CS rep

Debay

Girls	Boys	Gender Neutral
· Barbies: - Pink dresses with cook material, “you can be any thins”, >= 3 years · Barbies: - 2 doll set, cook, with burger cooking materials and coffee cup · Barbie: - Factionalist; shows diversified girls; light purple with dark leap stamp on their dresses · Barbies builder, Barbies tennis coach, Barbie scooter, Barbie musician, Barbie Doctor with similar outfit colors with the above one · EnchanTimals: Denessa Deer & Sprint; Fluffy Bunny & Mop”; “caring is our everything”; a group of lovable girls who share special bond with their animals; Pink & purple and green colored · Water babies, Feels the real baby with warm water, Bath time fun. Pink color, blue color · Puppy surprise, “Mommy is having Puppies”, “New mommy”, the dole’s color is white and the cover/package is all pink · Shuggle dolls, in different colors mostly · Pony movies, Littlest pet shops, with pink and purple color	· Barbie Boy: - (water paly), athletic body, green with pink flower swimming pant; Blue colored package, for >= 3 years old · Truck Toys, Air pump crane truck (Red Cover) · Spider sight mask (Red), with red and blue cover · Armored whit ranger toy, white closing light blue background and red with black colored cover · Toy Vehicles and track set, with blue and white colored cover, red texts · Build it yourself, Race car, Junior kit, colors are Red, blue, black green, 5+ years ·	· Small different Animal Dolls, with different colors · Puzzles, Floor Puzzle, Alphabet Express, mixed color, but has no pink color · Art supplies, stamper makers, with yellow, green and red, blue colored covers · Balls and blocks, with different shapes and colors, has no pink color · Pianos
· Clothing’s

Toys

Girls	Boys	Gender Neutral
· T-shirts and jackets, with pink, rainbow strip black and white colors, One brand T-shirt has “Unicorn Power” · Toddler blankets and all other toddler clothing have pink in one way or another · Pink dresses with different styles	· Different pants, T-shirts and underwear and socks with different colors other that pink · T-shirt with blue slate color, with “Happy little & LOVED” text · T-Shirt -white salt color, “Mommy loves me to the moon and back” · Black T-shirt, “The snuggle is real” (this section is baby basics, has silent color”	· T-Shirt – “RAD like DAD – white color new baby fit · “My Dad’s not a regular Dad” T-shit · T-shirt, “the struggle is real” dark colored · Bottoms, with a bunch of animal’s picture printed on it · T-shirt, “Baby Bear”, white · T-shirt, “so fresh” white

Part II: Analysis

I went to Bellevue Fred Mayer store, for the first few minutes I was confused how to take notes of what I was seeing because the toys and clothing in each section where too many and it would not be easy to critically see all the toys and clothing. I then decided to look in to the section in the way gives me comprehensive insight. The recurring incidents in my understanding were gender communication, gender representation – symbols and communicating language, clothes and actions to the children.

The specific gendered message is that girls are pink, and boys are blue. The design, color, pictures and texts of the toys and clothes, I think, intended to tell the children what is means to be a man and a woman. For example, Toys aimed for boys promote very physical actions, they focus on skills such as competition, racing, invention, exploring, and problem solving. They teach boys warrior like roles, From birth boys with blue blanket. Boys toys and clothing are with intense colors like blue and red, lighting bolt like decals, adventurer bicycles, teen troll and action figures. Whereas, toys and clothes designed for girls are generally associated with nurturing. Has big focus on beauty and physical appearance. The colors with girl’s toys and clothing are pastes colors, pink and lavender. The message here is boys are stronger and crazy, they do much more active staff, so they are not allowed to cloth girls dresses and do girls job. On the other hand, girls have long hair, don’t like mind craft, building cars. They like barbie’s dolls better. So here the message is girls and boys should have gender specific roles and appearances that are acceptable by the society. The result will be realized when they become adult as explained by Ferris & Stein (2016), “Boys tend to gain prestige through athletic ability, a well-developed sense of humor, or taking risks or defying norms. Girls tend to gain prestige through social positions and physical attractiveness.” (Ferris & Stein 2016) The young children’s have been told what they should do not would do and what they can do not they can be. This might limit the children’s ability to do what they aspire or interested with. I think this is because of gender stereotyping. If we dress up a three years child, pink and red at the different times and ask somebody about their gender, the person obviously would say she is girl when she dress up pink and boy when she dress up blue. So, color is a major gender socialization stereotyping element.

Toys and clothing send different cultural messages to boys and girls. As discussed in the previous paragraph the messages like what girls should like and do is too different from what boys should like. This symbolic message encoded in the children’s mind would have a limiting effect from doing the so-called boys job which is represented by through the toys and clothing. When they grew up they would understand what it is, but at the time it is too late to start from nothing and to make up their mind. By observing material culture of children, we can learn what American culture is and what American culture requires the society need to be. According to Ferris & Stein (2016), “gender role socialization… is accomplished primarily by the four major agents of socialization: families, schools, peers, and the media.” (Ferris & Stein 2016). So, children start connection with the material culture early in their infancy by their families. Their families let their children have those materials then the children continue learning the symbols then the process continues as culture of the nation.

W.C. 610

Reference

Ferris, K. & Stein, J. (2016). The real world: an introduction to sociology (5th ed.) New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.