I haven't been inside of a Toys R Us since I was about twelve years old. After taking sociology classes and discussing how advertisers market toys for young girls and boys I knew that girls buy girl toys and boys buy boy toys. Boy and girl toys usually don't mix. The manufacturers think of every way to do this including making girl toys pink and making them about girl things like taking care of the baby, playing house, and baking. The same is done for boys.
The weird thing was that I remember the toy store being the exact same when I was a kid. I never thought about why I played with different toys than girls and why didn't they want to play with my toys. I assumed that children's environments have conditioned to choose the toys they do. Men are known to fight and do the hard labor and women are known for being bakers, caretakers, the ones who clean the house. This mentality is instilled in these children because of the toys that are marketed to them. I was thinking about this from second I walked into Toys R Us. Every toy brand has similar themes and visual elements like military, guns, and men with big muscles. In the show and tell reflection I wrote about Shana's toys that were all city workers or non-malicious action heroes, but they all looked the same as the others. In fact, I saw her toys there and they were right next to action heroes with big gun and tank accessories. It seems like all the toys are made by one big manufacturer because for the most part they all have a similar aesthetic quality.
Now they have every race of barbie dolls, but they still all resemble a western woman. Are these big toy manufacturers every going to change the shape of Barbie or G.I. Joe? Shouldn't we let children decide what they want to be and look like and not condition them to think that they should look like skinny blonde barbies. Where is tom-boy Barbie? When will they start making overweight dolls and toys? I'm not saying that they should or shouldn't or that this would change how children choose their toys, but with our every changing image of America and its people we need to start making are toys more contemporary. By this I mean lets give more options to children. Going to Toy's R Us was like going to the grocery store. They have hundreds of options but for the most part all of the product are only made by 5-6 brands. We see different colors that look like variety but everything is pretty much the same.
Now they have every race of barbie dolls, but they still all resemble a western woman. Are these big toy manufacturers every going to change the shape of Barbie or G.I. Joe? Shouldn't we let children decide what they want to be and look like and not condition them to think that they should look like skinny blonde barbies. Where is tom-boy Barbie? When will they start making overweight dolls and toys? I'm not saying that they should or shouldn't or that this would change how children choose their toys, but with our every changing image of America and its people we need to start making are toys more contemporary. By this I mean lets give more options to children. Going to Toy's R Us was like going to the grocery store. They have hundreds of options but for the most part all of the product are only made by 5-6 brands. We see different colors that look like variety but everything is pretty much the same.
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