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Abstract
Nowadays, the adult world is moving closer and closer to gender equality. Besides the freedom of speech
and expression that LGBT are winning every year, one can sense that the difference between the two genders is
diminishing, according to their position within the society, the working environment, their rights or their purpose.
One living example of the line between men and women becoming thinner and thinner is the fact that American
retailing shops have removed gender-based labeling from several departments, especially from those dedicated to
children1. However, even though departments are becoming unisex, children items, especially toys, are becoming
more and more divided by gender. Therefore, I started wondering if there is any basis on which toys are gender
divided and engaged in conducting a research.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/08/09/target-remove-gender-based-labeling/31375863/
(last accessed 6/09/2015)
2
Gerianne M. Alexander, Melissa Hines Sex differences in response to childrens toys in nonhuman primates. in
the Official Journal of Human Behavior and Evolution Society, November, 2002, available online at
http://www.ehbonline.org/article/S1090-5138(02)00107-1/fulltext (last accessed - 6/09/2015)
their real offspring. The behavior, which was very rarely observed in males, has been witnessed more
than a hundred times over 14 years of study.3
These two findings and, probably, more researches like these, made on nonhuman subjects, prove
that gender divisions in choosing toys are natural, biological, but we shall ask ourselves why. The answer
might be related to the results of a research published in 2002 in Infant Behavior & Development, which
reveals that attention in males is drawn more to mechanical motion, whilst attention in females is drawn
more to biological motion. These findings are discussed in relation to social and biological determinism.4
Thus, a boy will be attracted by a video of moving cars, while a girl will be more attracted by videos of
moving faces.
motion. We can see, thus, through this example and many others, that the gender assignment is made on
purely arbitrary basis.
3. The business-related advantages of arbitrarily appointing toys for boys and girls
As we have found out before, toys are not assigned according to the boy and girl brain needs or
preferences, but, rather, on gender stereotypes. According to Elisabeth Sweet from the University of
California, who has conducted a study on how different gender toys have evolved in time, the present
time is governed by market segmentations: stores are divided in pink and blue departments, dedicated to
girls and boys. If marketers know exactly where each child will go in a store, it is rather simple to control
what toys they will see and, thus, want. An example of Sweets research is the Lego Group brand who,
after two decades of marketing almost exclusively to boys, introduced the new Friends line for girls
after extensive market research convinced the company that boys and girls have distinctive, sexdifferentiated play needs. Critics pointed out that the girls sets are more about beauty, domesticity and
nurturing than building undermining the creative, constructive value that parents and children alike
place in the toys. Nevertheless, Lego has claimed victory, stating that the line has been twice as successful
as the company anticipated.7
But how is it possible, if it has been scientifically proven that, according to the gender, brain
biologically prefers a certain type of motion and, extensively, a certain type of toys, for boys and girls to
want these appointed toys, even if they do not have much to do with the natural determinism? According
to Greg Carpenter, Marketing professor at Northwestern Universitys Kellogg School of Management,
most of our preferences are learned and largely formed by social norms and expectations that producers
have a strong hand in shaping. Moreover, such preferences are anything but fixed, susceptible to changes
in technology, culture, fads and the business strategies of companies competing in the marketplace.8
Therefore, the more divided market segments are, the more easily producers can sell certain items to one
particular segment.
However, even if protected against social gender division by their parents, children are very
aware of the importance placed on the social category of gender, and highly motivated to discover what is
for boys and what is for girls. Socialization isnt just imposed by others; a child actively selfsocializes. Once a child realizes (at about 2 to 3 years of age) on which side of the great gender divide
they belong, the well-known dynamics of norms, in-group preference and out-group prejudice kick-in.9
Therefore, children, once they find out and understand their gender and its characteristics, try to settle and
comply with the position society assigns them.
One might wonder why children are so worried about how they act. According to a 2014 article in
The Guardian, which presents more attempts made by parents and researchers in explaining and
diminishing this gender gap, children understand the intangible parts of their gender before they
understand the concrete parts. They see what is characteristic to each gender, in terms of form, and, in the
surface, reject the other genders features as being inappropriate. Boys are especially stigmatised for
crossing the gender aisle in toys and clothes a fact that seems to arise from a deep misogyny,
homophobia and transphobia: a suspicion of any boy who embraces femininity, which is considered
synonymous with weakness and subordination.10 The gender division among the world of children
makes them understand their identity in a much delimited way and grows their fear of belonging to the
other group, as something unnatural.
Conclusions
We are living in a world where adult gender equality is coming closer and closer to reality every
day. However, the children of today are living in a more sexist world than any other age group and than
children in any age of the history have ever lived11 , especially as, when being a child, curiosity becomes
a predisposition to absorbing everything. The big question is how will these children perceive gender
equality when they will grow up?
The perception modeled by todays gender toy division teaches girls that a very specific type of
beauty and activities are the most important part of being a women, as boys are thought that being violent
represents a fundamental feature of being a man. Moreover, none of the genders would cross each others
boundaries, as they are thought that such a step would make changes occur within their personality.
Therefore, a frugal observation I made during this research is that, while the LGBT and the
feminist groups are making serious progress in the equality in rights and freedom in the adult world, the
world of children is being modeled in a certain scheme of what women and men should be like. It seems
to me that the gender question is going in a circle, a circle driven rather by stereotypes and hate than by
love, acceptance and respect. I cannot help myself asking, without finding a real answer, but only a
pessimistic imaginary picture, how the male and female world will look like in 100 years from now.
Bibliography
1. Usa Today Journal (available online at www.usatoday.com);
2. Gerianne M. Alexander, Melissa Hines Sex differences in response to childrens toys in nonhuman
primates. in the Official Journal of Human Behavior and Evolution Society, November, 2002 (available
online at http://www.ehbonline.org/article/S1090-5138(02)00107-1/fulltext)
3. National Geographic Magazine (available online at news.nationalgeographic.com)
4. Svetlana Lutchmaya, Simon Baron-Cohen, Human sex differences in social and non-social looking
preferences, at 12 months of age, published in Infant Behavior & Development, no. 25, pp. 319-325
(available
online
at
http://www.researchgate.net/publication/222401837_Human_sex_differences_in_social_and_non-
social_looking_preferences_at_12_months_of_age)