1. The influence of social concept
For example, in China's traditional concept, men are in charge of the outside world and women are in charge of their own affairs. Boys should have manly spirit and go out to make a living, while girls should be gentle, virtuous and caring for their families. Even in today's era when women can hold up half the sky, there are still many people who still hold this idea. This makes parents consider the gender of their children when they buy toys.
2. Parental restrictions
Buying toys is basically a matter for parents, so what toys children play with is also subject to parental constraints. In a toy store, if a little girl says she wants to buy a car, her mother will say, "that's for boys. You're a girl. Shall we buy this teddy bear? You see how lovely it is. " If a little boy wants to buy a doll, his father will say, "you are a boy. How can you play with girls' toys? Put them back quickly." Parents will worry that boys will become "sissy" if they play with toys such as dolls and small kitchenware, and girls will become naughty and naughty when they play with cars and robots.
3. Peer influence
On the one hand, because babies also have herd mentality, what toys they play will be influenced by their peers. Whatever toys they play with, they prefer that kind of toys. On the other hand, in order not to be "isolated", peers say that dolls are girls' toys and cars are boys' toys. Babies will also be influenced by their theories. In order to integrate into the group, they choose common preferences and stay away from toys that don't belong to themselves.
How do gender stereotypes affect children?
1. It affects the development of some abilities and kills the talent of children
Different types of toys can cultivate children's different abilities. Dolls and kitchen toys are beneficial to children's language ability and life skills; building blocks and jigsaw puzzles are helpful to cultivate children's spatial cognitive ability; cars and skateboards can promote the development of children's sports skills. If we consider sex to choose toys, in the long run, it will lead to the development of some of their abilities and kill their talent.
For example, most people think that boys' mathematical ability and spatial structure ability are better than girls' and they are suitable for science. Girls are easy to calm down to study and endorse, and they are suitable for liberal arts. In fact, these are prejudices. Most of the toys parents give boys are cars, small airplanes, building blocks, bicycles and so on. They have been cultivating their spatial construction ability and mathematical ability since childhood. The girls were given books, dolls, small Kitchenware and so on, so that they could sit down, study hard and cultivate patience, but they did not develop their ability in numbers and space. In fact, some girls have math talent, but they are killed by these stereotypes. In the same way, some boys are very gifted in clothing design, but their parents' prejudice against male fashion designers has also killed their design talent.
