Toy Evaluation

1. I did my research on toys at Target. What I discovered was that mostly all gender-neutral toys have to do with educational toys and toys for children whose mindset does not see that’s a girl or boy toy. All the gender-neutral toys were colorful, but mostly used green, blue, yellow, and red colors, thus making targeting boys and girls. What I found in the masculine toy section was that mostly all the toys were blue, black, or dark colors. Lots of toys promoted violence like the Nerf guns and Power Ranger toys with their swords and killing the bad guys.

They also promoted sports balls and cars only in the boy section when girls can play with these as well. What I found interesting is that they had Jake and the Neverland Pirates toys and in that show they have a girl pirate, but her toy was nowhere to be found. They had dress up things for boys, but they only involved mostly hand accessories, like The Hulk hands and Wreck it Ralph hands, which are used to hit people. Lego toys were mostly all cars, airplanes, and superheroes they did not involve any kind of home making.

Another thing the boy section had was a “boy dollhouse”, which was a joker jail for batman to lock up the joker. I like how they make is seems as if it is not a dollhouse. Now the feminine toy section was so bright and pink, no other colors were really used, but pink. Mostly all the toys in this section promoted home making due to the fact that all the baby dolls had accessories such as strollers, swing, carriers, high chair, play pen, bottles, play food. The play food was even in a pink box. Dress up clothes involved full outfits only dresses, crowns, jewelry, high heels, and hairpieces.

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The Lego toys all involved pink colors and houses with moms, babies, and dad’s hardly any other variation of play. I also found the Bratz dolls to be very interesting and very grown up for little girls. The Bratz dolls were wearing very sexy clothing like very short skirts, shirts, high heels, and make-up. They are very sexy and glamorous almost trying to have girls grow up fast. I feel as if these dolls should be in a more grown up section for girls. 2. The toys that promoted violence were only in the masculine/boy section at Target.

I would say about 90% of the toys that promoted violence had to do with a movie or T. V. show. The movies would be The Hulk, Spiderman, Wreck it Ralph, Iron Man, and Batman. The shows that promoted violence were Power Rangers, Ninjago, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The other 10% would be Nerf guns or just guns in general that boys can play with to shoot each other. I find this very disturbing given the fact that there have been so many shootings in school and it has been found that boys tend to shoot up schools more than a girl would, thus you would think they would try to pull them from the toy section.

Also, I know a lot of this has to do with money and that is why they do not pull it from the shelves because boys want to be superheroes and do everything they see on TV. I also do not understand why they do not promote these kinds of toys to girls because girls enjoy these things as well. 3. The feminine toys that promote pro-social behavior would be the baby dolls and the accessories that come with the toy. These dolls promote girls to act as mothers and take care of the baby doll as a mother would take care of their children.

This shows girls how to be caretakers. The dress up clothes also promotes pro-social behavior by showing them that girls need to be dressed pretty and look and act like princess, thus girls are prompted to always look there best. In the masculine toy section the sports balls promote pro social behavior by telling boys that they have to know how to play sports and be active. The guns promote violence, showing boys that they have to be tough and protect themselves. I feel as if pro social behavior is used toward feminine toys more than boy toys. 4.

At target what I encountered was that all the gender-neutral toys were mixed in with the infant and toddler toys. The gender-neutral section was followed by the very bright and pink feminine toy section, which is filled with rows of dolls, princesses, girly animals, dress up clothes, and kitchen supplies. After the feminine toy section the masculine toy section followed which were displayed in three rows of blue and dark colors filled with action figures. After the boy toy section was done it lead right to the Lego’s, Bikes, and sports section.

I find this interesting because the sections that follow the boy section are still considered masculine products. 5. I feel as if the toy sections do not promote a variety of cultures and ethnicities. The girl section promotes Hipic and African Americans because they have Dora dolls, and African American dolls. The boy section is mostly action figures and I do not think that boys relate action figures to their culture or ethnicity at a young age. These toy sections promote gender more than cultures and ethnicities.

The toy sections do promote stereotypes because mostly all the girl section is pink and home making things, indicating that girls should like the color pink and should learn at a young age how to be a homemaker/mother. The stereotype for boys is very bad because they promote violence with the action figures and guns. They do not promote any type of responsibility for boys like they do for girls with the home making toy items. Since, the toy sections are gender identified, they should promote responsibilities for boys such as cutting the grass, building things, working on cars.

These are all stereotypes, but at least they can learn responsibility and it is like the home making things that are promoted to the girls. 6. Mostly all the toys I observed were for ages 5-7 years of age. I do not agree with this age limit when it comes to the Nerf guns and swords. I feel that children should not be able to play with guns at such a young age when there brain has not fully developed because they do not fully understand what a gun can do and how they can harm themselves and others.

I think guns should come with warning labels and parents should teach their kids about them when they can fully understand what they can do. Another toy I did not agree with was the Bratz doll. They were for ages 5-7 and I feel they put that age because at 5 years of age you know not to put things in your mouth rather than putting an age on it for girls that are developed enough to know that the dolls are make believe and you should not want to be or dress like them. These dolls are very sexy, wear lots of make-up, and seem like they are rebellious.

I feel these dolls are for older girls because their brains are more developed and they would know what is right for them and not want to be a follower, thus these dolls should either be changed or given a warning label for parents because they are very sexy to me. 7. What I learned about children’s toys in doing this assignment is that the ages on some of these toys should be changed due to brain development not if a child can choke or play correctly with the toy. As a mother I would not let my daughter buy certain toys and I will not allow my son to play with guns.

I tend to buy gender-neutral toys so that way once my son is born he can play with his sister. Another thing I learned is that there is not much at Target involving gender-neutral toys, maybe I should start a gender-neutral toy line and see how that goes. All in all I feel toy lines are in it for the money they want to get children’s attention and take into consideration what a parent will buy their child, so in order to change this people in a society need to change in order for toy line makers to change as well.

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