What toys make of little boys

What toys make of little boys
Pat Caplan

In the modern world today, when we talk about toys, it would still be a common thing that people will  refer certain toys to boys and others to girls. It has been a trend, or rather, a stereotype that has been generated since ages ago. In the past, where the technology were not so advanced, and there were not many variety of toys, we see children coming out and play things like 'Paper Aeroplanes', and ball games together, regardless of gender, there were not many topics of gender stereotyping to talk about in that context. However, with the generation of toys, there is an increasing trend of gender stereotyping of toys, which makes one wonder why such a trend actually occurs.


The author states that the gender stereotype is actually blown out of proportion due to the effects of the media,marketing and advertising strategies. There have been many toys generated in the past ten to twenty years, from simple toys like cars and dolls to fantasy toys like Power Rangers, Transformers. Looking at how the producers actually market and advertise the toys, where we often see males taking up the dominant roles such as car racer, superheros, and girls are often protected, and likes to doll up in several television series and advertisements, I will conclude that it has thus influenced the way on how children actually feel about certain toys. I agree to a large extend that gender stereotype is contributed by media and advertising strategies,  as with the effect of media, the thoughts of a normal children will actually be altered, and it may just feel rather strange if boys go for barbie dolls and girls take up guns. However, I thought that the writer could have mentioned more about why are toys actually marketed in this manner, as I personally feel that there is this nature aspect in every boy and girl where boys will want to go for more aggressive toys and girls will tend to want to look pretty and doll themselves up.  With this aspect, the claim that gender stereotypes has been blown out of proportion due to media would have been more valid.  The author should not just contribute everything to the media without crediting the nature aspect which kicks off the children's choice of toys in the first place. 


The author mentioned that the effect of gender stereotyping of toys actually could have detrimental effects on a child's behaviour. With the high profile development of the fantasy world, where superheros, monsters, robots come into place, where violence and destruction were the only two keywords they knew about themselves in their world, could have influenced the children to think in this way. I agree to the writer that such influence is caused by the great development of the fantasy world, and the intensity of such idea being fed to the society today, it actually gives rise to violence and aggression among boys, since such genre of toys are catered mainly for boys. This is evident from things that are happening in the world recently, where there is an increase of violence in the U.S., where children at the age of 15 can actually carry guns and carry out a major shooting in schools of the U.S., and also in our home ground, we see a sharp rise in the gang violence which had proved to be fatal. The author also mentioned that such behaviour is rather encouraged and there were no programs to actually discourage such behaviour and educate the young on how such things are to be coped with. I would like to refute his claim on this as this is not true, because there has been quite alot of educational programs in the media that actually mentions about the consequences of their actions, shows like "crime watch", and documentary channels actually catered to this kind of education. I would say this kind of education programs are largely overshadowed by the high profile media on the aspects of the other world, and not none at all. So what the society could do now is to actually place emphasis on educational programmes by including the focus on such programmes in school, media. 


In conclusion, the gender stereotyping is actually expanded in the recent years, which is largely contributed by the influence of media and marketing strategies. The impact of such stereotype is also detrimental. The writer actually gives very good points for us to think through but he failed to provide alternatives and solutions to what is happening now. When we talk about education, I believe parents have also a large part to play. A child will take an example from their parents as they have a direct contact, and things would have been different if the father weren't that manly and the mother weren't that feminine. Education starts from young and the direct source of education is actually from the parents, and not the schools. Thus, the writer could have mentioned more about his. Well, there is a benefit of doubt here as the title suggests what toys made of little boys, strictly speaking, there is not a need to suggest solutions, because the writer just wants to talk about the why and impact of the trend, and not how the society could manage such an impact.