Blog 5: Gender and Toys

Gender and toys is a very intersting subject to me because I remember as a young girl I did not fit the stereotypes. Stereotypes for toys is that boys will play with trucks, tools, more masculine toys while girls will play with barbies, dolls, and other feminine toys. Of course, I know your thinking that is obvious and it is, but what I found intersting is toy companies also put a big emphasis on colors. There are house sets that are made in pink and blue, the pink is for the girls and the blue is for the boys. The way toys are marketed is that everything is based off of colors and gender masculinaty and feminity. I was looking at a toy advertisment in the news paper the other day and on the front page was a picture of a boy in a blue tonka truck and a girl right beside him in a pink barbie car.
A situation that really stands out to me is talking to my mother the other day about her job; she is a pre-school teacher and we often talk about her students. The other day she was telling me that she felt one of her students might have signs of being gay, and i asked her why; she started telling me that he always plays with barbies and he always wants to play house and dress up. It really startled me when she was saying that because we put such a emphasis at a young age on how children should follow the gender ideas that societs gives us. It starts at a young age that females should act feminine, and wear pink and males should be manly. I remember when I was a young girl a lot of people called me a tom boy because I would play with a baseball and tools, not barbie dolls. I never wore pink, I hated the color pink, all I wanted to do was play sports and not think about barbie dolls or the color pink. I always remember my Aunt trying to tell me to play with barbies and always getting barbies for christmas from her. Now as an adult, I am very in touch with my feminine side. I enjoy dressing up,wearing high heals, painting my nails, and wearing pink. So I don't feel that we should put such a big emphasis on toys because I played with masculine toys and I am a very feminine female.