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Back in the 1970s, feminists took toy companies to task for their sexist marketing practices. They railed against the board game “Battleship†for depicting a father and son at play while an apron-clad mother and daughter washed dishes in the background. (One outraged mother even sent the cardboard game box to the editors of Ms. magazine to prove her point.) They questioned why pretend kitchens were fashioned out of pink plastic, when the majority of professional chefs were men. And they urged puzzle-makers to depict women piloting airplanes and fighting fires.
One of the youngest toy activists was a seven-year-old from New York City named Caroline Ranald. In 1972, the second-grader wrote a letter to the Lionel train company admonishing them for their boy-dominated ads. “Girls like trains too,†she explained. “I am a girl. I have seven locomotives. Your catalog only has boys. Don’t you like girls?†Caroline’s short letter made a big impression. Not only did the toy train makers feature girls in their subsequent catalogs, they also circulated a press release with endorsements touting the psychological and cognitive benefits of train play for girls.
Fast forward to 2009…and we have to ask: what happened to the gains feminists made in toyland? I literally did a double-take when I read that the Toy Association’s “Toy of the Year Awards†offer separate prize categories for “Best Boy Toy†and “Best Girl Toy.â€Â Sure, they slot some contenders into gender-neutral categories like “Best Outdoor Toy†and “Best Educational Toy.†But they don’t even try to airbrush the fact that when it comes to selling toys, gender divisions—and gender stereotypes—still reign.
In case you’re wondering, the “Best Boy Toy†of 2009 went to the Bakugan Battle Brawlers Battle Pack Action Series. These intricately wrought orbs of plastic snap open into dragon- and vulcan-like shapes when they are hurled onto corresponding magnetized cards. Bakugan isn’t just a Manga-inspired action toy, it’s an entertainment brand, complete with a website, television show, and other paraphernalia. According to the Toy Association’s website, Bakugan beat out the Handy Manny 2-in-1 Transforming Tool Truck, the EyeClops Night Vision Infrared Stealth Goggles, and a few other trinkets for the top boy toy honors.
My own boys, ages 8 and 11, can’t seem to get enough Bakugan spheres, priced around ten dollars a pop. When I asked my younger son why he thinks girls aren’t into Bakugan, he replied that “they don’t like to fight and brawl the way boys do.†Maybe so, but when toy companies are so explicit about developing toys for gender-specific markets, we have to ask the proverbial chicken-and-egg question: do boys like Bakugan because it taps into some innate affinity for competitive, militaristic play—or because they are being socialized and culturally conditioned to prefer those forms of play?
For the record, the Best Girl Toy of 2009 was the Playmobil Horse Farm, a plastic play-set complete with stables, ponies, and equestrian figurines. (In 2007, the honor went to Hasbro’s FurReal Friends Butterscotch Pony—which raises the question of why a horse-related toys have become so feminized in recent years.) Runner-ups for Best Girl Toy include a Pedicure Salon activity kit, a Talking Dollhouse, and Hannah Montana’s Malibu Beach House—toys based on stereotypes of beauty and domesticity so blatant they speak for themselves.
Although most elementary-school boys probably wouldn’t beg for a kiddie pedicure set, children display more variation and boundary-crossing in their play than the toy industry might care to admit. Decades after the heyday of second-wave feminism, few parents would bat an eye at a girl playing with StarWars action figures or a boy weaving a potholder on a loom. But for the purveyors of playthings, pink and blue don’t make purple; they make green. Toy makers have a vested interested in selling to a gender-bifurcated market, because they can make double the money selling twice as many toys.
In the spirit of feminist toy activism, perhaps it’s time, once again, to argue the point. If there are any little boys out there who have a thing for horses, maybe they can e-mail the folks at Playmobil and set them straight.
Comments
gwp_admin — November 4, 2009
"Thanks for writing this, Lori! It's worrying to see my 5-year-old so obsessed w/Bakugan--militaristic toys, tho my 8-yr-old daughter loves Nerf pellet guns. Weird that they separate Boy Toys from Girl--kind of scary--my daughter was just crying last night bec. she's in 4th grade & the 5th grade boys won't pass the football to her. They assume she can't catch & she can! She wants to be on boys tackle football & made me look it up. The only girls option is cheerleading, but she plans to fight it. One teacher outright told her, "Girls can't play football" even if he was joking, she cried about it
Alison — November 4, 2009
Great post, Lori. I'm always amazed at how blatant the gender stereotypes are in kids' toys, when they're the population that is least able to think critically about what they're being sold.
I think you're right that most parents wouldn't bat an eye at a girl playing with Star Wars, but my students continue to report that parents--their own and the parents of the kids my students babysit--still freak out if boys are caught playing with girl toys. I think the expectations of masculinity are imposed pretty strongly on a lot of boys from a very early age.
Deirdre — November 4, 2009
An old friend of mine has a transgenerdered child. Ze prefers ultra fem clothing and traditional girls’ toys. Since children who blur gender lines continue to evolve, it's been a pleasure to watch as ze grows up. Hir brother seems to fall more distinctly into a traditional boy category. But because both children are loved and supported at home and at least mostly accepted at school, there is little drama about toys or gender expression at this point. Everyone has their eye on puberty which is often very difficult for trans children. There are lots of people who blend the boy/girl paradigm. I wonder what their favorite toy is?
Melina — November 4, 2009
My nine year old daughter is crazy about bakugan. It would never have ocurred to her they were for boys. I think they learn more from what the kids are doing at school than from ads. But I still want to scream every time i (rarely) walk into Toys R Us and see how it is divided between pink and blue.
Thanks for the post.
Adina — November 4, 2009
Having a 5-year-old daughter has made me painfully aware of the points you raise in this post. It's hard not to feel like the mainstream toy industry has completely missed the first, second and third waves of U.S. feminism(s)! Is there any website/organization out there that specializes in rating toys in terms of how well they deviate from narrow constructions of masculinity and femininity?
As a side note, it'd be great if you could add hyperlinks throughout your post so that we can check out some of these past and current toys.
Deborah Siegel — November 5, 2009
There are some more great comments on this post on my Facebook page! Just wanted to share...
Sarah Pinneo — November 6, 2009
I took women's studies courses in college, all of which took the position that biological gender differences were actually quite minimal until Big Corporations and Big Media had interfered with their sexist marketing and reporting.
It took only about fifteen minutes in my sons' nursery school classroom to disabuse me of that view. The boys and girls divided their play very tidily along gender lines about fifteen seconds after joining the class. And feminist Kate Roiphe made the point so succinctly when she wrote "I bought my daughters trucks to play with, and they used them as doll beds." (I'm paraphrasing, I haven't seen the quote for years. But its essence burned itself in my brain immediately. Childrens' ability to circumvent their parents' agenda is always so memorable.)
The trick is not feeding the beast-- along side my boys' 75% penchant for battle is a 25% impulse to imitate nurture. When they set down their weapons (this week Battle Axes are favored) they will often play house. The biggest toy companies have been horrible about recognizing any crossover interests. Then again, there are so many retailers who "get it." Oompa, Hearthsong, Nova Naturals etc. show a much wiser approach to play. (They also won't bother to pretend to educate your child either. But that's another fraught topic.)