How Are Gender Roles Affecting Children

Play is a major part of a child’s life and the use of toys within their play has had a significant influence of their self esteem and gender roles. Barbie and Batman are negatively affecting a child by influencing a false view of what is beautiful and acceptable in society. Barbie has always been a controversial topic as it gives young girls a false sense of what a woman should look like. Whereas Batman gives boys a false sense of how they should look in order to be strong and tough. Dress up and blocks play a major part in the influence of gender roles within children. The toys a child plays with can shape their skills and the roles they will participate in later on in life. The marketing of toys is aimed at children because they are easy

Children under the age of eight lack the ability to understand the selling purpose of the advertisement. A majority of parents will give into a child asking for a toy as it not only satisfies them but also allows them to fit in better at school as they are not missing out on the new toy. This is sending the message that children need material objects to make them happy and to be accepted by society A majority of advertisements to children are gender based; girls wearing pink are playing with dolls and castles. Whereas boys are playing with electronic cars while wearing green. This can be seen in figure 4. Gender remains a vital and viable marketing positioner; gender can no longer be the only positioner or the most vital positioner in the marketing toolbox. As an industry marketing tries to show children their target customer as an in-action photo on the packaging, excitedly played commercials, clumped with similar children in paint or digital ads. The advertising of toys allows every child to imagine themselves as the target audience. By removing gender roles from the toy aisle aids the removal of the customer or user of the product. This is stating that the use of gender roles in advertising is vital in order to sell the products and to attract customers. The gender role in advertising is not just within the toy store and on television it is also being seen within apps. The apps that are available on the Apple iPhone are categorised for boys and girls, the boy games generally involve building and violence where as the girl games tend to be dress up and cooking games. Within the electronic gaming gender is a present cluster in regards to advertising The advertisement of iPhone apps is generally aimed at children as most parents have a smart phone now. The apps are stopping a child from using their