The design of toys has changed over time. Many years ago it was believed that girls only could play with dolls and girls toys and boys only could play with cars, guns and boys toys. So, children must play with their gender toys. However, there were some toys such as animals and building-simulation which were unisex.
It is always said too that the world of girls is pink and the world of boys is blue.
This division between toys for girls and toys for boys also existed in the real world.In the past, the role of the woman consisted in taking care of children and home, they weren’t able to have a job and they only could do some specifically things, but man were considered perfectly to have a work, hunting, driving, earning money and a large variety of things.
In conclusion the consumer world had a very extreme of masculinity and feminity. Although over the years this roles which were supposed to be followed by men and women has changed. Woman have introduced in the man’s world over time. Woman has started driving, having a job, earning money and so being more independent.
This evolution is taking place very slowly and is reflected in various aspects such as in toys for young children. Some years ago if a boy played with girls toys it was considered a really bad thing, it couldn’t be accepted and vice versa but nowadays if a boy or a girl plays with toys of opposite gender it is accepted and it doesn’t matter. However, as I see it there’s still discrimination between two genders. In fact we want to seem open-minded and moderns but it isn’t the truth because conscious or subconsciously we make a distinction between girls and boys toys. In recent years the government is pretending to change this discrimination between genders which is included in many events and aspects.
In my opinion I don’t think that toys are either for boys or for girls I don’t believe in “boys toys” and “girls toys” and I don’t think that shops have to separate the toys which are intended for boys from the toys which are intended for girls. As I see it this separations of two genders that people is used to make is like a topic because it is always have existed, but if in the births of toys no one had made distinctions currently it wouldn’t exist.
To finish I would like to write about Hamleys sexism. It is one of the world’s largest toy shops. This Christmas Hamelys shops separated areas to boys and areas to girls and this generated controversy because it represented a several problem of inequality. As a consequence Toy store Hamleys has stopped labelling floors in blue and pink for boys and girls. But the question if it will change the way children play, but what is truly important is that Hamleys has made a step towards gender equality.In the next photo you can see Toys signs which changed after Hamley was accused of sexism. You can see before (left) and after (right) the complaint.
