Imagine that you are 12 years old. You’ve just run home from the bus stop, dashed past your parents waiting for a hello, and leapt into the couch while making a grab for the remote. You tune out the scolding from your parents about politeness and jumping on the furniture and punch in the numbers for Nickelodeon and are just in time for your favorite afternoon special.
Ignoring the fact that kids today have the ability to record their favorite programs, this is an image probably familiar to many of you from your own childhoods. Maybe you preferred Cartoon Network over Nick, or you were an avid devotee of Saturday morning cartoons but the image is none the less familiar. Another familiar image probably is the advertisements that came along with your favorite shows. Ads for the latest toys, books, clothes and other television shows penetrate the breaks in whatever you are watching to sell you, or rather convince you to make your parents buy you the next great thing.
Gendered advertising has been around for awhile now. Companies use gender in order to sell the same product twice, once to men and then again to women. Multiplying sales mean that they get more money, but what does this mean for children’s advertising? Kids are often smarter than we realize, but are they able to recognize that they are being manipulated into gender roles that may leave a lasting impression on their psyche by advertisers for the sole purpose of companies selling more toys? Or if they are able to recognize it, can those same children resist the boundaries put up by advertisers for their entire childhood into adolescence and adult life?
The answer to that is complicated. Every child is different, they are raised by different parents, and are given differing values by relatives, teachers, and members of their communities. While some children have been raised to recognize and actively resist gender stereotypes in advertising, others my ave parents who either don’t recognize this as an issue, don’t care, or may recognize the problem, but lack the time to talk about it.
Things are getting better. Recently in the UK, regulatory acts were passed that banned the use of gendered stereotypes in advertising due to fears that it could influence children negatively as they grow up. While these regulations only apply to the United Kingdom, in an increasingly global society it is easy, if perhaps a bit optimistic, to imaging these regulations causing a a domino affect within the advertising industry.
This conflict resonates with me for sure. I remember when I was in pre-school, I had equal amounts of friends that were boys and girls, and I ended up thinking of them very differently. With my girl friends, I'd always play house or play with dolls, but with the boys I would get to experience the toys they played with and it was really an eye opener. They had hot wheels and hulk hands and I learned to play in ways I never would have if I was only friends with girls. I'm grateful to them because I definitely believe I became more comfortable with my interests, whatever they are, because I learned it's okay to like anything if it makes you happy. There's one instance when I went to one of my boy friends' birthday parties around when I was 3, and it was Spider-Man themed because the movie had just come out. There was face painting and every single girl there had gotten Mary Jane face paint, which was basically just a dumb crown. I decided to get the Green Goblin done and I had a great time running around causing mischief rather than just being a damsel in distress. I'm proud of myself for being so happy with my interests at such a young age, but I know there are many young children who aren't raised with the same gender norm leniency. These ad regulations are 100% going to drastically increase the happiness of children, I can see it already.
ReplyDeleteGendered advertising is something I've always hated. I work in a toy store and have to deal with grown adults looking for specific gendered toys because ones marketed to the opposite gender "are not an option" to them. As a kid I never cared what toys I played with as long as it was fun for me and my friends. Even kids today do not care about gendered things as long as they like it. However it's sad that their are parents who believe in and support the gendering of such products when their kids don't. For example, whenever we wrap a gift, we always ask the parents what colors to use and they tend to respond with thing such as "its for a girl so pink!". Or they say "it's for a boy so anything boy colored". Whenever a parent does that I ALWAYS let the child that came with them pick out the curlies (it's just curled ribbon). And their kid usually just puts whatever colors they think are cool regardless of the colors "gender". So I'm very happy people are regulating the ads.
ReplyDeleteI think your post brings up a lot of good points! You actually reminded me of one particular company that I feel took a huge misstep with gendered products-- NERF. As a kid, I grew up playing with a lot of the same toys that my brothers played with. NERF guns were definitely a favourite of ours. I saw no problem in playing with a toy that was primarily marketed for young boys, because I was more focused on what I thought to be fun rather than what I "ought" to have been playing with. This list of mine would include a mixture of "girl" and "boy" toys, such as Legos, Barbies, Videogames, play makeup, and NERF guns. However, apparently not enough girls were playing with NERF guns, so in 2013, they released the Rebelle line specifically for girls, a lot of the guns being rather small and decorated prettily. I'm pretty sure one of the initial names of the products was the Heartbreaker Bow. What?!? And on Target.com right now, it looks like a twelve-count dart pack for the Rebelle line is priced $2 higher than the N-Strike line.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.target.com/p/nerf-n-strike-elite-series-12-dart-refill-pack/-/A-14068332#lnk=sametab
https://www.target.com/p/nerf-rebelle-dart-refill-pack/-/A-14533759#lnk=newtab
Not to mention, the Rebelle line is extremely lacking and just looks like they didn't try very hard to make the products interesting. In case you thought it couldn't get worse, take a look at this gun (spoiler: it's a purse):
https://www.bigw.com.au/p/WCC100000000210200/prdImages/GALLERY/zoomImg/0/?context=bWFzdGVyfGltYWdlc3wxMzczNjJ8aW1hZ2UvanBlZ3xpbWFnZXMvaGYwL2g3Zi8xMDcwMjkyMzcyNjg3OC5qcGd8OTI2ZWEwNGU0ZTRiM2YyOGViMWQ3OTBkYTAxZWJhNGM1NTRjYmQ1OWRjMzAzNDczZTAyNzhlYjllOTVkNGNmMg
I wonder if anyone in that initial Rebelle meeting thought to ask, "How about we just put some girls in the advertisements and on the packaging?"
Very interesting topic. And your'e right it is really unfair that advertising is so gendered today. Its insane that they try to even say there is a difference in two of the same things. Even in Stores everything is sooo gendered. I mean at target the other day the toy isle was literally half pink half blue. I wonder why they do this ,besides to sell more product? It really is a problem I completely agree.
ReplyDelete