Contrary
to popular belief, gender and race are socially constructed. Things like skin
or hair color, or genitalia are only given meaning through culture and the
socialization that happens within it (Munoz). Gender and race are not to be
confused with biological sex and ethnicity. Gender is being defined as, “the behavioral, cultural, or psychological traits
typically associated with one sex” (“Gender”). While race is defined as,
“any one of the groups that human beings can be
divided into based on shared distinctive physical traits” (“Race”). These two
things were my main focus while I spent almost two hours in Target’s toy
section.
Even though
news came out last year saying that Target was removing labels saying “for
girls” or “for boys” on toys, I found that their toy department was still extremely organized by gender (Hains). The left side of the toy
section was filled with dark packaging, with colors including black, gray, red,
green, and blue. These items included brands like Lego, Nerf, and Star Wars. Move
a couple aisles to the right and you are overwhelmed with a wide array of pink
and purple packaging. Items in these aisles included brands like Barbie, Our
Generation, and Disney. However, the right side of the toy section is filled
with many different colors from blue and orange to pink and purple. These
products included more educational brands like V-Tech and Leap Frog.
Before I move
on to specific products and brands, I want to note something that really stuck
out to me about the layout of the aisles. At the bottom of the shelves, a
child’s eye level, were the most expensive items. While higher up, the adult’s
eye level, were the more practical costing items. This is obviously an
intentional move to make it so the child wants the more expensive product,
while the parent is left saying no or offering a lesser-costing item. My mother
confirmed that this frequently happens with my seven-year-old sister when they
go toy shopping.
The thing that
I really took notice of was how unnecessarily gendered these toys and products
are. Even the toddler items were gender- oriented. Boys were pictured on the
building blocks, and girls were pictures with “Princess Mommy” items that
included a doll and diaper bag. Right when they start playing with toys, girls
are taught how to be a mom. While Leap Frog succeeded in included varying
ethnicities in the children displayed on their tablets, they epically failed
when it came to unnecessarily matching the pink/purple tablet to girls and
their blue/green tablet to boys. Why is there only a boy on the blue and green
tablet? Why can’t a girl want to buy that color? V-Tech, Lego, Nerf, and various doll brands
continued with this trend of pink packaging/products with girls pictured or
saying “for girls”, and blue packaging/products with boys pictured. “Boy
products”, depicted by dark packaging or boys pictured using the toy, included
predator animals, trains and cars, construction, and super heroes. “Girl
products”, depicted by bright pink/purple packaging or girls pictured using the
item, included dolls, cooking and cleaning items, dogs/kittens, and princesses.
The second
thing that stuck out to me was the races that these brands pictured on the
front of their products, or the products themselves. Some brands succeeded in
including children from a variety of ethnic backgrounds. A brand of water toys
included Asian, Hispanic, black, and white kids pictured using their product. Disney
has also done a good job of including princesses with various skin colors. Our
Generation, a brand that makes dolls that resemble American Girl dolls,
excelled in including varying races in their dolls. They even offered two
different dark-skinned dolls, where you could choose if you wanted
straightened/relaxed hair or curly/natural hair for the doll. It is worth
noting that the products included with the dolls were definitely directed
towards those of upper/middle class. However there were some brands that
seemingly only included a dark-skinned doll or child to avoid being called
racist or only including white kids. Marvel seems to be guilty of this.
After reading
this you might think that all brands are gendered, but there were some brands
that stood out to me by breaking gender barriers. Melissa & Doug included
pictures of both boys and girls in their firefighter and pirate costumes.
Unfortunately they were both white. Another brand that caught my attention was
B. They didn’t have the stereotypical colors and they were not depicted as boy
or girl items. B. even had their mission statement on the aisle wall. “You can
see that B.’s toys look and feel a little different. That’s because they’re
built to inspire individuality. B. encourages kids to be curious, to be loud,
to be generous, to be fun, to be scientific, to be poetic. In other words, to
be themselves.” I applaud them for standing out against the pink and purple
packaging. The last brand that stood apart from the rest was Care Bears. They
actually had pictures of boys playing with the bears!
One walk
through the toy section will remind you that the fight against race and gender
is far from over. Why are we teaching our girls that the only colors that they
should like are pink and purple, and that the only thing they should be
learning is how to take care of babies, cook, and clean? Why are we teaching
our boys that the only colors that they should like are blue and green, and
that they should only like dinosaurs and trucks? This can have a negative
effect on the boys who like pink and want to play with dolls, or girls who
prefer blue and building things. Whites are largely represented, even though
the number of non-whites is increasing greatly. And when companies want to
include diversity they skip Asians or Hispanics, and jump straight to
African-Americans. There are clearly more steps to made to change our culture’s
ideas of race and gender.
