Week 3 Response to Sara M. post

I see different sides of the spectrum on this issue. Yes, Toys R Us is an extreme example where the gender lines are so rigidly pointed out as a guide for what little girls and little boys supposedly should be playing with. However, I also see children desiring to adhere to these cues in my own life. Not ALL children of course, but for example my niece LOVES anything pink and girly. All of her favorite playtime things are very gendered and I think she enjoys that aspect of it, as though playing a big girl is half the fun! She loves modeling herself after my sister, mom or me. She walks around in our high heels and plays dress up while her brother Adrian likes to play with action figures like Spiderman and batman. He’s also much more aggressive in his play while she is thoughtful and subdued. She loves her dollhouse and he loves weapons and dinosaurs. The one time he had somewhat feminine playtime behavior was when he likes to pretend to vacuum and even then you could see some reactions to this as though it was out of the ordinary. Of course by now, 4.5 years old, he’s replaced the vacuum with baseball bats and water guns! As an ex-retail manager I can say that merchandising is essential to driving sales. How the displays are constructed, floor plans, wall and floor fixtures are all carefully thought out to maximize revenue. I’m sure Toys R Us has done plenty of market research to support their merchandising plans to prove it’s the most profitable to segregate the toys and color code them along gender lines. I’m not saying its right, but I’m not surprised by it either.