.  I tried my best to convince the kids that there was no right or wrong answer, but I could only do so much to bring out their complete honesty.  Kids definitely are shy and they want to look cool, even if it means not expressing their opinion. 

I must say that interviewing kids is really hard.  They're never very honest.  The thing about them is they don't really say what they feel, they want to say what they think they're expected to say.  I might be wrong, but that's my theory based on experience and observation.

Kids in a small toy store

This is seven-year-old Trina.  I had a brief interview with her a few days ago at a local toy store.  I asked her what her favorite toy is.  She told me that the toy she loves to play with the most is Care Bears (like the one she is holding in the picture).  I asked her why she loves Care Bears so much.  Her response was "This one has a flower on it.  I like flowers".  I asked her what was so special about flowers in her eyes and she responded with the blunt explanation, "because".  This was to be expect since after all she is only 7 years old, however I was hoping that I could maybe have her dig deeper into her thoughts and tell me why she likes Care Bears.  

Trina had a four-year-old brother named Zander.  When I asked Zander what his favorite toy was he said Bob the Builder.  Like I did with his sister, I asked him what he liked about Bob the Builder.  He also didn't give me a legit reason.  He said that he likes the trucks and cranes.  

Article Analization

Sudie Hoffman wrote an article called "Miles and Aisles of Sexism".  She and her students went to various chain toy stores to investigate the toys that were being sold.  She noticed the violent toys that promote fighting and dominance that were mostly purchased by the parents of young boys and the frilly, lacy, glittery products that were bought by parents of little girls. 

Mottos of the supposed boys toys were things like "the army will stop at nothing to control the world" and "those who conquer act: those who are conquered think".  The first quote is pretty much saying that violence is the answer and violence will continue to occur until the entire world is violent ( at least thats what I make of it).  The second quote is basically saying that in order to dominate or take control one cannot think, and thinking makes you weak or "conquered".  The supposed girl toys have sayings like "Don't forget to stop at the makeup shop".  Little girls shouldn't be pressured to wear make up.  They should be secure about their own appearance. 

Hoffman says that with toys aimed at girls "the focus is on being popular with boys".  I can't say I disagree with her.  Those "girl aisles" and filled with hair accessories, makeup, glitter, jewelry, clothes, etc.  Why would they want to look that way?  These toys make it look like in order to be good enough to boys, general people, and even themselves.

Hoffman says that "the girls section does not have many board games that stimulate creative thinking or require higher-order reasoning".  She says that the highest level of thinking in the form of toys were coloring books and travel games.  The boys section however, according to Hoffman, had plenty of science kits, brain teasers, etc.  This possibly suggests that the toy companies only want girls to focus on toys that enhance their beauty or prepare them for being housewives while the boys go out into the world as smart, creative thinkers.  What's wrong with this picture?  

When Hoffman was looking that the educational toys she tried to find a box that had a girl on the cover.  She says that she endlessly looked down the aisles desperately trying to find at least one girl representing an educational toy.  She found a box on the very top shelf that caught her eye.  She couldn't see the whole thing fully because it was up so high so she asked a store employee to take it down for her.  She says that "for one joyous moment I thought I had found a female... the boy on the back panel just long hair".  This makes me think about how there is a stereotype for some girls being dumb and only concentrating on their appearance.  Well, its toys like these that teach girls to act that way.  They grow up thinking that they're only good for providing to men and looking hot.  

All my theories are very questionable and arguable.  Feel free to comment with questions, arguments, or even appreciation.

baby boy

This is a picture of a little boy I met when I went to San Diego with my mom and my sister.  He's holding a little plastic torpedo.  When I was taking pictures of him I noticed his behavior.  He was sort of violent and made stomped around pretending to launch missiles everywhere.  You can see the anger his face projects in this picture.  Don't get my wrong, he was a cute kid, but was acting very dominant.  I think that this act of violence and dominance comes from the toys he plays with. 

first blog

When a child is young what is it that shapes who he or she grows up to be?  Is it the clothes their parents buy them?  Is it the children they play with?  Those both have roles in what affects a child's personality, but what controls a child's behavior most are the toys they play with.  Hair accessories, makeup, jewelry, toy cleaning and kitchen supplies, and plastic babies are aimed at young girls.  Violent war toys such as guns, knives, and grenades are targeted at young boys.  Boys who play with "girl toys" are looked down upon and made fun of.  The dolls that are aimed at young girls set an impossible standard for what boys and girl should look  and act like.  G.I Joe suggests that in order t be manly and cool, boys much be tall and extremely muscular.  It also suggests that war, weaponry, and all together being tough and violent is fun and cool.  Barbie dolls send a message to girls saying that in order to be beautiful, they must be unrealistically skinny and have long, blonde hair.  Toys like Barbie that are aimed at young girls say that if you look a certain way, then you can achieve a "dream house", a "dream job", and all in all "a dream life".  Toys teach boys to be violent war heroes and they teach girls to be unrealistically pretty young women.