A Visit to Toys’ R Us

A Visit to Toys R US How Toys atomic number 18 Affecting Gender Roles in Growing Children Ji-Young Kim 2012-05-21 straight offs toy hold on is the Mecca for children. Although many traditionalistic toy stores bedevil died out(a) due to the advent of electronic toys, big stores worry Toys R US sop up survived by flexibly by absorbing its hot adversaries. Now, they sell a very wide arrange of toys, from orthodox toys corresponding dolls and put to death figures to toys that followed technologys evolution, like electronic book readers and of course, telly games.However, while toys have evolved, it became clear from my observation that the buyers attitudes nigh what toys argon appropriate for each come alive has non changed oftentimes. Also, although many antecedent manly themed toys have become sexuality-neutral, still many more gender- predetermineed toys hire messages of what boys and girls are expected to grow up. Still, I could see signs of improve custodyt overall, and recall that as long as in that respect is room for improvement, gender bias amongst children give gradually disappear.As I coursed through the aisles, I observe that the store divided itself into several parts boys, girls, electronic games, and gender neutral. I order it amusing that the section for the girls toys was in the very back of the store. I assumed that this would result in girls getting a peck of the boys toys, but not vice versa. It would be lucrative for the toy store to place the girls section in the front, because ignored products are often placed in the most cute spots (e. g. shelves that meets eyelevel), but I guessed that the toy store assumed that it would try out complaints from the parents if they decided to place toys that way.The front of the store, excluding the girls section, was divided into half by gender-neutral toys and toys for boys. Interestingly, the section for boys and gender-neutral sections were not marked boys but only the types of the toys (e. g. action figures), but the section for girls was clearly marked as girls. Firstly what I see was the gender-neutral area contained mainly storybooks, board games, Lego, sports and musical instruments. I noticed that many toys that were traditionally dish outed masculine, like drums and skateboards, were now in the gender-neutral area.However, whatever toys we consider traditionally gender-neutral like sports equipments, had no pink colored items (lacrosse sticks), while some other equipments, like tennis rackets, which were placed right next to the lacrosse sticks, came out in both pink and blue. I assumed that there was no market for pink lacrosse sticks, or it wasnt signifi targett enough to pop off into a toy store. Board games almost always showed ageism and fortify sex stereotypes on their cover when picture men or women. It is in like manner worth noting that toys that are completely free of gender bias are based on themes completely unrelated to social activities (e. . rubber dinosaur models). unity interesting board game for secondary children, named Battle of the Sexes by Imagination, was somewhat testing the opposite sex about the interests of the players sex (e. g. The number of football players in a team). Outwardly, this seems like an excellent game which allows you to get to know what the opposite sex is like, but is in point reinforcing psyches about the norms of the opposite sex into children. The gender-neutral section also include the closely-known(a) Lego series.Although I call this a gender-neutral toy, it is only so because it has a small amount of pink-colored sets containing pieces that are mostly women. Despite the Lego series seemingly gender-neutral innovation of building blocks, most of the toys are themed around mostly masculine activities. Many, if not most, depict warfare, a theme based on violence, which is mostly considered masculine. jeopardize themed Lego toys have no women characters in volved it always depicted men who are digging up a desolate landscape and fighting mummies with, of course, pistols and swords.Maybe, as shown in a word-painting Different but Equal, boys provide have a better initial ability to construct Lego blocks creatively due to their superior space recognition skills, but they will be able to further reinforce their abilities by playing with the blocks frequently, and finally resulting in reinforcing the idea that this ability is male-oriented. However, as recent studies show, women have just as a good deal potential to do as well as men do on those areas. Sadly, parents who have daughters whitethorn be ignorant of these facts and may be intent on getting their daughters dolls rather than block toys.Still, the fact that there are Lego toys aimed for girls can mean things have improved such as Lego Friends, for only a decade ago it was even spartan to find women figures in Lego products. It may be that some parents are faulting their pa radigms and starting to get children what they wish for. The electronics corner was filled with toys that included characters stand for the peak of masculinity. For instance, the famous 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 missed princess from danger.Mario has mustaches and grows in size and power when he consumes mushrooms, symbolizing the masculine features of a man, while Princess Peach wears pink frilly dresses, is always attendless and carries an umbrella, not to mention corrosion paper and jewelry. I retrieve that the video game company is unwilling to discard this facet of the game, because it has sold well for more than 30 years by creating games that live up to gender stereotypes.In rare cases the main character was a heroine, the female is either wearing a robotic outfit that covers the entire body and has a gu n in the place of her hand (Metroid, Nintendo) or dressed up in testis dresses (The Island Princess, Nintendo). It was clear that the former was meant for boys and the latter for girls. Most video games for boys were about destroying or somehow vanquishing the opponent, reinforcing the idea of control and power, and ultimately in hard-hitting behavior.The section with toys for boys was filled with items that emphasize masculinity, especially action figures. Figures of men (especially superheroes and professed(prenominal) wrestlers with bulging muscles and tattoos) show boys from an early age how an ideal man should figure like. These toys will very likely lead to respect of power from a very early age, and will affect their speech style and ultimately reinforce differences in gender roles. Other than action figures, other celebrated toys were run forcars and other automobiles, especially fighter 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 thence toys are teaching boys to be risk-takers from an early point of their lives, as describe in the video Different but Equal, although we have outlived the gem age. On the other hand, the girls toy section was the polar opposite the on the whole area was an oversized dollhouse covered from start 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 contrast to the tattooed and muscular action figures. These dolls will help keep future women in line by building an learn of an ideal woman within a girls head, from a very early age. One interesting feature was that while there were Caucasian and African American dolls, there were none depicting Asiatics, possibly because Asians have a longing for whiter skin, and prefer Caucasian over Asian dolls. It explicitly shows the place of Asians in American society 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 thusly reinforces the traditional female sex behaviors white girls are often further to follow (Lips, 203). On the day of May 19th, 2012, I got a meet to converse Berj, one of the managers of the store. He had short black hair, dark glistening eyes, and was wearing a uniform of white pants and a habilitate 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 that the directions for the arrangement 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 study factor in profit-making. Such remainsatic planning showed that the company was much more willing to cope and follow the current set system of sexual assignment, rather than challenge 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 reiterateing the footsteps of its former. Parents will buy for their children what they think is right and appropriate, and will administer 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 most girls will always prefer dolls over toys. It was like eyesight a never-ending cycle in Buddhist terms, samsara. Fortunately though, I could see signs of hope.By the works of countless feminist s 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 beautiful 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. graphic symbol The Human Sexes (Part One) Different But Equal. The Human Sexes (Part One) Different But Equal. Web. 20 May 2012. <http//video. google. com/videoplay? docid=-6539484611803108670>. Hillary Lips, Gender role socialization Lessons in femininity. Pp. 197-216 in Jo freewoman (ed. ),Women A Feminist Perspective. Mountain View, CA Mayfield, 1989.