

How Toy Ad Vocabulary Reinforces Gender Stereotypes - talonx
http://www.achilleseffect.com/2011/03/word-cloud-how-toy-ad-vocabulary-reinforces-gender-stereotypes

======
yummyfajitas
Wow, if toy ad vocabulary is reinforcing gender stereotypes rather than simply
catering to gender preferences then this is a great startup opportunity.
Produce and market toys for boys with words like "love", "friendship",
"babies", "magic" and "mommy". You'll be rich!

If you really think everyone else is being irrational, stop writing blog
posts. Put your money where your mouth is and arb it.

Of course, if boys really want ultimate special forces power battle swords and
girls really want mommy&me friendship magic wands, you will lose your
time/money. But you are confident that won't happen, right?

~~~
joshzayin
I think you are somewhat missing the point of the blog post. It's highlighting
that, from a very young age, society's gender roles are being insinuated into
people. This leads to gender disparities such as those in the STEM fields and
only helps to perpetuate harmful stereotypes.

Zach Weiner (SMBC) did a comic that fairly eloquently expresses the problem:
[http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=1883](http://www.smbc-
comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=1883)

The problem highlighted in the blog post is that children are conditioned by
the toys they are bought, and those that they see their friends with, to
perpetuate the gender roles and stereotypes that have been so omnipresent--and
harmful--in our society.

~~~
bradleyland
It's a "chicken or the egg" question. Are boys attracted to guns, action
figures, etc because of advertising, or do advertisers seek to sell boys guns,
action figures etc because that's what they want?

I think the answer is far more boring than most pedants would like. It's both.

Biologically, men are born with hormones that give them aggressive traits,
while women are born with hormones that give them nurturing traits. These are
adaptive influences: male protector, female child-rearer; a partnership that
works. Advertisers target their message to exploit these instincts.

None of the above implies that we cannot rise above our instinctual urges and
make something different of our lives. It also does not imply that any of this
is black & white. Some men are born passive and some women are born
aggressive. Some women have no desire to have children. Some men prefer to
stay at home and raise their children.

Humans are a complex and diverse bunch, but as with most systems, there is a
distribution wherein lies a "typical" state of being. When there's money to be
made, you don't make it by ignoring the facts, so advertisers target the
"typical" boy and girl, and make a boat load of money doing it.

~~~
joshzayin
As mentioned in the post GiraffeNecktie linked above:

    
    
      Regarding gender differences being in-born, poster cpt.sanity wrote: “It has been repeatedly shown and is accepted as fact in modern psychology from Rogers onwards, that while sex is a biological fact, gender roles are sociologically determined, largely by peer pressure in early years and mediated by advertising and media images.”

