Blog 5: "Gender and Toys"

When you google current little girl toys, you get a lot of dolls, housekeeping items, and beauty items such as painting nails and play makeup. Their dolls are all barbies and princesses. Girls toys are marketed in nurturing others and maintaining one's beauty. When you google current little boy toys, you get cars, guns, and items involved in sports. Their "dolls" are modeled after soldiers and superbeings. Boys toys are more about protection and things that are considered more masculine.

I think toys do influence the way children play. I can remember the times when I was little and I would play with the boys because I felt that the girls were to boring. They always wanted to play pretend or talk while the boys would play sports. I did not have dolls early in my age, but I had an older brother who I would always wrestle and rough house with. As I got older and my younger sister got old enough to play with, I began to have more baby dolls and barbies, and now that I think of it, is when I began to play with more girls and find more interest in their games. My best friend was a boy until the age of 7 and then we just found other interest.

I would not say that toys influence the way we will become because even though as girls we played with the same toys, I would say there is a variety of interests that we all had. I will say that it did have some influence of when someone would ask, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" as a little girl or boy. Girls will typically answer something that involves having to be beautiful or a mommy, while boys will answer something with power or sports affiliated. I would not say that my experience with dolls has influenced what I have decided to be my occupation. When I was younger, I wanted to be a model, a singer, and a princess. When I got older, I wanted a job that involved security for my future and something that I felt would be enjoyable to me because it fit me.

My favorite childhood toy, up to the age of 7, was my Fozzie Bear. It was a stuffed teddy bear that looked like Fozzie Bear and I used to love that thing. I don't know why. My favorite toys moved to Barbies. I had the pink convertible that I could actually ride in, the dream house, my barbie had her own pink convertible, the life size Barbie, Ken (black and white) with his little brother, little sister Kelly, the big head of Barbie so you could do her hair, and every race of barbie imaginable (more African American barbies though). I was dripping in Barbie. My sister and I played Barbie all the time. I would play house with Barbie, do her hair, she had her own show, just any and everything imaginable with Barbie. We had a lot of Barbie because me and my sister would share toys since I am just 2 years older than her.