Boys, Girls and Toys- Oh My -

                Generally speaking, the boys side of the toy  is often filled with colors of blues and greens or other cool colors, but not purple, while the girls side of the toy store is filled with pinks and lavenders and oranges, warm colors. Again in terms of colors, the boys side often has strong vivid colors while the girls side has more muted pastels. Over time and as a result of gendering, boys toys have been guns, trucks, building blocks, superheroes, science kits, and action figures with jobs in the military or firefighting or police work while girl's toys have been teddy bears, princess dresses, craft kits, baby dolls, pretty fashionable dolls, or playhouses revolving around domesticity. The girls toy idea promotes domesticity and femininity, often through princesses, possibly teaching girls that if they act the way their toys teach them, their Prince Charming will come and take them away.  The boys toy aisle teaches boys to be active and powerful, a direct contrast to what the girls toys tells them. These gendered toys limit the child's beliefs into what he/she can do in the future. These gendered toys tell girls that it's not right for them to be a firefighter and it's not right for boys to be a stay at home dad.  Good thing is that children are picking up on the fact that they're being socialized to buy certain toys. A little girl named Riley went viral a few years ago after talking about how it's unfair that girls have to buy princess stuff while boys get to buy superheroes.  She makes it a point that boys and girls can want princess and superhero stuff, that toys shouldn't be assigned to one group. 

This ad from Walmart shows boys playing with toys that promote masculinity and violence (shield and axe and Nerf gun), as a rockstar, and with toys that promote building and critical thinking. It shows girls playing with dolls, cooking and being domestic, and doing domestic tasks dressed up like a fairy.

 

Here is a gendered crayon set. Not only are the colors of the boxes themselves gendered, but the names of the crayons and the colors of the crayons are gendered as well. The boys "Truck  Crayon Set" is blue with more vivid and dark crayons, with a lot of crayons in variations of blue. The girls "Princess Crayon Set" is pink with more pastel crayons, with a lot of the crayons being variations of pink.

Here are some gendered blocks, because obviously boys can't play with pink blocks and girls can't play with blue blocks (sarcasm if you couldn't tell).

 

Here is an ad that is pretty good at neutralizing gender norms,  having both boys and girls take part in domestic acts. But, upon further inspection you can see that girls get the pink vacuum while boys get the blue vacuum. The iron and ironing board seem to be relatively neutral.

 This whole video provides a multitude of gendered toy ads over the years. Boys ads often have violent undertones, loud music, and darker colors. Boys toys revolve around, building (0:30, Trio Batcave), violence (2:48, Battlegrounds), or critical thinking (2:32, Battleship). Girls ads are often brighter, happier, and have an overall more positive tone. Girls toys revolve around fashion (3:46, Liv Girls), beauty (3:18, Barbie Glitter Blow dryer), domesticity (5:16, Girl Gourmet Cake Bakery), and motherhood (4:17, Baby Alive).