“The Media are an important purveyor of information about gender; they promote stereotypes of masculinity and femininity” (Newman, 89). In society today children are becoming the newest victims of big business and are being exploited by commercialization and advertisement. Companies are using video games and toys as labels of masculinity and femininity. Companies use different tactics to market their products to different genders. Through their advertising, they reassure the consumer (both child and adult) of society’s norms by labeling products either masculine or feminine. Toys and products marketed to kids play a role in the gendered socialization of children.
To see how toys influence the gendered socialization of children, I asked my ten year old nephew to come up with wish list of the top five toys he would like. Believing that I was going to buy him some new toys, he quickly grabbed a pen and began jotting down names of many different toys. When he finished, the sheet of paper looked like a grocery list. After I told him could only pick five, he sighed and picked his top five. The list was as followed:
1. Grand theft auto 4 (Xbox 360)
2. Madden 2009 (Xbox 360)
3. A remote control race car
4. A pair of boxing gloves.
5. NCAA official basketball.
So after he handed me the list with a big smile on his face, I went online to see what I would find. My first stop would be Eb games, knowing that I could find the video games he was asking for there.
One of the first things that caught my attention upon reaching EbGames.com was an advertisement at the bottom of the page for another game. The game was a racing game, being advertised by a topless girl. My first thought was “This girl has nothing to do with this game”. Anyhow, I continued to search for the games Grand Theft Auto IV and Madden 2009. I was only interested in how these games were being marketed to children. It was obvious that both these games were being marketed to boys and not girls. On the cover of Grand Theft Auto, you’ll find a sexy woman, a motorcycle, a man with a gun, and a police chase. This game was obviously made for the young child’s need to feel like the macho bad boy and is degrading towards women. “Most video games are designed by males for males. Female characters are often provocatively sexual, scantily clad, and voluptuous.”(Newman,91). In terms of advertisement, they are filled with fast cars, fast women, and fast money. These advertisements and this game feed the boys fantasy to be someone they see in the movies and on television. As for madden, the cover was a picture of the NFL star Bret Favre. On television the advertisements included football games and words from Bret Favre himself.
When searching for a remote racing car, the toys were advertised by two young boys who were clearly competing on whose car was faster. The competition factor of being a boy was evident in this toy. I want my nephew to have the fastest car and if I were his father, I would be compelled to buy him the fastest one. And after talking to him, it is clear that he does want the fastest car. Even at the age of ten, he believes that he must have the fastest car in the neighborhood to show off to his friends. Toys like these feed young boys egos or even create them. It’s all part of being a boy I guess.
Michael Messner “views gender identity not as a thing that people have, but rather as a process of construction that develops, comes into crisis, and changes as a person interacts with the social world.”(Messner, 121) Through video games and toys, young boys are thought to be competitive and macho, while girls are taught to be ladylike and make fake cakes and take care of babies that burp, cry, and even poop. Every toy and every game has a certain gender that they target. The boxing gloves that my nephew asked for were easy to find, but finding gloves for a girl, not so easy. And when I did find gloves for girls, they were pink and sometimes had butterflies on them. All toys are gender specific. Even basketballs are made for specific genders. The girls’ basketballs are smaller than the boys’ basketballs. Some of the girl basketballs are pink and yellow, while the boy basketballs are blue and red.
In conclusion, whether you shop online or shop at a department store, all toys have their specific target market. Boy’s toys are competitive, macho, build egos, and are adventurous. Girls’ toys teach how to cook and how to take care of a child. They are cute and cuddly. For example, take an advertisement for “My little Pony”, shown on television. The actors in the commercial are young girls in little dresses that look so innocent. The narrator is a woman and music is calm and soothing. But when it’s a commercial for a remote control RC car, the actors are boys who are competing in the backyard. The narrator is a man and the music is rock. This is how toys are being advertised. Boys are being molded into rough playing competitors, while girls are being told to stay in the house and act like mommy.
Work Cited:
Messner, Michael A. "Boyhood, Organized Sports, and the Construction of Masculinities." Journal of Contemporary Ethnography (1990): 120-137.
Newman, David M. Portraying Difference: Race, Class, Gender and Sexuality in Language and the Media. New York: McGraw Hill 2007. 71-105.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
