Toy Op-ed Reflection (Izzy)

Izabella Curtis
Mr. Roddy
IHSS
2 October 2018
Toy Op-ed Reflection

          Toys have been around for many years and they have been surrounded by gender since they were created. In our seminar we talked about having gender neutral toys, and what society does to kids who pick the "wrong" toy. I think our discussion we felt like "The Interactionist Perspective" was the way society should be towards toys. The Interactionist Perspective means how people see the world. Children should chose the toys they want not what the world wants them to have. Honestly I don't understand why children should feel so pressured to chose the "wrong" toy, especially in this day in age everyone is so accepting now I don't understand why they would feel pressured by their community. 
          What exactly are "boy" and "girl" toys? It is hard to understand the characteristics of toys and how they relate to gender. In our seminar we also discussed how marketing influences adults to buy gender based toys, as well as parents choosing their child's toys. When an adult watches or sees a add for a toy the child has a huge impact and assigns gender roles to them. 
Another interesting topic my group discussed was toys back in the day. Gendered toys have been around for a while, which is very interesting because compared to the world in the 70’s and now we are much further along in the way of gender equality. Gender difference in the types of toys marketed towards boys and girls has a lot more to do than just gender. It has to do with the current social changes in the world that caused the toy gender to divided.
Our seminar was very interesting at the end because we discussed our childhood toys. Which was a throwback! It really is interesting seeing toys now opposed to when I was a kid. Kids will never understand the feeling of waking up early Saturday morning and watching cartoons. Which is so sad that the world is turning in this direction.

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