Barbie for boys? The gendered tyranny of the toy store
- By Loretta Boronat
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- 13 Oct, 2015
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A lot of campaigns like ‘No Gender December’ (a campaign that encourages people, especially parents, to consider what kinds of toys they ought to buy in the lead-up to Christmas) and ‘Let Toys Be Toys’ strongly suggest that the gender stereotyping of toys restrict the creativity and development of children. Many parents disagree with this, however, and even Prime Minister Tony Abbott dismisses it as “political correctness” as he argued to just “let boys be boys, let girls be girls.” But both campaigns and several researchers rally that separating toys for girls and boys contributes to gender inequality by marking off certain pursuits, careers, and tasks as unsuitable for one gender or the other. A study once measured young children’s reactions to dolls and found that boys only begin to reject dolls around the age at which they can be taught that dolls are intended only for girls. Fortunately, companies like Top Toy (the franchise holder for Toys R Us in Sweden) are already showing progress in their attempt to counter the effects of gender segregation in toy stores and move towards gender equality. Click here
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