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.
1 comment:
You seemed to come to a conclusion much to early. If you are to approach this scientifically you should perform an expirement before you come to your conclusion. with as little variables as possible.
Also you must find that the results of your expirement are either definatly caused by your hypothesis OR if it can't be determined 100% that it was caused by the hypothesis then the research project proved inconclusive OR if proven that the hypothesis DID NOT cause the result, the conclusion would be about what really caused the results.
and about the supposedly "brainwashed-sexist" boy who wanted a boy on the toy.... I'm positive he is just still grossed out by girls since he hasn't started puberty yet.
The rivalry of little boys vs little girls is universal, it goes on even when they can't afford toys.
I reccomend you try to find kids who don't play with toys because they can't afford them and use them as a control group.
and TNMT is cool to kids because they PROTECT people! they are HEROES who help people defend themselves from criminals
Also the kid's response that they would tell the other boy to stop playing with dolls is just because they aren't used to it and kids don't understand people have differences and differences aren't all bad
and kids are mean, they don't like other people that are different. it's biological that they dislike difference, it's societal that the playing with different toys makes people different.
And how did YOU know that TNMT is a boy toy and BRATZ is a girl toy if you weren't sexist yourself according to your theory?
Post a Comment