Have you ever seen a boy playing with a Barbie doll on TV?
No. Boys don’t play with Barbie. Mattel specifically target markets
towards the gender of girls they do this through the use of color,
picture, and sound. The color most prevalent on a Barbie commercial
is pink. Pink is a “girl color.” On a side note pink being a girls
color is a stereotype. Why is pink the color for girls and blue the
color for boys. Who made these stupid stereotypes in the first place?
Pink is used to attract the attention of young girls. The use of picture
is manipulated, because there are young girls “just like you” playing
with Barbie this way girls can easily relate and see themselves as the
girls in the commercial. Lastly, the use of sound is a subliminal message
because it is always a woman’s voice talking and usually explaining
accessories and such; what things are and how they work. It is probably
because a man’s voice is associated with masculinity and being macho
and Barbie represents a gentle femine image so, it only makes sense
that a woman’s voice represents the product and image the mattel wants
it’s target market of customers to “buy into” (so to speak).

The general idea of gender stereotyping
can be shown with boys toys as well. You probably would never see girls
on the Power Wheels commercials. Power Wheels are presented to the
public as macho boy toys: some very rugged, almost as if they were
off road vehicles. Not to say that girls cannot ride them, though.
But the previous stated rule can be applied to this. If girls are
playing with these, their Power Wheels will be the girly stereotype:
bright, pink, and just girly. So while they do make them for girls,
the fact alone that they have to distinguish the color scheme to
do so shows a stereotype.

Easy Bake Ovens are another toy geared to female. “Why is that?” one
might ask. Women are suppose to be the nurtures and maternal gender
in society. So most toys that are associated with cooking and or
baking are for women. But if only females are so interested in cooking
then why are some of the worlds most renound chefs men? Chef Jim
Coleman , Chef Thierry Blouet, and my personal favorite Martin Yan
are just a few of the many famous chefs in the world. Many of the
world’s most renowned chefs are men, so why then are kitchen related
toys aimed toward females. Perhaps the media should take this into
consideration and begin to make more unisex toys that geared to all
toddlers with many colors not just specific ones toward one sex or the other.