Toy Op-ed Reflection- Eleanor Carter

For thousands of year the gender norm has been applied to children as they were growing up. Today we discussed sexism within the toy industry, and how people are conditioned to lean towards a certain toy group, and whether that is a good or bad thing. During the seminar I kept thinking back to the Vice video I watched on Sweden's laws and progression towards being more inclusive towards people who do not fit the binary. Vice productions traveled to Sweden to interview a family who had decided to raise their kids in an intersex manner, meaning that they didn't fit anywhere on the gender binary. During the video they talked about the toys that their children played with, showing how they were not limited to play with just dolls or just trucks, but had the freedom to experience both sides of what the toy industry had to offer. In seminar it was said that being raised without a gender was extreme, but that taking away the pronoun of "male" or "female" toys was important. Growing up with a twin brother helped me to become more exposed to what the boys were playing with, and in general I was a big tomboy. But I also loved playing with dolls, and dressing up- with my brother too!   I am so thankful to have grown up in the household that I did, so that I was allowed to experience what other's wouldn't have if they didn't have a sibling. This, all relating back to Sociology, shows how girls and boys are conditioned at a young age through factors in their environments to act a certain way, and through the toys that they play with as a kid, are being exposed to the standards that are too be set for them as they enter adulthood. A girl who plays with barbie dolls is shown the social standard that is set for a woman's body, boys who play violent video games are shown the violence is okay. And I think that is the thing that is skewed, and the thing that needs to be changed in order to better educate our children on what it is to truly be your own person, regardless of a social standard that is set. I think this is relates to Functionalism, where people are trying to work together for the greater people, or maybe just in order to provide entertainment. But we have, for so long been set in our ways, that boys have to be one way and girls another, and this is the standard that needs to change.

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