Gender Biased Toys: Article Of The Week Response

Article of the Week Response Toy manufactures are being sexist by promoting gender-biased toys that build stereotypes later in life. They are creating toys specifically designed towards the stereotypical idea of what a girl should be like and what a boy should be like. For example, the naeyc wrote an article interviewing expert toy designer Jeffrey Smith about gender-biased toys. Smith says that toys known as girl toys typically focus on physical attractiveness and beauty, as well as nurturing and domestic skills. Boy toys traditionally focused on violence, aggression, and anger. Clearly, this shows the promotion of gender stereotypes. The toy company is telling kids at a very early age, when they are still developing, that if you are a guy,

However, the company also does make gender neutral toys that are normally focused on learning and increasing cognitive function, but this does not compensate for the obvious stereotyping going on in these toys. Not all guys want to fight, and not all girls want to be pretty, but this is what toy companies are telling children to young to really think for themselves. However, there is a more recent way were this stereotyping comes into play. In the article,”Äsleep at the switch? Force Awakens heroine missing from toys line,¨ the Associated Press discusses the lack of toys based on the main female protagonist, Rey, in the new star wars movie. In this article, the author shows the reader how people are outraged by this, and how the movie producer didn't want to spoil the movie, so they did not produce these toys. The article contains a quote from the president of star wars memorabilia, ¨I think Hollywood is waking up to the fact that it's not just girls who want Rey figures.¨ This quote shows that although stereotyping is a problem, it is being fixed. The Rey action figure may have come late, but clearly people who make toys are realizing that the ideas of ¨only guys like violence¨ and ¨only girls want figures that feature