Gender Stereotyping in Children’s Toys Today, toy stores divide the many toys, games, and movies into two primary categories: boy and girl. Toys teach children at such a young age what their roles are in society and that they cannot stray from these roles. Through their gender-biased toys, boys learn to be tough, “warrior like” leaders and girls learn to be nurturers. Girls’ toys stress physical beauty and appearance while boys’ toys focus on respect for their physical abilities (Campenni 122). Gender socialization through toys, teaches and reinforces stereotypical gender roles.
Bussey came to this conclusion when he found that children imitate same sex models but do not imitate same sex models that are gender inappropriate. Gender roles are also affected by social influences like parents. Parents sometimes have strong opinions on the divides between genders which results in different reinforcements for different behaviours. For example, a mother may react negatively to their daughter playing with masculine toys but positively to their son playing with the same toys. Parental influence has strengths, for example there is a wealth of scientific evidence supporting it.
Do toys teach children stereotypical gender roles? Toys are divided into two main groups: boy and girl. After observing ToysRus, most can determine which toys boys and which toys girls play with, portray stereotypes of gender roles. Through gender-inclined toys, girls acquire nurturing skills and boys acquire soldier-like skills. Boys’ toys concentrate on their physical abilities and attributes, while girls’ toys emphasis physical attractiveness and presence.
Outline and evaluate Gender Schema Theory Gender schema theory suggests that children learn gender stereotypes by actively structuring their own experiences rather than by observing and then imitating role models as social learning theory might suggest. Unlike Kohlberg’s theory, gender schema theory suggests that gender labelling or gender identity is sufficient for children to begin actively seeking information about their gender including how they should behave and how they should look. These schemas, that are clustered information on a particular subject, come from many sources such as parents, peers and in the media where gender stereotypes are abundant. Furthermore, children will only pay attention to schemas that are relevant to their own gender and therefore are similar to themselves. For example, girls will pay attention to how other females act and boys will pay attention to how other males act.
Increasingly, we are told that the source of these robust preferences must lie outside society—in prenatal hormonal influences, brain chemistry, genes—and that feminism has reached its natural limits. What else could possibly explain the love of preschool girls for party dresses or the desire of toddler boys own more guns than Mark from Michigan? True, recent studies claim to show small cognitive differences between the sexes: He gets around by orienting himself in space; she does it by remembering landmarks. Time will tell if any deserve the hoopla with which each is invariably greeted, over the protests of the researchers themselves. But even if the results hold up (and the history of such research is not encouraging), we don’t need studies of sex differentiated brain activity in reading, say, to understand why boys and girls still seem so unalike.
The two important ways that we learn gender role behaviours is through operant conditioning and modelling. Children may be punished for gender inappropriate behaviours in order to shape their attitudes, for example, a boy being teased for playing with dolls. This behaviour would be negatively reinforced as a society may believe it doesn’t run accordingly to their gender role. Positive reinforcement would be given in forms of rewards such as praise to encourage children to exhibit gender appropriate behaviors, for example, a girl being praised for baking and wearing dresses. Modelling, also known as social learning is where a child engages in gender role behaviour through observation of same-sex models, internalizing and imitating their behaviours and attitudes.
For example, boys are more likely to choose design technology and girls are more likely to choose food technology. • Peer pressure – both girls and boys are influenced by their peers. For example, boys are unlikely to do ‘art subjects’ such as Drama and Dance because some sociologists say they threaten masculine identity. • Future career – students may be influenced by future career plans. For example, subjects like ‘Health and Social Care’ and ‘Child Development’ are mainly taken by girls because they want to work in social care.
Some may not understand why they do it while others do it habitually because it is what they’ve seen as far as the traditional roles and how they are supposed to dress. Once strangers know the sex of an infant, studies have shown that their attitudes, expectations, and interactions differ upon the sex. Sex stereotyping is not just upon adults, but it is also seen in children from preschool to kindergarten. Another factor that influences sex stereotypes is the media. The media portrays stereotypical advertising through commercials.
It is said that individuals who have these traits may have parents with the same traits. But not all individuals who turn to crime are from broken home homes, some are from homes with supportive parents. Parenting affects a child’s temperament and is inter-related in important ways to include harsh physical discipline, parental supervision, and antisocial attitudes. Parenting plays an important role in the development of antisocial behavior. At an early age boys tend to be more aggressive than girls, due to the ability to socialize being easier for girls than for boys thereby, creating gender difference in antisocial behavior.
Stereotypes In the essay “Why Boys Don’t Play with Dolls” by Katha Politt, she discuss if parents should let their kids play with anything they want weather it is a doll even though if their kid is a boy. When I was little, I had a lot of dolls that I played with. My younger brother would play with me all the time with me. He would also wear my purple shirt all the time, but it didn’t bother him he turned out fine. Parents should let their children play with anything they want to.