How Gender Stereotypes Impact Children at Playtime
When girls play dress-up and with their dolls, we tend not to think much of it. The same holds true for when boys play with action figures and imitate scenes from their favorite shows and movies. Children enjoy playing with their toys and games with their siblings and friends, as it is a way for them to unwind and have fun. However, the way the dolls and action figures get presented to children can send them messages on the ways they are supposed to act and dress. They feel so attached to the depiction of the toy, they feel the need to become something they are not. Children who go that route start to experience the traditional views of gender, and they incorporate them into their lives, for themselves and others. The premise of playtime is innocent for the way children have fun with their peers, but guilty for the stereotypical attitudes and mannerisms they pick up.
The Presentation of Dolls and Action Figures
Looking closely at the dolls and action figures, we can see that most of them have the traditional stereotypes of women and men to how the manufacturers set them up to be. Hope Boyd and Sarah Muren examined popular dolls and action figures and looked to see which ones were portrayed with gendered body proportions, and the extent to which these gendered ideals were associated with heterosexual “success.” They found that in the 72 dolls and 71 action figures they looked at, 62 percent of dolls had a noticeably thin body, and 42.3 percent of action figures were noticeably muscular. Furthermore, thin dolls were portrayed with more sex object features than less thin dolls, including revealing, tight clothing and high-heeled shoes, and sexually-appealing facial expressions. Muscular male action figures were more likely than less muscular ones to be shown with hands in fists and with an angry, emotional expression, suggesting male dominance (Boyd and Murnen, 2017).
Dolls and action figures marketed to children that have sexualized and muscular features tend to feature characters that children have admirable feelings about, which can lead to concerns about body image since they want to have the same appearance as them. For example, if Barbie dolls came to life, they would have a 30-inch bust and 21-inch waist, compared to Monster High dolls with a 16.5-inch bust and 12-inch waist. Meanwhile, 1990s G.I. Joe action figures featured biceps unprecedented to those of traditional bodybuilders. A 2006 study looked at the differences of G.I. Joe, Batman, Superman, Hulk and Spiderman figures from the 1980s compared to the present. The researchers found that only the waist size remained the same, with the neck, chest, arms, forearms, waists, thighs and calves all becoming significantly more muscular (Boyd and Murnen, 2017).
Giving children over-sexualized dolls and over-musculated action figures will send them the wrong messages about the ideals that go into the characteristics behind how they should dress and act. As they play, girls develop sexual mannerisms regarding how they should dress and act. Meanwhile, boys want to look tough and muscular as possible, and be the most dominant person among their peers. The more often children expose themselves to their stereotypical-portrayed toys, they begin to learn that conforming to the ideals are associated with hetereosexual “success,” where they think of how positive their life is headed thanks to the distorted perceptions. The thin ideal in girls is likely to get associated with being a successful sex object, and the muscular ideal in boys is a sexual actor role (Boyd and Murnen, 2017). In a way, girls and boys develop those characteristics to do everything they can to try to win over the opposite gender, and pursue a potential intimate relationship. Often, friend groups eliminate kids who do not meet up with the stereotypical standards, such as not having the prettiest dress, or not being properly able-bodied. Nothing good comes out when kids get rejected, because it takes a major hit on their self-esteem regarding their appearance and who they are as a human being. Children should not feel the need to become over-sexualized or over-muscular in order to be successful and popular. Instead, girls and boys need to not let the stereotypical notions of the dolls and action figures impact the way they think, and not distort their perceptions of their peers and adults. The companies and processors of dolls and action figures need to realize the harm that takes place as a result of the gender stereotypes they put into them, and think of approaches that would make the toys more ideal to the ways women and men actually appear and aspire to become.
Long-term Impacts from Gendered Playtime
As children play with dolls and action figures, as well as engaging in pretend play, they pick up on stereotypical characteristics that relate to many of the traditional views about gender. For example, girls who participated in a pretend-play study with Disney princesses found that beauty, clothing and body movements were among the important themes to how girls interpreted gender stereotypes into their playtime. Those girls made exclamations about how pretty they looked; they implored others to admire their beauty; and they appraised their appearances and compared themselves to women who are pretty. Moreover, girls modeled their feminine behavior through the clothing and accessories (i.e., dresses, necklaces), as well as their body movements, such as twirling, ballroom dancing and hand posing, where they use to capture the attention of others, especially boys (Golden and Wallace Jacoby, 2017). Meanwhile for boys, their pretend play involves more around pretending to be superheroes, and playing with toy weapons. Research has found that boys who play with toy weapons tend to be more physically aggressive. Additionally, children who get exposed to violence on television experience more aggression in the short and long term (Coyne, Linder, Rasussen, Nelson and Collier, 2014). Children get their heads wrapped around their respective play habits, that they begin to incorporate them into their lives, and view certain aspects in ways they should not, such as girls bragging about beauty, and boys threatening others with weapons. Kids need to be careful about developing those characteristics because they are more likely to get looked on less favorably by their peers since boasting and threatening will cause them to get seen as more unnecessarily dominant when they do not have to be. To prevent children from going too far with the stereotypes and hurting the hearts of their friends, they should get told by their parents as early as possible that it is fine to dress up like princesses and play with swords, but if they step out of line, then they are likely to lose privileges. Along those lines, parents should also mention the traditional stereotypes to children, and let them know that they should try their best to not make themselves fall into that category, and view others in the same way. Playtime for children has more dynamics with gender than we realize, so we must understand those issues and prevent children from picking on those stereotypes as they are developing internally and externally.
There’s No Such Thing as Gendered Toys
Can a boy play with Barbie dolls? Absolutely. Can a girl play with action figures and dress up as Superman or Batman? Yes, she can. Although advertisements for toys associated with a particular gender will show that gender playing with them, it is completely normal for girls and boys to step out of their comfort zones if they want to play with toys targeted at the opposite gender. With that in mind, toy and department stores should try not to have separate sections for girls and boys, since there is always the possibility that a girl would want a Hot Wheels set, and a boy would want a Barbie ultimate kitchen. Some parents and media critics would find setups like that gender-discriminating, and even kids, such as a little girl named Riley, have found that those stores don’t do a good-enough job with their marketing tactics. In the following video, Riley has a rant about how marketers should be aware about the interests that girls and boys have, and that separate sections in stores are not acceptable.
Often, children are nervous about acquiring toys of the opposite gender because of the ways they might get viewed by their peers. As Perri Klass discusses, “The images children see can reinforce stereotypes and limit their horizons, but they can also open up possibilities and lead kids to believe that they have more choices. Children are actively seeking clues about what their gender identities mean; toys and play should give them space, not narrow their choices.” (Klass, 2018) As children understand who they are as a human being and what their interests are, they should not let anyone get in the way and limit their potential of what they might want to be when they are older. Kids should understand early on that any stereotypes and misinterpretations that get presented in programming and advertisements directed toward them should not cause them to believe that they cannot fulfill their wishes. Gender is not a defining characteristic of one’s identity, and girls and boys are allowed to play with toys and have aspirations that are more common of the other gender, as well as play and become friends with kids of the other gender.
To make more awareness of how that children’s toys should not get stereotyped, the BBC did an experiment where a girl was dressed as a boy and the experimenters gave her boy toys, and a boy was dressed as a girl and they provided him with girl toys. Parent volunteers went to go play with the children, and they had no idea that the girl was a boy or the boy was the girl. The adults were shocked to learn the background behind the experiment, and it changed their perspectives about how they should not place stereotypes on the toys with which kids play.
What any adult can learn from this experiment, is that when children’s minds are developing and they start building interests with the toys they play with, they should not interfere if those toys are marketed more at children of the opposite gender. Parents should understand the way children see gender, and not take the traditional route with stereotyping. Every child has a different mindset, and the ways they view gender might be more traditional, or they could see gender as a paradox, where you can do anything you want and no one will point fingers. There are so many toys on the market that children can enjoy, with there being no need to have separate sections for gender since girls and boys break the gender barrier with toys all the time. Parents should show their children that they should not go by the stereotypes that the media present since there are other children who go against the messages and want to live in the style they so choose. Gender stereotypes in the presentation of toys, as well as the way they get marketed, play a vital role in how children perceive them. They should not let the traditional stereotypes impact their ways of thinking and the toys they want to play with, since there are no barriers to those aspects of their lives. Living against the gender barriers would help children construct better self-images of themselves, and realize how significant they are to our world.
Sources Used:
Boyd, H., & Murnen, S. K. (2017). Thin and Sexy vs. Muscular and Dominant: Prevalence of Gendered Body Ideals in Popular Dolls and Action Figures. Retrieved October 29, 2019, from https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S1740144516302078?token=324F0EF410D812ACCA55978F14ABF347AB8CAD5A79EB825A0A40A09A3D5246333A16699B00C43CBCFD959C8F1F774332.
CNN. (2011, December 26). Girl's Rant Targets Gender Roles, Boys. Retrieved November 5, 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srnaXW9ZgZc.
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Coyne, S. M., Linder, J. R., Rasmussen, E. E., Nelson, D. A. & Collier, K. M. (2014, May 8). It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's a Gender Stereotype!: Longitudinal Associations Between Superhero Viewing and Gender Stereotyped Play. Retrieved October 29, 2019, from https://search.proquest.com/docview/1531890817?pq-origsite=summon.
Golden, J. C., & Wallace Jacoby, J. (2017, April 22). Playing Princess: Preschool Girls’ Interpretations of Gender Stereotypes in Disney Princess Media. Retrieved October 29, 2019, from https://search.proquest.com/docview/2085458276?pq-origsite=summon.
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