Following up on a previous post about gendered gift giving guides at Lego and Toys R Us, I discovered something interesting.
I was intrigued by the Toys R Us guide because it asked the buyer to specify the gender of the child, but then tended to have more or less the same “personality” and “interests” options. For example, below are the choices for girls and boys. You’ll see that they are very similar.
Girl personalities:
Boy personalities (same, sans “Glamour Girl”):
Girl interests:
Boy interests:
So, why even ask about gender, I wondered? I did a test. For both boys and girls ages 12-14, I checked “techie” and “building” to see what I would get.
What I got was rather fascinating. I can’t remember where I originally heard it, but someone somewhere observed that when it came to technology, there was a stereotype that men were the engineers and designers and women were the consumers and users. That is, both men and women might like technology, but men were active in producing technology and women just got to benefit from men’s hard, brainy work.
Well, that’s essentially what Toys R Us told me. Remember, for both boys and girls, I checked “techie” and “building.” Here is the top 24 gift suggestions for boys:
So that’s 13 building/engineering games (like Lego and KNEX), 3 ipod accessories, 4 portable DVD players, 2 MP3 players, and a few other things.
What do girls get? Seven ipod accessories, 5 portable DVD players, 4 MP3 players, 3 laptop computers, 3 cameras, and one building/engineering game. One.
Sure enough, Toys R Us confirms that girls may like technology, but boys build it.
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Comments 37
Jennifer — December 21, 2009
I also think it's interesting that an adventurous girl, according to Toy R Us, does something that is only deemed outdoorsy for boys - canoeing/kayaking. Adventurous boys, on the other hand, get to go to outer space. And where outdoorsy boys like to go canoeing, outdoorsy girls merely enjoy swinging on the playground.
Plus, why can't boys be "glamor girls" if they want to? :)
John Yum — December 21, 2009
What...? Girls don't like LEGO?
ham — December 21, 2009
Ah yes, the ol' pink it and shrink it move.
Steff — December 21, 2009
When I saw the first two shots of the personality descriptors being similar, I thought (hoped) that perhaps it was just a marketing ploy to make the consumer think that the vendor was "customizing" the experience and end up giving the same results. Yet, more disappointment.
Little Bumble Bee — December 21, 2009
His is terribly reminiscent of a previous post (I think it was linked on SI, but I have the originally blog post here for the book "Im Glad I'm a Boy! I'm Glad I'm a Girl! http://michiedo.blogspot.com/2008/12/im-glad-im-boy-im-glad-im-girl.html
particularly striking is the line: "boys invent things. Girls use what boys invent" *CRINGE!*
Re jen: I noticed that, and I think back to my little brother that LOVED to wear pretty dresses when he was a little boy. He was like my own living (and willing) dolly. He always wanted to be the bride and made me be the groom when we played "wedding" And shocker! That didn't turn him gay! *headdesk*
Jeff Kaufman — December 21, 2009
Trying all the combinations would take a while, but I tried another. I did age 7-11 and "smarty pants":
boys: http://www.toysrus.com/giftCenter/giftFinder.jsp?gfCatID=3365783
girls: http://www.toysrus.com/giftCenter/giftFinder.jsp?gfCatID=3365782
The boys get more electronics and circuitry options, the girls get more chemistry options. The girls get biology and geology options that the boys don't get.
There were 15 choices for boys and 20 for girls. It looks like most of the extra choices that girls get are pink or purple versions in addition to a default.
Student — December 21, 2009
Interesting.
Unfortunately, my engineering courses at my college more or less agree with your results. We had between zero and four women in my engineering courses of about 30 students. However, our Professor was female, and loved trying to encourage women to join the field.
I can't say I blame Toys R Us for how they promote building for boys and enjoying for girls because it seems that's the way things go. Toys R Us is a symptom of the problem. It carries some blame for contributing to the social assumptions that women aren't as good at math but are more creative, but I don't find it strikingly offensive or anything. What this means though, is that teachers and family need to encourage -all- their kids to enjoy math (especially girls) and help push them toward careers in those areas.
KimK — December 21, 2009
I hate these kind of "finders". My kids are a lot more complex than "smarty pants" or "outdoorsy". I have tried to use them before, but end up disgusted with the results - instead I do something wacky and actually talk to my kids about things they'd like to use/play with/have. Thanks for posting this!
And it's developmentally appropriate for young boys to want to be "girly" when they're younger. Freud has a theory on it, so do others, but in the long run, it's normal!
Vinay — December 21, 2009
Has anyone considered that Toys R Us uses an adaptive generator, and pushes out toys that don't get selected, and keeps around the ones that are regularly purchased?
I would bet they do, and this is not evidence of just what Toy R Us thinks -- it likely is combined with what actually sells.
andrea — December 21, 2009
Awww, boys paint giraffes and girls paint pwetty pink butterflies.
HP — December 21, 2009
Before seeing the difference in results, I naively thought that perhaps they ask "boy or girl" up front just so they could use the appropriate pronoun. Kind of like some sites will ask you to specify a title (Mr, Ms, Dr, etc.) so they can plug the appropriate value into their JavaScript.
A bit disappointed not to see "foppish dandy" on the boy's personality page.
Sam R — December 22, 2009
'Girls use what boys invent', could be simplified by saying 'girls use boys'.
Nathan — December 22, 2009
3 cameras for girls, none for boys? That's pretty sad.
NancyP — December 23, 2009
On the other hand, laptops and cameras are tools used by adults and are exceedingly versatile. Those LEGO toys just build one thing per kit and are not meant to encourage the child to make up their own project. The laptop and camera have far more creative and learning potential than the LEGO toys. (I loved LEGOs and blocks and the metal "Tinker Toys", but in my day there were no specialized kits, you just got boxes of basic blocks, boxes of special elements (base, arch, cylindrical block, etc).
Toys R Us Confirms: Girls Like Technology, but Boys Build It « Technical and Marketing Communication: Content for a Convergent World — December 23, 2009
[...] a comment » In Gender, Technology, and Toys R Us, Lisa from Sociological Images reflects on the Toys R Us guide, which “asks the buyer to [...]
Alexander — December 27, 2009
Do we know if these search results have been programmed, or do they represent acutal sales-figures (just like amazon's who-bought-this-bought-this-as-well)?
We don't know that, so we cannot judge that site fair and square.
But, another thought, what is worse?
That maybe some product manager programmed his own gender-stereotype-beliefs into that thing, or that consumers do not trust their OWN knowledge about their children anymore, and instead transfer that responsibility(!) to a machine?
I think letting a machine shop toys for your child is worse.
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the prices of Pioneer dvd players are dropping these days and they are quite a bargain-"-
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