"You Don't Have to Just Play With Easy Bake Ovens!" Examining the Depiction of Gender Coded Toys

Let me tell you, this little girl is putting the toy industry in its place! She is aware of how products are more geared towards girls than boys. I applaude this little girl and her parents for being aware of this issue and explaining to her that toys don't have to be gender specific. Another clip comes to mind, which is a Friends episode where the character Ross is really bothered that his son's favorite toy is a Barbie. His girlfriend and ex-wife argue with him that it doesn't really matter, while Ross is worried that his son will be seen as feminine. Ross tries to coax his son into playing with a G.I. Joe which ultimately ends in failure. It's apparent that toys are marketed to specific genders, I remember getting my first Easy Bake Oven and after many hours of my brownies cooking they were still mush. Looking back on it now, even though my mother was giving me one because she had one as a child, I am still bothered that these types of toys are training to bring out the homemaker in little girls. There was always this internal conflict I experienced in my household, because I always wanted to play with the toys my brother was playing. I remember that I wanted to be accepted by my brother and wanted to play videos games with him badly, but he would always be reluctant to let me play with him. He was a little selfish of his belongings but he saw that girls weren't supposed to play videos games and that it was a 'boy thing'.

Gender coded toys further reinforce group differention and gender roles. I would argue that at a young age we are given toys for entertainment and excitement and these toys may serve as symbols of what its like to be feminine and masculine. Toys geared towards boys are depicted as more masculine, rough, and are typically action figures. While female toys are feminine and reinforce gender roles such as being a homemaker and having the perfect appearance like a princess. Such as Barbies which depict the stereotyped female body type, play kitchens, and princess costumes. Sociological Images shows through images the group differentiation and color-coded aisles at a Toys-R-Us. Astuer & Mansbauch (2012), discuss how Williams (2006) suggested that "Adults choose gender-typed toys in hopes that this will allow the child to experience the pleasures of gender and pick up some lessons on proper stereotypical behavior” The little girl in that news clip brings an important comment to this discussion, in that toys that are geared towards girls isn't a bad thing, but there is nothing wrong if a little girl wants to play with a toy that is supposed to be for boys!

Resources: Sociological Images, Astuer & Mansbauch (2012), Williams (2006)

5. Defining and Visualizing Concepts: Gender and Cultural Hegemony

Gender roles can demonstrate how a society views what it means to be feminine or masculine and these roles are preformed through various interactions. The concept of cultural hegemony suggests that there is a power structure in society in which men are seen as the dominant sex and women are viewed as the subordinate.  Television is one of the many dominant forms of communication from which we seek for entertainment, information, and can be a reflection of how a society interacts with others. By examining the female gender roles in the media from a hegemonic standpoint, I will be able to address if there is or isn't variability in the representations of female gender in various television shows and film.        

Gender is culturally determined through social norms that address what it means to be masculine or feminine. Holmes (2007:2) defines gender as “Socially produced differences between being feminine and masculine.” Holmes (2007) takes a social psychology approach in measuring gender and argues that we are all social actors and what it means to be feminine or masculine has been socially constructed by our parents, friends, and the media. Buysee & Herbert (2004) define the concept of gender, and its differences in sport. They argue that specific types of sports are perpetuated and accepted in the media as more masculine or feminine, “Male athletes are portrayed by the popular media in terms of their physicality, muscularity, and superiority, while female athletes are feminized and their achievements as athletes are often trivialized” (Buysee & Herber, 2004: 4) They measured gender differences by examining cover photographs of sport media guides from two time periods: 1989-1990 and 1996-1997. Each photo was coded if they had the following representations: Was the male or female presented on or off the court, in or out of uniform, portrayed as active or passive positions or poses, and what was the theme of the photograph?

Cultural hegemony in the media typically shows men as the dominant class and women as the subordinate. Women are portrayed as the subordinate by their occupations, sexuality, dress and interactions with men. Crane defines the hegemonic structure in fashion magazines as, “Media images are constructed for the male spectator’s gaze and embody his expectations of women and of male-female relationships.” (Crane, 1999: 542). Crane measures hegemony by drawing a sample of 18 photographs from the February, March and September, 1997 issues of Vogue Magazine. Then the photos were coded into eight categories. Next, a focused group was administered a questionnaire and then asked their perceptions of the photographs. Kalof (1994) defines hegemony in the media as, “The portrayal of men as powerful and women as powerless and constantly trying to "entertain, please, gratify, satisfy and flatter men with their sexuality" (Kalof, 1994: 40) Hegemony was measured by examining the male and female representations in Michael Jackson’s video, “The Way You Make Me Feel”.  A sample of 80 respondents viewed the video and answered an open-ended questionnaire that examined their viewpoints of male and female interactions in the media.

It would be interesting to present the concept of hegemony by showing a chronological representation of women in the media and their interactions with male counterparts. I would display this concept by creating a video by ripping clips from various movies and television shows. Moreover, I would probably start from the 1960’s to present day. It would be important to start from the 1960’s because during that decade there was a lot of discourse that demanded change to how women were treated and represented in society.  As for gender, I would create a photo college through Picasa which would present what it means to be feminine. Some photos could show a woman at a vanity putting on makeup, being surrounded by children, or women in various occupations.  

The Periodic Table of Visualization Methods is a table that shows various ways to visually display information. The table breaks down visualizations into six categories: data, information, concept, strategy, metaphor, and compound. For the concept of gender, using concept visualization would be the most applicable way of presenting the concept. In particular, the clustering graph could display in the center ‘female gender roles’ and then break it down into various categories of how gender is displayed in the media. Then, provide examples for each category. Compound visualization would be applicable in conveying hegemony. A visual cartoon could be used showing a female in the workplace and her interactions with her male counterparts. I think clustering graphs is a great way of displaying a concept, because a concept can be open to interpretation in various sociological perspectives. For example, gender is addressed differently in criminology, social psychology, religion, and family. Another visual representation application is Visuwords, which is an online visual dictionary. When I examined the two concepts in the application, there wasn't a lot of results for hegemony, but more so for gender. I like how the application displayed each word in a cluster graph format and how other words are tied to the specific concept.

Sources:  Picasa, Visuwords, The Periodic Table of Visualization Methods, Vouge, Kalof (1993), Buysee & Embser-Herbert (2004), Holmes (2007), Crane (1999)