2 years, 2 months ago-
Toys should be gender neutral, for instance dolls are for both boys and girls. What do you think?
When you remove the label of gender from a toy, kids that is both boys and girls will have the ability and chance to explore Science technology engineering arts as well as mathematics. We live in the 21st century today and I feel the days should stop where we tell boys to play with truck and guns and girls to play with dolls. There are so many reasons why toys should be made gender neutral.
When toys are made gender neutral both boys are girls do not reinforced any kind of gender stereotypes for toys are toys until we actually classify them as boy toys and girl toys as parents. When we give a specific gender to a toy, a kid tends to internalize that girls play with dolls so basically in future this leads to children think that only moms should take care of the children and do kitchen work and not dads. They can play lead role in order to perpetrating gender focused stereotypes. Through toys sometime a kid knows what his interest lie in. So if we put gender tags on toys, a kid may not explore according to his interest but only through what society pigeon them to do so.
Toys for children are a part of learning process. They help nurture in the development of a kid in his or her early ages. Gender neutral toys help children to understand how things actually work and how wondrous some things can actually be. According to some recent statistics it was found that girls after a certain age are usually associated with the physical appearance and nurture skills, whereas, boys are rated more violent, competitive and sometimes dangerous. This is all because of gender based toys since birch. Toys are supposed to be for rebel of the Children’s physical and in an artistic way and yet they bring in such norms.
Boys tomorrow should not be forced upon to pick a car or a ranger since it’s traditionally made for them and a girl child should feel awkward to hate a princess doll. I do not think there is anything wrong with kids having a multiple interest in the toys which are actually not made for them according to the society. By doing this we are actually stopping the growth of a child. A man at the end should have some nurturing qualities too and a woman can be made able to design a car engine and yes both these interest should be surely fostered regardless of which gender they belong to.
It’s high time for gender stereotyping of toys to be stopped. There’s always a distinction when it comes to toys – cars for boys, dolls for girls, etc. There is no specific or logical reason for why toys are gendered.
If you take a look at the toys a girl owns, she will have a collection of dolls, Barbie dolls for example, a kitchen set, makeup set etc. And a boy will own cars, robots, BB guns, etc. Kids at a young age are already assigned toys to play with. A girl who plays with the ‘feminine’ toys gets the ideals that a female should be beautiful, kind and manage a household. The boys are encouraged to play rough, the ideals of fearless and strong ingraining in them. Girls and boys see the toys marketed for the opposite sex as not suitable for them to play with.
A child’s understanding of gender roles begin at a young age. It influences their character and how they develop bonds later on as adults. Toys are a main element of childhood. But often, it is parents who decide what type of toy their child should play with. They select a toy based on the gender of the child and belief that they will enjoy the toy regardless. With the division in toys, it is quite clear that discrimination exists between females and males.
Not only are toys divided based on gender, it is also divided based on colour. The same toy could appear in blue and pink and a parent would pick the blue for a boy or pink for the girl. There is already a notion that some colours are ‘girly’ and boys shouldn’t associate with such colours, and so on.
When lines are drawn too strictly with toys, a child’s world is narrowed. A child is supposed to explore and discover, which helps them to find their interests and a possible career scope. But instead, they’re limited.
Childhood is the time when children learn skills and how to interact. With limitations placed on them based on gender, it reinforces stereotypes and limits their horizons. Experimenting with toys and such would enable them to think about themselves (identity) and discover choices and possibilities.
We can encourage kids to have diversity in their interests and skills, starting with toys. Allowing children to choose which toy they want to play with, regardless of who the toy is marketed to or what colour it is, is a first and minor step. Gender-neutral toys would be more beneficial than harmful. Toys that cater to both genders without discrimination would promote healthy development and mindsets, which would be useful in their adulthood.
It is often forgotten that a child remembers and internalises his first view of the world, from home. No matter how insignificant the action is, the child subconsciously learns it and imitates it. For example, the way a parent treats the co-parent, in case of physical abuse, it is normalized in a child’s mind that that’s how parents treat each other everywhere; and grows up to be the same.
Similarly, when a little boy is told not to like the colour pink, instead to like the colour blue, he internalizes that pink is a feminine colour and the additional expression of disgust that a parent associates with pink things when a boy shows interest in them, makes the child think that pink is feminine, pink is inferior and disgusting, and finally arrives at the conclusion that feminine is disgusting; he grows up to exercise that belief in all fields. So, when toys come into the picture, and each time a boy is forced to not buy Barbie dolls and to go for the bright red cars, he is learning of strict boy-girl binaries and of superior-inferior binaries, which creates stubborn bigotry in them during their later years.
A girl child, when she’s encouraged to play with dolls and cooking sets, is being reinforced into the gender norms where homemaking and taking care of the baby duties go to women, and she starts internalizing that idea from childhood.
This creates a very toxic and backward idea in the children, passing it down from generation to generation. All to grow up thinking that women should be weak and feminine and it’s okay for boys to look down on anything that’s feminine.
Recently, younger generation parents have become more open-minded and woke regarding stereotypes and gender constructs and teach kids that there are no specified colours they should like, no specified toys they should play with, no specific emotions that they should show and that they can grow up to be whatever they want. Except robbers and murderers of course. 🙂
Toys should definitely be gender neutral. Even from the starting of childhood, people unintentionally (or intentionally) assign gender roles by giving them toys according to the gender. For example: Girls usually get Barbies and Boys usually get cars or trucks. As a person who was interested in both, I think that people should ask the child what they want as a toy before deciding what to get. Children are mocked or scolded even by their families for taking an interest to toys which usually doesn’t interest their gender (or so they say) and this in turn affects them and way they act and think. Parents are the first teachers of children, and they should be careful with the way they act around children because it impacts them, a lot. We need to stop attributing colors to gender as well. Colors are gender neutral but many still think to this date that pink = girly color. You need to understand that even the ‘small’ things you do make a great impact on your children. It starts with the little things, so that your child will grow to be a good person based on what you taught them, directly or indirectly.
Creating gender inequality starts from child’s birth itself, assigning pink dresses to a girl child and blue to the boys, thereafter bringing dolls to the girls and trucks to boys. This is what eventually leads to why our society is not able to change in terms of women empowerment or gender equality. Creating differences among children regarding their toys or clothes is directly or indirectly abandoning their senses to learn that everyone is equal. Toys are something used for zeal and fun for the children, they’re allowed to choose what type of fun they want to have, be it having fun by playing with dolls, barbies, trucks or cars. We’re none to decide how a child needs to have fun. Instead making them play with every toy, without restrictions is how we can bring a change in the gender unequal society and what do toys decide? Do they decide the future of your child? No. Girls even after playing with barbies are today serving indian navy by flying planes around the country, boys even after playing with trucks are somewhere doing housework instead of working outside, vice versa. Hence, creating discrimination among the toys is just a casual way that creates a border line to what a girl and a boy should be upto, that is creating gender inequality, and this is the bare minimum required by the world today.
Toys should be gender neutral
Toys can’t be biased or made for a specific gender and can be used and be played and used by both the genders equally. There’s no such rule or specification like cars for boys and dolls for girls, or a myth which is still considered like blue colour for boys and pink for girl. Children are taught from their toddler till teenage or adulthood ,that girls have to play with games which are more of related to house or which doesn’t require much of knowledge or which are mostly indoor type of games while boys are taught or told to play only with cars or outdoor games or which require more of mind games .So it all starts within family where parents ,siblings or grandparents teaches what you should do and how and what you should play and still continues till outside where unknown shopkeeper suggests that you should play with this or that .Gender discrimination ,work related inequality , etc. are common discrimination seen and practiced in daily lives not much in developed places but mostly in rural and underdeveloped areas .But toys are not that things which are to discriminated based on gender .Each individual and every gender can play or take toys what they want.
Toys are not to selected according to gender but as per children’s preference and choices and what they are willing to play with. Parents should also allow their children to buy and select what they want. Toys are incredibly useful tools in teaching from a young age for improvement of both fine and gross motor skills, as well as empathy training, problem-solving skills, social skill development, and many other important skills.
Toys can’t be gender divided but yes it can be divided according to ages, like infants and toddlers can be given rattles, push pull toys so that these toys don’t harm them while in case of growing ages they can be given puzzles, craft kits, sports equipment, etc. during that age it helps them grow in many terms like mentally, socially and so on. Toys should just be toys; we don’t need to change the toys we just need to work towards a where we don’t inflict our views on sexuality and gender roles on children. After all, children don’t really know or even care about these things, they’re just using it for their fun and joy.Toys should have to be gender neutral why should we discriminate between boy and girl toys boys can also play kitchen set or Barbie dolls and girls can play with video games , cars , football. It’s children choice what type of the you they want to play with. Parents should allow their child toy they wand to buy I have often seen parents say to their kid are you a girl, why are you buying this girls game. It is very wrong mind set. Also brands should stop promotion of gender bias type like kinder joy blue one for boys and pink for girls also I have seen in happy meals at MC Donald’s. We are living in 21 at century we should stop being gender bias .gender neutral toys helps to children to learn and more explore why they loved playing with specific type of the toy. Children at small age learn through toys. Let’s make the change this let our children decide which type of they want to buy and play with.
In our modern world, there’s a lot of collection of toys, dresses, colors and so on. But can you answer me, why we always choose pink for her and blue for him? Even our famous chocolate kinder joy has it. How do they decide what can be liked by a girl or a boy?
We often go to toys shop and choose like, ‘excuse me, there’s a boy and a girl of 6 year old, what should we have for them? ‘ and that shopkeeper handles you a pink Barbie doll or house craft set for a girl and a army car set or robotics set for a boy.
How easily we assume that their choices must be according to gender, no?
Have you ever thought what if that girl really likes that robotics and that boy likes Barbie?
Oh! What a shame to think that way! Is it?
Oh… Now your point is that it’s getting over reacted… After all, it’s just a toy!
Yes, it’s just a toy, and everyone is already discriminating it on gender.
Just how we don’t even give our girls choices to do that guy like things and when she grows up, every one is pitching like, oh you are a girl, you can’t think like a boy, you can’t do like a boy and so on. Did we ever give her a chance to think like her own self? What she likes? Did we ever ask her?
No, we are setting that boundaries such a way from their childhood, that there remains no space for question.
And by the way, don’t forget what we did when she asked for that car or robotics set… We just asked her to choose something else as that’s not some girls to play with type of things.
Yes, they are too little to notice, we’re making big issues from them. Outside, we preach about gender equality and all but inside we’re making these mistakes knowingly or not knowing. But they should be corrected. We should let our kids to make their choices, accept their things like what they want, not like what our society want them to be with. And buying toys is a tiny piece of it, I know, but small changes lead to big results. So not only toys, colors, choices each and everything should be gender neutral.The issue of gender neutrality in children’s products has been debated since a bill was introduced in 2005 to stop the use of gendered marketing on toys—the “Girls and Boys Toys Bill”. It is now being argued that gender-specific toys can have lasting negative effects on society, especially on women. Recently, a German toy store banned the sale of ‘girly’ toys to independent children to promote gender neutrality in young children.
But whether people are talking about the legalization of gay marriage, genderless toys in Happy Meals, or an upcoming science fair project, this same question keeps repeating itself. Should parents and educators encourage children to follow gender stereotypes or encourage them to break free from them? Today, parents do their utmost to prevent the socialization of gender.
But girls aren’t only influenced by gender-based marketing. The toy industry has a notorious reputation when it comes to marketing towards kids, and more broadly, women. Ingenious toys are being released that encourage children to learn valuable skills and develop necessary functions. Since learning begins at a young age, why not provide forward-thinking toys that will help children in the future? The world is going to be radically different by the time today’s toddlers graduate from college. Why not give them a head start by giving them a gender neutral upbringing?
Gender-neutral toys are a part of fighting gender stereotypes and sharing the activities that you do with your kids. It promotes both creative plays as well as more strength in kids to be able to interact and understand other children from different backgrounds or with different toy preferences. At the end of the day, I think toys should be gender-neutral. Boys should be able to play with girl’s toys and girls should be allowed to play with boy’s toys.
What’s important to realize is that society’s beliefs about how a girl plays versus how a boy plays, based on biological traits they’re born with, are inaccurate. There are people out there who feel the need to defend toys and say, “Well, you know girls like to play with dolls and boys would rather have cars.” This is simply not true. Toys and play serve a key role in our lives. They help us prepare for what’s to come later on in life. We’re introducing children to a variety of important learning techniques that they can use to navigate the future.
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