A department store which included a toy section was visited to examine how toys were marketed towards young boys and girls are differentiated.

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Toy Shop Visit

A department store which included a toy section was visited to examine how toys were marketed towards young boys and girls are differentiated.  The packaging of the toys was looked at very carefully, to try to identify whether or not the marketers targeted a specific gender.  This involved, however, subjectivity influenced by our own preconceived concepts of gender stereotypes. The visit helped to provide a better understanding of the feminine and masculine roles and expectations in the society.

Many observations were made during the visit. The toys were categorized as either marketed specifically towards girls, boys, or neither. The difference between the girls’ toys and the boys’ toys was very obvious to notice as all toys were highly colour-coded. The girl’s aisles mainly consisted of pink, purple, and white packaging while the boys’ aisles were full of blue, red, green and silver colours.  

Toys that coded as feminine included Bratz make up dolls, Barbie make up and jewellery sets, Sparkle girls fantasy dolls, glamour gift sets and of course Barbie and Disney Princess dolls. These items were portraying negative self-images and an obsession with beauty. Other toys such as vacuum cleaners, cleaning trolleys, doll houses and little kitchen play set e.g. Princess tea pots were clearly related to homemaking and domestic work. Toys such as baby carriers, newborn baby dolls, cradles and strollers were focusing on the teaching child rearing. These kinds of toys limit social roles of women in the society.    

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The boys’ category consisted of boxes with trucks and men operating vehicles as well as action games with a male warrior or knight, and sports games featuring a male professional player. Other items found included toy animals, military toys, educational-art materials and spatial-temporal objects e.g. shape-sorting toys, clocks, magnets and outer space toys. The messages being promoted in these toys were that boys should fight, be aggressive and competitive. They were encouraged to be in control, have power, build new worlds, use their imagination and be creative.

Stereotyped gender roles were very evident in boys and girls toys as there ...

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