Toys R Us Character Analysis

Symbolic interactionism holds that people develop meaning through the interaction. Henslin contends that people impose meaning on events, objects, and behaviors (32). Hence, the social interaction forms a strong basis of constructing the society. In effect, the society has what it considers masculine and feminine. These are the norms of the society. Although to some extent toys are supposed to educate children, it is unfortunate that the same toys pass gender stereotypes. Henslin argues that the society has gender-based roles, and children grow to adopt different duties dictated by the community (270). In this respect, the society socializes children to embrace gender differences. The toys foster the norms of appearance and gender behavior, and construct gender roles in the minds of children. Thus, toys play a central role in socializing children into appropriate gender roles. In Toys R Us, color of toys reflects socialization of children along gender lines. In the store, customers can spot the girl section easily. Specifically, the girl’s section is the most pink with toys such as dolls, unicorns, and butterflies. On the

The identification of the boys and girls toys is easily through looking at the colors. Toys R Us categorizes toys into a blue and navy boys section, and white and pink girls section. In addition, the toy packaging depicts color differences. The boy’s toys such as cars and guns have blue and green colors. On the other hand, the girl’s section comprises of toys such as dolls and butterflies, which are in pink colors. There are no toys grouped together in Toys R Us. In effect, the society has imposed colors on the toys to communicate the gender roles. According to the symbolic interactionism theory, the understanding of gender can be through the symbolic interactionism lens (Henslin 33). The sex-appropriate colors for boys and girls are tools for enforcing the gender