For example:

- we are trained to see “boys” toys as being inherently more neutral and universal than “girls” toys. So we often see “normal” LEGO as more neutral than it actually is.

- the toy market in mainstream Western society is extraordinarily gendered and dichotomized, and has been for years (though not uniformly so)

- building toys are still gendered male in mainstream Western society. I hate to tell you, but it is true. It’s nice that some people believe this has gone away, but there are many places where it has never gone away!!!

- the LEGO people are called mini-figures (minifigs for short). This calls to mind the dilemma of dolls versus action figures. And LEGO is trapped by this paradigm too…

- the ratio of male minifigs to female minifigs is extraordinarily disappointing in many lines, though there has been some recent improvement!

- And the RACE/ETHNICITY issues in LEGO are deeply embedded and often terribly sad and maddening! (even though there are occasional moments of improvement)

Playskool ad: All the boys are engaged in activities- the left boy is walking outside of the house, suggesting he’s “going” somewhere; the center holding a basketball, suggesting he’s physically active; the rightmost one is literally being active. Both girls, on the otherhand, appear to be passively standing in place- the one in the house hanging out the window like a cat or houseplant, the one by the slide is an encouragement “accessory” for the boy on the slide.

1st Fisher-Price ad: The boy is wearing glasses and holding a clipboard, implying, respectively, (in the pop cultural way) intelligence and possession of knowledge/command of the situation. The girl is again simply part of the display; the way her hand is placed on the truck’s “rollbar” isn’t so dissimilar from a Wheel of Fortue girl showing the letters contestants guess.

2nd Fisher-Price ad: The girl is the servant/waitress hidden behind the counter, with her toy headset on, handing food to some imagined customer (likely the child whom FP wants to buy the McDonald’s playset), equating lower social status and being a girl. Admittedly the boy, simultaneously peaking out from the playset and holding the merchandise half to himself and half to the imagined customer, is less difficult to typecast.

My position on gendered advertising is likely quite different in its origin from the rest of the posters here, as well as the blogger’s without a doubt, so I’ll not go into my feelings on this issue as a whole.

As a parent now, I find this hard line between the sexes in clothes and toys pretty appalling, not because I have a political ax to grind, but because I have a 5-year-old daughter who loves Superheroes (mainly Batman and Spiderman) and it kills me when she gets mean-spirited teasing on the playground for it. Kids aren’t stupid. They pick up quickly on the gender norms around them and those being marketed to them, and they are quick to enforce them as well.

On a more visceral level, the whole princess-shopping-fashion thing that seems to dominate products for girls really does make me want to hurl. Girls aren’t that vapid… unless you WANT them to be.