Toy Op-ed Reflection
Cidette Rice
Sociology
October 2nd
The way gendered toys relate to interactionalist ideals shines through due to the slight gender segregation we’ve see not only in modern day, but heavily in past generations, too. Companies have a tendency to put boys and girls into to separate boxes, one lavished with soft pink fabrics and cookies and dolls, the other consisting of hard metal and trucks and violence. You could say what the boxes consist of is intentional, and is there to lead those genders on a ceartain path in life. Others would argue that what was picked has little to no meaning, and was just meant to be attractive to that child to sell as many toys as possible. So how does interactionalism fit in?
Interactionalism is the ideal of one’s identity being shaped by interactions, typically with other humans. It said that for a child to develope properly, they need a wide variety of topics and people to interact with, which would be difficult, seeing as a girl would be forced to only interact with feminine things, and the boy with masculine. These gender roles later on end up being one of the soul points of their life, stopping them from doing or saying anything that disagree with the roles. Shave, don’t shave, order a steak, order a salad, etc. Very minor things that are still influenced by those interactions they had when they were younger.
This can not only be a very restricted lifestyle, but a very bigoted one as well. A strictly feminine raised woman sees another woman, one who has short hair. It’s unfeminine and therefore, in her mind, disgusting. Anything that’s not within her traditional roles make her uncomfortable and upset. If she was that disgusted by how she was raised, she would see the world much, much differently.
Sociology
October 2nd
Interactionalist Ideal
The way gendered toys relate to interactionalist ideals shines through due to the slight gender segregation we’ve see not only in modern day, but heavily in past generations, too. Companies have a tendency to put boys and girls into to separate boxes, one lavished with soft pink fabrics and cookies and dolls, the other consisting of hard metal and trucks and violence. You could say what the boxes consist of is intentional, and is there to lead those genders on a ceartain path in life. Others would argue that what was picked has little to no meaning, and was just meant to be attractive to that child to sell as many toys as possible. So how does interactionalism fit in?
Interactionalism is the ideal of one’s identity being shaped by interactions, typically with other humans. It said that for a child to develope properly, they need a wide variety of topics and people to interact with, which would be difficult, seeing as a girl would be forced to only interact with feminine things, and the boy with masculine. These gender roles later on end up being one of the soul points of their life, stopping them from doing or saying anything that disagree with the roles. Shave, don’t shave, order a steak, order a salad, etc. Very minor things that are still influenced by those interactions they had when they were younger.
This can not only be a very restricted lifestyle, but a very bigoted one as well. A strictly feminine raised woman sees another woman, one who has short hair. It’s unfeminine and therefore, in her mind, disgusting. Anything that’s not within her traditional roles make her uncomfortable and upset. If she was that disgusted by how she was raised, she would see the world much, much differently.
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