These toys are packaged In ink or bright colored Items with flowers and glittery pictures on the boxes and most of these items have little girls happily playing with the toys. Some of the marketing words they used for the boys were adventure, maximum destruction, and mega bomb. The used words like princess set, glam, and diva collection as some marketing words for the girl toys. Leg was a brand that had a lot of building sets for boys and those were packaged In blue boxes. They had police cars, boats, planes, and other toys that are geared for boys.
There were a few sets for girls and those were cadged in pink and these were princess castles. The boys section looked more outdoorsy and tough, it shows that they like to get muddy and dirty. The girls sections are more brightly colored, dazzling and sparkly, that they like to play indoors, and that they don’t like to get dirty. There was a shelving unit in Wall-Mart, where on the left side were some toys in blue packaging that was marketed for boys and then on the right side were pink and bright colored packaged toys for the girls.
The middle section was gender neutral, where the toys were meant for boys or girls, hose were packaged in bright green colored boxes. The toys themselves that were in the green colored boxes though were gender specific, so the boy’s versions were blue and the girl’s versions were pink. As an example, there was an alphabet toy that was in the gender neutral area, but the toy itself came either blue for boys or pink for girls. Another toy that Is typically marketed to boys is the near gun.
I was surprised to see near guns that were pink and had pictures of girls playing with them on the box. These were found In a girls section and not with the near guns for boys. It seems there are some manufacturers who do market typical boys toys for girls, but I didn’t see any typical girls toys marketed for boys. The message I saw was that boys are the ones that are outside working, playing in the dirt or mud, or fixing things with tools.
For the girls, it was geared more towards being at home doing the chores, doing the cooking, and taking care of children. Vive learned that kids Like me that have no social Interaction, Like going to day care, etc, when they’re young, have a tougher time making friends and having a social life when they start school. Whereas, the kids that went to daycare, preschool, etc. Had an easier time making friends and having a social life when they started school. The kids that went to daycare and places like that were more outgoing and friendlier with other people.
Before doing this exercise and taking this class, I never gave gender colonization any thought because I didn’t and still don’t care what you like to do or what you play with care is because what you do is your personal business and none of my concern. When I was young, I never went to day care, but I went to preschool for a short time. Although I went to preschool, it was in a different city from where I went to kindergarten and elementary school, so I didn’t know anybody.
Because I didn’t know anybody, it was harder for me to make friends and play since I was the new kid and nobody knew me and didn’t want to play with me. The same thing happened when I was 12, we moved to a new town, so I was at a new school and new people; I hated it so much. It was even harder the second time because the kids now were more opinionated and Judgmental and a lot of then had been going to school together for a long time. I think because I didn’t have a lot of social interaction with kids my age when I was younger, this affected me.
Now as I’m thinking about whether gender colonization is a good thing or a bad thing; I think it’s a bad thing because no one should tell or force someone in to liking, doing, or, in this case, playing with certain toys or games. To me, it seems that gender colonization is very persuasive in the fact that things like TV commercials make it sound like that it is cool and girls should be the only ones that should play with kids household items, dolls, or Jewelry toys. While for boys, it’s cool for them to be playing sports, with trucks and cars, or any extreme sports and that make it sound like it is dangerous for girls.
I think the ramifications of gender bias from an early age is not letting people reach their full potential because people are saying no to you Just because you’re a female, too tall or short, too skinny or too fat; whether it’s in politics, business, sports, or Just in life itself. It seems that these gender biased ideas continues on into adulthood, but they are slowly changing. It use to be that the women stayed home and cooked, cleaned and took care of the kids and the men were the ones who worked outside of the home.
You didn’t use to see woman working construction or even being a CEO and you also didn’t see the men being the stay at home parent. Now women are able to do the Job they want. They can drive trucks, work construction or run large companies. Men can stay at home with the kids if that’s what chose to do. I think there is still a long ways to go before things are completely equal, but at least it’s started and people can o into career they like regardless of what it is instead of having choices.
It changes my perspective of children’s colonization to the point that it shouldn’t matter if a boy plays with a doll or Jewelry stuff or a girl buys a toy car or a baseball bat. It shouldn’t matter to the company anyways because someone is buying that company’s product. Another ramification now is that everybody Judges you on whether or not if you have the coolest or the most fun toy. Also, companies are always making an updated version and/or model of that toy every year or two.
