Judith's mailing on possible links between toys and gender includes some
material from discussion on another list:
>"those blooming advertisers and TV programme makers got at my kids
and told them what "real boys" and "proper girls" like before we even made
it to Toys R Us".
I sympathise with those parents, but I think they are quite wrong.
Gender role stereotyping was probably well established in their children
long before that. The advertisers and programme makers just built on it.
Every well wisher who cooed at their infants was likely to have praised the
boys for assertiveness and girls for compliance (isn't she pretty...isn't he
strong). Children are very quick to pick that idea up and run with it. Once
generally established (although I agree with Judith that a minority escape
it to some degree), programme makers have little choice but to follow it. If
they don't, they will lose much of their audience.
It is possible to offer stories that lead away from traditional
gender stereotyping, but it is not easy and imposes constraints on the
storyteller that may inhibit creativity. Few seem to try.
Stephen Rennie, Leeds Metropolitan University
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