Kids' Toys and Gender

A friend of mine Did a rant post on his blog and thought I would give my two cents. It is an interesting topic that no one really thinks about. The link to his blog will be added at the end of this post.

Children toys are so fixated on whether the toy should be a girl's toy (dolls, accessorizing, little bake ovens, ext) or a boy's toy (little cars, workbenches, police and fire fighter costumes.) Even the gender neutral toys or what should be gender neutral toys seem to be targeting either gender. For example, Legos and jump ropes are a very gender neutral toy and yet they have it separated by gender. This sometimes get under my (for now) hairy arms.

First example shall be Legos. Legos look like they are a perfect gender neutral toy and they are. Somehow, they still get separated by gender. For example, most of the pastel colors will go to be advertised for Girls unless, that particular pastel color is needed for a part of set made for boys. For they Boys, it is always the action, superhero, vehicle model ( which consist of most of themes) that get advertised towards them. For once I would like to see something that has a pastel color being advertised to males and vise verse to the girls.

Next is what everyone had mostly used is the jump rope. The toy is not really a toy but a form of exercise but it is marketed as a toy for younger children mostly little girls. Now, why can't they market this to the boys as well?? I could guess that in our society that we want girls to stay thin and since boys have their sports, this is one way to achieve that goal. I know that at lest in the elementary school I went to as a child, we jump roped almost everyday during PE but when recess came around I couldn't go jump rope with the girls cause it wasn't a boy thing to do. The boys were directed to more of the kick ball, soccer, and other sport related games. Everywhere I look I mostly see either a women or a little girl enjoying their jump rope and when I see a picture of a man (no little boys jump roping) they have a look to of intense concentration on their face as though they are counting how many jumps they are doing.

this is just what I think about it and my experience these toys. I do no research what so ever to back up what I say here.

here is my friends link. Finding Jester