Walk into a toy store, and you are likely to see toys specifically designed and marketed for boys or girls — without very much overlap. With pink and blue color coding, and princess and action-hero designs, manufacturers seem to be using more and more gender messaging to sell their toys.
Should toys be more gender-neutral?
Room for Debate asked the question, “Why Should Toys Come in Pink and Blue?”
Elizabeth Sweet, a postdoctoral scholar and lecturer in sociology at the University of California, Davis, argues that toy marketing reinforces gender stereotypes:
In my research on historic toy advertisements, I found no period during the 20th century when the gender based marketing of toys was anything near what we see today. In the 1975 Sears catalog, for example, toys came in many hues, and science kits and kitchen sets showed boys and girls working together.
But with the growth of the consumer economy, toy companies worked to stimulate demand by honing their appeal to kids. Gender categorization provided a handy tool for toy companies to define target markets, and gender stereotypes drew the interest of young children forming their own sense of identity.
There was also a shift in cultural understandings of gender: Belief that men and women are fundamentally different, and stereotypes about women, grew in the 1980s and 1990s despite broad support for gender equality.
Today, the pink-washed versions of toys that had been marketed solely to boys for decades are promoted as a shift toward gender neutrality. But while these toys may broaden the offerings within segregated toy aisles, they do nothing to challenge the underlying fact that the aisles are still segregated. And rather than busting stereotypes, such toys reinforce the idea that gender is the primary determinant of interests and skills.
On the other hand, Jim Silver, the chief executive and editor of TTPM, a website publishing reviews for toys, writes that toy makers are listening to parents and children:
Since I’ve been working in the toy business for more than 25 years, I am often asked, “What should I buy my daughter or son?” My usual response is something like, “Does your daughter like Hot Wheels? Or does your son like activity or cooking toys?” The days of applying a gender to a toy are declining.
Toy manufacturers have noticed this trend and are making changes on some of their traditional “boys or girls” toys that they feel will make them attractive to the opposite gender. For example, after some controversy, the Easy-Bake Oven introduced a black and silver version — although I would like to debate with whoever declared the purple oven a “girl” color. Lego introduced its Lego Friends line to attract more girls, to resounding success. Initially, the line was criticized for trying to appeal to girls by using pink and purple — a color palette associated with a “girls” toy. Was it successful by using these colors? Yes. But there’s more to it — the line succeeded because Lego Friends incorporated interests that girls found attractive, such as a horse stables set.
Students: Read the entire Room for Debate feature, then tell us …
— Should toys be more gender-neutral? Would more gender-neutral toys help boys and girls discover their own unique interests, rather than be boxed into gender-specific expectations? Or, does the growing number of toys marketed specifically for boys or girls simply provide families with more choices? Why?
— Do gender-directed marketing efforts actually diversify the types of toys boys and girls play with? For example, do they get girls to play more with archery sets and construction kits that they might otherwise not like?
— Or, does color coding toys pink and blue based on gender stereotypes reinforce gender biases? Do gender-specific toys perpetuate the notion that interests and skills are inherently gender based — that boys and girls naturally like different things?
— Do you think parents and children appreciate gender messaging in toys? Does pink and blue color coding in toys make toys more appealing for boys and girls? Or, does it turn off some families and children?
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