Gender and Race in the Toy Section

I'm taking two classes this summer, and one of those classes is Diversity in America. We take on a lot of controversial topics in that class, but the main focus is to educate. We recently had to do a fieldwork assignment involving the toy section in a super-store. I chose to go to Target. Here were my findings:

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.