The Problem Surrounding the Marketing of Children's Products

I wanted to take this week to respond to some comments I've seen throughout my blog posts, so it doesn't seem as if I'm ignoring you guys. Several of you are wondering why gender stereotyping in toys and clothes is a big problem, so I hope to convince you today that it is. Sure, gender stereotypes aren't as immediately threatening as things like terrorism or racism, but it can be directly threatening in forms of bullying and harassment, as well as ingraining in children (who grow into adults that shape society) gender stereotypes and norms.

Let's start with children. Bullying in schools has recently been addressed as a serious problem, with countless programs like government funded Stop Bullying, Stomp Out Bullying, and the Anti Bullying Campaign, along with countless school-implemented programs starting in Kindergarten in attempts to end bullying before it starts. As a student who attended a school with such a program, our anti-bullying "sessions" typically involved discussion over why these programs aren't preventing bullying as well as we would like.

Anti-bullying education starts (or doesn't) as soon as a child starts socialization; really as soon as they are born. Bullies often pick out those who are different from the rest. By marketing toys as "for boys" and "for girls" we are creating a stereotype, that only boys can play with the toys from the boys' section and only girls can play with those from the girls'. If you don't believe that children and adults adhere so closely to these labels, I challenge you to walk through the toys section of a store for several minutes, and you'll likely overhear some interesting conversations. Just by watching a show I watch every week (called The Return of Superman from KBS), I was able to spot gender stereotyping:

A dad's response to his son saying "I want that one."

You may think this one second interaction is minuscule, harmless. But teaching children what toys they are "allowed" to play with opens the door for bullying; a young boy is playing with a toy another boy's parents just the day before scolded him for expressing interest in, so he feels the need to alienate the boy because of his negative experience. If he's not allowed to play with that toy then neither can any other boy, right? This interaction can easily turn into something far more serious than two boys playing in a classroom. Children aren't the only one's perpetuating the stereotypes, either, adults are often more judgmental than their offspring.

Gender stereotypes don't disappear outside of the classroom. These days it is impossible to be unaware of the gender inequalities in the workplace, mainly with the gender wage gap. Dr Maria do Mar Pereira from the University of Warwick’s Department of Sociology found in her research with Year Eight students that 14 year old boys had acquired the belief that girls should be less intelligent than they are. According to the Human Rights Campaign, only 207 of 636 companies analyzed offer healthcare to Transgender people, simply for identifying with the gender they feel most comfortable with. Even more startling, research from the National Transgender Discrimination Survey shows that 41% of over 6,000 transgender participants (that's 2,644 people) have attempted suicide, with sexual assault as the biggest cause, followed by physical assault, harassment in school, and job loss. Concerning still, only 18 states have laws in place to protect the rights of transgenders, as found by the ACLU. That means that, for example, in any of the remaining 32 states, a transgender person can be fired from their job solely on grounds that they are transgender. Due to this lack of consideration for transgender rights, the National Transgender Discrimination Survey also found that 26% of participants have lost their job due to their identity.

Real people are being threatened on the basis of their identity, threatened by people taught through simple "harmless" actions like labeling toys and clothes by gender. Discrimination based on identity can be lessened through the simple practice of allowing children to explore their interests rather than restricting them to strict gender norms, and we can create a more accepting future for our children. A child is already pressured to make good grades, get involved in the community, and maintain strong relationships, I want my children to grow up without the added pressure of conforming to norms they may not feel fit their needs and interests.

The Horror of Children's Toys

I consider myself to be a fairly family-oriented person; I enjoy spending time with my parents and I am not absolutely turned off at the thought of kids (although not for many, many years). As university students, we don't spend much time shopping for children's toys, so the idea that gender roles and inequality are taught to children from birth not only through their parents, but clothes and toys came as a shock to me. The notion was unreal to me, until I walked through the toy section of Target with it in mind.

There it became glaringly obvious; the big signs denoted which toys are for boys and which are for girls, the abundance of pink packaging in the girls' section contrasting with the overwhelming dark colors in the boys'. It wasn't very hard to observe the discrepancy between the two sections.

Can you tell which Legos are marketed for boys and those for girls?

It is too easy to distinguish between the two sections; within just this one brand, the branding and marketing are entirely different. The girls' packaging is commonly pink with the occasional lilac thrown in the mix, while the boys' packaging is overwhelmingly blue or green. The entire aisle of Star Wars themed toys is black (logically space themed), but with a severe lack of female action figures and toys. Isn't that concerning considering the lead role in the recent Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a girl?

Some people might say, "So what? Boys don't like pink, anyway." And that's where the problem lies. Children learn through a process called socialization which consists mostly of observing others' behavior and copying until the behavior is internalized. So those hilarious moments when a child yells out a curse word in public and the parent sheepishly says, "I don't know where she heard that from," the child is either copying their parent or someone else they observed recently. These awkward moments portray the imperfect nature of socialization; a child easily imitates observed behaviors, but does not necessarily copy them perfectly, or understand the time-sensitivity of most social interactions. 

This is why toys are such a crucial part of child development: toys give children the opportunity to "try on" different social roles and develop creativity and individuality. Baby dolls and playing house allow children to essentially practice for when (and if) they eventually become parents themselves. Legos foster creativity, pretend food and kitchens allow children to practice cooking without making a mess of the real kitchen. 

The current divisiveness of children's toys, however, disallows children to explore social roles and activities that do not conform to the gender norms, even if the child shows interest. Susan Linn, a psychologist at Harvard Medical school in an interview with The Boston Globe claims, "Rigidly gendered toy marketing tells kids who they should be, how they should behave, and what they should be interested in."

Children learn from a young age that boys should be interested in racing cars and battling superheroes against villains and girls should care for children, cook, and play dress up. On top of the push from toy companies, the rigidity is enforced by parents and other adults in society. As seen with Baby Storm, just a simple article about a genderless baby can cause an uproar of resistance from people who are entirely uninvolved in the situation. While I was standing in the toy section of Target, I overheard an alarming amount of adults reprimand a child for showing interest in the "wrong" section of toys. The internalization of rigid gender roles was exemplified by a young girl who ran past the boys' section saying "I can't play with the boys' toys" to her mother trailing behind her.

Not only are these "rules" preventing children from exploring interests and social roles in their time of development and curiosity, they are creating bullying attitudes. When a little girl is caught playing with a toy marketing for boys, it becomes a clear deviance from the social norms children are still in the process of understanding.  At this age, children are aware of common patterns in society, for instance, that the toys with the blue background in the store are made for boys, and in their attempts to emulate the patterns around them, can easily misinterpret or take the norms too far. Author Carrie Goldman explains the thought process of a bully: "[A boy is] just confused or frightened because [he] thinks that girls are only supposed to like dolls and princesses... Schoolchildren may view a boy who likes pink trainers as a threat to what is 'normal'." Children have these rigid gender norms, then go home to parents who unintentionally reinforce their observations.

This is not to say that girls have to race cars and boys must take care of baby dolls, but that children should be given equal opportunity to play with the toys they like. Equal opportunity should not only apply to the workplace, but to play as well.