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Posts from the ‘In the News’ Category

Feb 3

LEGO Contributing to Gender Roles

According to the article New Legos Aimed at Girls Raise Questions (Chris O’Brien, San Jose Mercury News, Jan. 2012), Lego brand has introduced a new line of products, Lego Friends, that is directed towards girls. While Lego’s products have remained general neutral in the past, they have always appealed to more male consumers than females. However, the company decided to veer toward products that would attract more boys, such as fantasy and escapist based kits, when sales began to drop a few years ago. Recently, Lego has been working on putting out a product directed towards girls. After conducting a study to see what girls like in toys, they discovered that girls prefer a more “reality-based” toy that creates a setting in which they can see themselves as the characters. Though the author does agree that his daughter is interested in the Lego Friends line, he ultimately argues that she, along with other girls, are happy with the traditional product lines that Lego has to offer.

"City Park Cafe" selling for $29.99 as of February 2012.

While this product has great potential to boost Lego sales, the company made several errors when designing the product, each of which involves gender roles, which we have discussed during multiple lectures over the course of the semester. First, Lego made the bodies of the girls different from the traditional, bulky build of the classic Lego person. The figure on these girls shows a thin waste as well as breasts on the figure. Some argue that this will lead to an increase in lower self-confidence in girls. Also, the Lego Friends line includes a cafe and beauty parlor, which goes back to the traditional female stereotype of women centering life around cooking while simultaneously maintaining good looks. John Baichtal, co-author of the recent book, The Cult of LEGO, thinks there is still time to improve the product line and suggests adding more professions, such as science and technology professions. Finally, the Lego Friends kits require a significant amount of less building than the previous Lego kits. This causes the consumer to wonder if Lego felt they needed to dumb down the product for a girl product, which does not please the consumer.

This article clearly relates to multiple class discussions we have had as it focuses on the gender roles that toy makers place on their products and how the consumers view the products. While the company may be doing what it thinks will boost their sales, they often lose sight of what exactly they are marketing and turn to the classic stereotypes. Likewise, as companies begin to put out these products, some of the consumers (in this case, the parents) will buy into the product as that they believe will be “normal” for the gender of their child based on previously established gender roles.

 

Feb 3

Parents in Films and Parents at Home

According to the article Parents Under Pressure in Films (Rebecca Keegan, Los Angeles Times, Jan. 2012), “parenting – specifically parental guilt and anxiety – is the subtext of a surprisingly large number of the year-end and awards-season movies”. Parents have always been a subject of interest for filmmakers, and the resulting movies have always spoken of the time in which they were created. The “hyper-self-critical, stressed-out parents” of today’s movies reflect a “culture of self-conscious child-rearing”. This is, of course, because of a societal shift in ideas of parenting. Back in the day, parents based their techniques on their own upbringing and on instincts. Today people think, analyze, and worry much more about parenting. In today’s movies, often mothers are out of the picture and fathers are portrayed as inadequate. In one such movie, 2011’s  “The Descendants”, a father has to deal with his problematic daughters while his wife is in a coma. Kaui Hart Hemmings, author of the novel “The Descendants” says of parenting,

“My grandfather would come home and have his martini hour and engage with his kids, but then he clocked out as a parent. You don’t do that anymore. I joined this mothers group, and it was just sort of this absurd culture to me. I was overwhelmed by parenting…. The focus on having the right things and what are they eating … lactation consultants, crib consultants, I swear to God there are curtain consultants. Parenting has become this whole other culture.”

Other recent movies speaking of failed parenting or parent/child relationships include “We Bought A Zoo”, “Carnage”, and “We Need To Talk About Kevin”. The main emotion that can be gleaned from these movies is guilt over parenting and how it should (or should not) be done.

This article connects to the “Anxious Parents” reading (Peter Stearns) in the course reader in that both talk about the shifting views on and anxiety around parenting. Stearns writes that the 20th century was “a century of anxiety about the child and about parents’ own adequacy”, a phenomenon which is clearly reflected in these recent films (2). Stearns also writes that children were seen as more vulnerable, fragile, and in need of protection (3).  Parents feel that they have little control over who and what influences their children, and often believe that children will act out the images they like or are influenced by, which generates more concern about parenting (10).  Also, issues such as new technology/consumer products, fears of diseases, and changes in family structure have caused parents to feel guilty about the environment in which they are raising children (3). Parents feel a huge sense of responsibility, and thus have anxieties about how they should treat their children.

These movies play to parents’ fears of bad parenting, but simultaneously alleviate guilt by showing that other parents are also not perfect.

(Below, Trailer for “The Descendants”, 2011)

Feb 3

It’s a Boy!

An article in The Sun by Bella Battle, announced that the couple who kept their child’s gender a secret for five years have revealed that the child, Sasha, is a boy. They kept Sasha’s sex a secret from teachers, friends, and family members. The parents, Beck Laxton and Kieran Cooper, kept their home television-free, only allowed him to play with “gender neutral” toys and alternated boys’ clothes and girls’ clothes. They reasoned that typical gender roles create stereotypes that prevent a person’s real personality from shining through. For the first five years of Sasha’s life, he was referred to as “The Infant”. His parents decided to publicly reveal his gender when he entered grade school and when the school told them the child would have to use the designated restroom for boys or girls depending on his sex.

Laxton explained, “I just want him to fulfill his potential, and I wouldn’t push him in any direction. As long as he has good relationships and good friends, then nothing else matters does it?”

Beck Laxton and her son are laughing together while showing off Sasha’s “gender neutral” apparel.

In our class discussion, we conversed much about gender roles and popular culture. We debated, for example, why young boys may not feel comfortable reading stereotypical “girls books” while young girls do not feel the same pressure. “Books are labeled, as strictly as school lavatories, ‘Books for Boys’ or ‘Books for Girls’.” (Course Packet, P. 165) The same can be argued for toys and clothes, as we learned in our class discussion. In today’s society, when we see cargo shorts, sneakers, and baggy shirt, we tend to think male, whereas we associate dresses and the color pink with the femininity.

The article concludes by stating, “As a child grows they develop their own independent sense of self that will include their own individual gender identification.”

I believe this is extremely vital to mention. Although I do understand the point these parents are attempting to get across, I believe their son may not benefit quite as much as they hope. In today’s society, as sad as it may be, he will undoubtedly have a difficult childhood outside his own home. He will likely have a difficult time assimilating in school and in many social situations until he reaches an age where he has been better socialized (outside of the home) to develop his own sense of self. A child must have the ability to choose who they want to be. Although these parents are trying to keep their son from being forced one way or the other, they also restrict certain “extreme toys” such as Barbie and G.I. Joe. This impedes Sasha from being able to make his own decisions about what to play with and, thus, the person he wants to be. It is imperative for children to be exposed to books, clothing and toys that are geared both towards boys and girls, however, in this extreme circumstance, Sasha is likely to be confused and may even have a more difficult time developing his own sense of identity due to his parents’ seeming repulsion for it one way or another.

Feb 2

It’s not your 5 yr old son, it’s you

In an article from the San Francisco Chronicle by Margot Magowan, she argues that parents are the ones choosing to provide segregated toys for their children and these toys are limiting their brain development by placing a boundary on their experiences. She tells parents, they are the ones with the wallet, they need to ignore marketing and buy wisely. The idea of children and gender related toys has always been and is becoming even more widely seen today. It is very common that we give a girl the gift of a doll and a boy the gift of a toy truck. Elizabeth Segel also references this idea when explaining children’s books.

“Adults decide what books are written, published, and offered for sale, and, for the most part, purchased for children. (course packet pg. 67)”

Both authors are arguing that parents cannot blame their children for the toys and books that they have. The parents are the shopper and the parents are the one that purchase it for the child. Another issue they both bring up is that during childhood, our brains have more plasticity than at any other time in our lives. Children learn through play and the toys and books that children are exposed to while growing up will shape their attitudes and ideas about gender-roles. Magowan argues that these segregated toys will limit children’s learning because they are only experiencing half of the toys available. Segel argues that segregated books form their attitudes about gender-role behaviors. Encouraging children to try new things and move out of their comfort zone will enhance their learning as well as introduce an understanding of equality. This being said, it is extremely important to expose children to toys and books that are geared towards both the same and opposite sex.

 

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