Gender Stereotypes and Toys Essay -- Gender Roles in Society

Often when a couple becomes pregnant and finds out the sex of the infant, stereotypes begin to form. If the child is female, their room will often be painted pink with cutesy borders. The crib will have pink blankets with ruffles on them. The baby girl will be presented with soft toys and cute stuffed animals, as well as perhaps a baby doll or two. At the baby shower, the mother will typically be presented with pink and purple clothing, the colors of choice for a female child. When the baby finally comes along, she will typically be treated as a gentle princess. When it comes to girls, adults are often more careful, as if the baby girl will break. On the other hand, if the couple is having a male child, the room will be painted blue or green with borders usually depicting superheroes or sports oriented paraphernalia. Though the boy may receive stuffed animals, they are typically of a more ferocious nature than the stuffed animals a girl might receive. The blankets are usually blue or another color associated with little boys. Perhaps one of the boy’s first gifts will be a tiny little catcher’s mitt, or something else sports related. At the baby shower, the mother will receive blue and green clothes. Family and friends are more likely to take a little boy to a sporting event than their female counterpart. Clearly, from the moment a child is brought into this world, they are pushed toward a certain stereotype. Now, the real question is – Are boys naturally more aggressive due to higher testosterone levels, or is it more culturally defined, by the way we treat our children and the gifts we bestow upon them? As mentioned in Human Development – A Lifespan View, â€Å"Children don’t live in a gender-neutral world for long. Althou... ... boys, who – away from the battle zone of their friends and brothers – turn out to be surprisingly cuddly and clingy? (Blum, 238)† Not every male or female is going to fit the mold, if there really even is one. The stereotypes stated above created by society and parents are most often useless in truly predicting a child’s choice of play and toys. Kids are going to gravitate toward what they enjoy. Even the author Deborah Blum states â€Å"I don’t think in pastels, myself. I think jungle-green, blood-red. (Blum, 236)† Stereotypes give us something to group people by, but we cannot always judge a person by them. Works Cited Blum, Deborah. â€Å"The Gender Blur: Where Does Biology End and Society Take Over?† Signs of Life in the USA: Readings on Popular Culture for Writers. 6th Edition. Sonia Maasik and Jack Solomon. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009. 573-580. Print.