The effect sexist toys have on girls

For millennia, societies have made boys and girls, those members of humanity that belong to the new generations, be clear about your gender from the first years of lifetime. This, among other things, it is done through play styles and toys.

For example, until the middle of the 20th century, most toys indicated on their boxes for which of the two sexes it was indicated the product, something that changed with the arrival of the feminisms of the second and third waves, between the 70s and the 90. Today, however, toys are still heavily gendered. It is natural to associate action figures for boys and cooking games for girls, for example.

But... Does this make the toys sexist? Could it be that the existence of this role distinction makes inequality appear? There are currently good reasons to think that sexist toys do exist, and they are especially primed with girls.

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Sexist toys and the gender burden

The type of toys boys and girls use does not obey a causal differentiation. In the vast majority of cases, these games

are a reflection of gender stereotypes. For example, girls are given games that deal with baby care, the importance of aesthetics and personal image, or housework, while girls The children are given action figures and games that have to do with dealing with imaginary situations that, if real, would be scary, violent or give disgust. However... Is this so because there is a genetic predisposition that being of a certain sex attracts certain games and not others, or is it all due to the effect of culture, which society teaches us during the childhood?

From what has been seen, there is evidence that part of these preferences for toys with a stereotyped gender load is due to biological, not cultural, factors. For example, It has been seen that little ones between one and two years of age, a time when they are not yet socialized in a group, already prefer toys that are associated with their gender. In addition, in cases of some diseases that alter the hormonal levels of girls making them more "masculine", the preferences for toys of these also veer more towards the masculine.

However, these differences between boys and girls do not have to be very profound.

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The influence of the environment

It must be taken into account that in most experiments in which the reaction of the little ones to toys that do not correspond to their gender, we work with specific toys, with specific properties specific. In these situations, the effects of hormonal differences, which are wide, can seem very concrete, and falsely reinforce too rigid gender roles.

For example, that children prefer to play with action figures does not mean that they are attracted to that category of entertainment we call "action figures"Rather, there is something about those objects that they find interesting. The possibility of fantasizing about risky situations is one of them.

But violent situations (those to which we usually associate the game with action figures) are not the only ones in which risks are taken and emotion is felt in the face of danger. In fact, it is perfectly possible that many of them are not associated with masculinity.

On the other hand, it has been seen that men are generally slightly better than women in tasks involving spatial processing, and this is also noticeable in the use of toys. Boys tend to prefer more elaborate puzzles than girls play, and these toys have to do with cognitive skills related to spatial thinking.

However, it has also been seen that fathers and mothers encourage children more when they play these kinds of games, and they do it less when they do it. It may seem unimportant, but if this social asymmetry happens at such a young age, can leave a mark on people's mental development.

We therefore see that although there seem to be hormonal differences that influence the preference for toys depending on the sex to which it belongs, this is interpreted as if it were the gender load of these games, and not the situations they give rise to, which make them tend to entertain themselves with some things and they do it with other

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Girls are at a disadvantage

How does this affect girls? Basically, it reinforces strongly implanted gender roles that put women at a disadvantage. For example, many of the highest paid professions are closely related to spatial reasoning, and if children are more encouraged to play with toys that promote this ability, these will have an advantage when filling engineering positions.

On the other hand, if it is assumed that since children have a predilection for action figures, women should be assigned to the field "safe" of the domestic, its existence will be more similar to that of a pet than to that of a person with the capacity to be Independent.

In short, the effect that sexist toys have on girls is the power to pigeonhole them into roles that have been created by society and that are given a priori: it is enough to coincide with certain characteristics related to this type of role, so that it is of course assumed that the entire personality of that girl (future woman) can be summarized by "the feminine". The consequences of this is, in short, more sexism and more chances of more girls being pigeonholed into that lifestyle.