Reconsidering How Children Learn Gender

JOURNAL ARTICLE REVIEW: Is Barbie to Blame?
Reconsidering How Children Learn Gender
Is Barbie to Blame?: Reconsidering How Children Learn Gender by Glenda MacNaughton is a commentary article on the banning of sexist toys, like Barbie and Power Rangers. This article analyses the issues and concerns of the cultural and behavioral analysts on the influence of Barbie and Power Rangers, and the like, on the gender development of children.
The author argues that now is time to rethink our understandings of how children learn to be gendered. An increase in toys such as Barbie and Power Rangers encourages gender-stereotyped and biased play in early childhood centers for girls and boys alike. Questions and concerns have been raised about the impact of popular culture toys on children's learning, particularly its gendered nature. Early childhood staff should consider banning girls playing with Barbie and boys playing with Power Rangers in their programs, suggest some commentators (e.g., Levin, 1995).
Advice to early childhood staff wishing to challenge gender-stereotyped behavior has included the need to use non-sexist images and stories. The advice is based on a flawed theory of how children learn to be gendered. Reproduction theory fails to acknowledge human agency, resistance, and individuals' ability to reconstitute dominant practices, meanings, and understandings. From the feminist POSt-structuralist perspective, children's gendering is seen as a struggle to make sense of and learn the standard ways of being male and female in their social world. Children have agency in learning and practicing gender and can resist and reconstitute those adults' understandings and practices. Staff needs to understand what pleasures and investments children have in particular male and female ways to help children build equally pleasurable alternatives. Children need to feel comfortable about their gender inconsistencies if they are to move beyond the traditional.
Parallel with Reproduction theory, are some studies which points out that toys are getting more gendered, a researcher has found (Kamenetz and Turner, 2019). One-third of undergraduate women identify themselves as "princesses," according to a 2013 study. Even gender-neutral toys like blocks are cloned in primary and pastel shades to sell more sets. How a child plays is more important than what they play with, she says. Not all toys are inherently good o...