Comparison of gendered toy marketing and product categorization in retail

Running Head: Gender in a Toy Store

Gender in a Toy Store Name University Abstract One of the longest and most vociferous debates in the social sciences is whether nature or nurture has a stronger impact on human development. In the area of gender and sexuality development, some proponents of absolute gender equity have suggested that, prior to puberty, there is no innate difference between male and female children, and that all behavior that society recognizes as gendered is the result of treating those children in a different manner. Although the resolution of that issue is beyond the scope of this paper, a visit to a local toy store does reveal a tremendous disparity in how products are marketed to male and female children. The products marketed to girls are characterized by pastel colors, particularly pink, focus on social or nurturing activities, and are generally focused on sedentary activities, like imaginary play. In contrast, the products marketed towards boys are characterized by bright colors, focus on society-neutral or anti-social activities, and are more likely to be active than toys marketed towards girls. Introduction Thirty years ago, when the author was a young child, people in the general public were just beginning to pay attention to gender differences, and really wondering whether toy choice and other forms of socialization helped form gender differences, or whether those differences were innate. As a result, some people began to push for gender-neutral toys and toy marketing. While some parents and smaller specialty toy stores may have adopted a more gender neutral marketing scheme, the author's childhood experience reflected a fully gendered approach to playtime. Young girls were expected to play with traditional girl toys, such as baby dolls, character dolls like Barbie, and kitchen sets. On the other hand, young boys were offered cars and trucks, guns, and action figures. However, while toys may have been marketed on a gender basis, the reality is that children played with toys without regard for their specific targeted gender. In fact, one of the salient points about gender -play research is the fact that, though researchers consistently find differences in male and female play preferences, individual within-gender differences are oftentimes greater than between-gender differences. "Although gender differences in toy preferences consistently appear at the group level, it is likely that the distributions are overlapping and so, for example, some girls prefer 'masculine' toys more strongly than some boys do." (Green, Bigler, & Catherwood, 2004). Some people may wonder why researchers are so focused on whether children show a gender preference in their play. The answer to that lies in patterns of human development, and a belief that attitudes and behavior that are shaped during early childhood are very difficult to distinguish. Therefore, if gender toy preferences are not innate, or, if innate, are malleable, maybe that would provide an opportunity for parents to raise their children with more gender-neutral attitudes. Furthermore: Levels of variability within individuals may impact the degree to which early patterns of gender differentiation are linked to later developmental outcomes. High levels of variability within individuals and genders may, for example, reduce the power of early gender differences to predict later developmental outcomes. Data concerning individual and within-gender variability are also likely to impact nature versus nurture debates. For example, patterns of high variability may indicate different underlying biological mechanisms than are indicated by patterns of low variability. Finally, the degree to which children's gender-typed toy play is variable should impact the efficacy of interventions designed to reduce children's gender- typed behavior. Behaviors showing high variability should, for example, be more conducive to intervention-induced change than are behaviors showing low variability. (Green, Bigler, & Catherwood, 2004). Furthermore, when toys marketed to both genders are available, boys tend to choose toys that are marketed towards boys, while girls tend to choose toys that are marketed towards girls. Although there is considerable in-group variation, this generalization holds true across groups. These behaviors are important because these activities "may establish habits that last into adulthood." (Cherney & London, 2006). Furthermore, when children choose to only play with gender "appropriate" toys, they may be limiting their experiences and establishing negatively gendered patterns that last into adulthood. This is due to the fact that different types of play are associated with different types of toys. While adults may view play as frivolous, one must always keep in mind that, for children, play is serious business. It is through play that children learn how to behave. Therefore, when certain types of play are associated with learning different skills, limiting children to play with gender- stereotyped toys may actually be hampering their learning ability. Research shows that certain types of play are linked to learning different skills: feminine toys require more complex play than masculine toys; spatial manipulation may help increase creativity; male-stereotyped toys may help develop both spatial ability and aggression, while female- stereotyped toys male help develop verbal ability and nurturance; finally, play helps develop problem-solving skills, and gender-stereotyped play helps develop gender-stereotyped skills. (Cherney & London, 2006). Given that gender-stereotyping in toys may have a lifelong impact on children; one would expect modern toy stores to be gender neutral. By gender neutral, the author does not mean that the toy store would not contain toys that are stereotypically associated with either gender, like toy cars or baby dolls, but that these toys would not be marketed in a gender specific manner. Instead, one would expect a modern toy store to reflect the idea that children are free to play with any type of toy, regardless of its gender stereotype. In order to test this hypothesis, the author decided to visit a modern toy store and examine its layout and in- store marketing to determine whether or not toy stores still employ gender stereotyping in their marketing schemes. For the purposes of this study, the author looked at prior research and into the author's own childhood experience to determine which toys are gender stereotyped. The author determined that play kitchen and food sets, baby dolls, and character dolls were traditionally associated with female stereotypes. The author determined that toy trucks, toy guns, and action figures were associated with male stereotypes. Furthermore, the author determined that some toys, such as Legos, blocks, and bicycles, were gender neutral, because all children seemed to enjoy playing with them, and they were not marketed specifically towards boys or girls when the author was a child. Methods The author walked through a major toy store, Toys R Us, to determine whether the store employed gender stereotyping in its in-store display and marketing of the targeted toys. The analysis looked at where in the store the toys were located, the colors of the toys, and any pictures or other marketing material depicting children using the toys. Because the toy store was clearly organized in a large square, the author conducted a thorough investigation of the store by examining each part of the square, working from the outside of the square towards the inside of the square. The author visited the store at opening time on a weekday morning, assuming that there would be little customer traffic at that time, so that the author could look at toy marketing without being distracted by shopping customers.

Results Walking into the toy store, the author saw that it was organized in a large square with a path approximately 25 feet away from the stores perimeter, and aisles going from the path out to the perimeter and more aisles located from the path to the center of the square. That arrangement allowed for the creation of different sections within the store. Walking the pathway in a clockwise direction around the square, from the entrance to the exit, the exterior sections were as follows: a kiosk for selecting tags for large items like swingsets, outdoor toys like swings and sandboxes, clearance and holiday merchandise, little girl clothing, little boy clothing, shoes, baby clothing, baby toys, large furniture and furniture toys (like rocking horses, and toy boxes), ride-on toys, balls and others sports equipment, bicycles, cars and trucks, action figures, video games and other electronics, and the cash registers. Walking the pathway in a clockwise direction around the square, from the entrance to the exit, the interior sections were as follows: sale merchandise, board games, Legos and blocks, toy trains, puzzles, wooden toys, books, preschool toys (such as Fisher Price and Playschool items), baby dolls, toy kitchens, pop-up playhouse merchandise, character dolls, themed play sets, dress-up sets, videos, wrapping paper, cards, and candy. Looking at specific toys, the author specifically looked at three toys that the author had characterized as gender neutral prior to entering the toy store: Legos, blocks, and bicycles. Legos and blocks were located near each other, in a section that was broadly devoted to building toys and educational toys. Furthermore, that section was sandwiched between other gender neutral areas: board games and puzzles and wooden toys. In addition, Toys R Us has placed some marketing materials for a brand of blocks known as Mega Blocks near the Legos and blocks, and these pictures featured both boys and girls playing with the blocks in question. However, the toys themselves had a distinctly gendered feel. While the author recalled Legos as gender-neutral, they did not appear gender neutral in the toy-store setting. Instead, the Lego products were based on action movies, such as Star Wars and Indiana Jones or else featured something called a Bionicle, which appeared to be some type of robot. There were some Legos called Clickits, which were pink and white and featured teenage-looking cartoon-character girls. However, the Lego sets from the author's youth, which featured blocks and other features to build gender-neutral items like towns, simply were not present. Instead, the Legos seemed less free-form and more structured, and came in boxes to build specific designs, almost all of them masculine in stereotyping. The other building materials were similarly gender-differentiated. While the toy store had apparently gender-neutral building toys like Tinker Toys and Mega Blocks, they also managed to capitalize on stereotyping. For example, Mega Blocks offered themed playsets, including a pastel-toned Disney Princess playset and a jungle-colored Diego playset. Even Tinker Toys were no longer gender neutral: Toys R Us offered a set of pink Tinker Toys, which was clearly marketed towards girls. The author found a similar phenomenon in bicycles. When the author was a child, bicycles for very young children may have featured gender- distinctive patterns. For example, the author recalls having a yellow bicycle with a white banana seat with a flower pattern and a flower basket on it. However, the majority of bicycles at that time came in just a handful of relatively gender-neutral colors, such as red, blue, and green. Walking into the bicycle section of the toy store, the author was dismayed to discover that there was not one bicycle for preschool-aged children that was not marketed in a gender-stereotyped manner. For little girls, one could purchase a Bratz Girlz, Barbie, Dora, Disney Princess, Tinkerbell, or flower-themed bike, just to name a few. For little boys, one could purchase a Spiderman, Incredible Hulk, Diego, or Transformers bike, just to name a few. However, there was no plain, unadorned bicycle available for preschoolers or young school aged children. The author then found that all of the traditionally-masculine toys, including toy trucks, toy guns, and action figures, were located in the same area. They were on the outside perimeter of the square, just after outdoor toys like bicycles and sports equipment. The colors used in these toys were bright, mostly primaries, but with a surprising amount of orange and green, as well. In addition to these toy trucks, guns, and action figures, one could find a variety of other masculine-stereotyped toys in the area, including tool sets, card games like Pokemon, and gross-out toys. Every picture in this "boy area," whether on the merchandise itself or on marketing material, showed boys playing with the toys, without the inclusion of a single female. In addition, though there were a large number of action figures in the area, very few of the action figures were female. In fact, of more than 100 action figures, the author found only two females: a female character from Indiana Jones and another female figure from Star Wars. The traditionally-feminine toys were located on the inside of the square, directly across the aisle from the traditionally-masculine toys. While the masculine toys were overwhelmingly primary-colored, the feminine toys were pastels, specifically pinks and purples. However, the "girl toys" seemed to be more gender inclusive than the boy toys. For example, there were boy baby-dolls, most notably Cabbage Patch Kids, and pictures on some of the baby doll boxes and promotional material showed both boys and girls playing with the dolls. Furthermore, while some of the play kitchens were girl-themed (such as a Tinkerbell Fairy Kitchen, a Barbie kitchen, and a Disney Princess Kitchen), others of them were very gender neutral. Most notable was the fact that Little Tikes brand play kitchens were clearly marketed towards boys and girls, featuring gender neutral colors and children of both sexes on their boxes and other marketing materials. Barbie was as stereotypically pink as she had been in the author's childhood, though the Barbie products featured a much greater selection of male dolls than one would have expected, given the relative absence of female dolls in the action figures. However, there was a disturbing trend in the Barbie- type dolls: a variety of different dolls in very skimpy attire and excessive makeup, which seemed to be marketed in a very sexualized manner, though the targeted age for those toys was an under-12 set. In addition, the author noticed something interesting in the "girl toy" area. Many imaginative play sets were present in that section and were there in pastel colors. For example, the Littlest Pet Shop toys, which are basically small hand-sized animals and, by themselves, are gender- neutral, were marketed in pink and purple packaging, with pastel-colored playsets. Likewise, an animal doctor set was available only in pastel colors. The store's entire collection of non-Halloween dress up clothing was also located in the girl collection and was distinctly feminine in character.