Toys, Gender-Stereotypic

The distinctions we use to separate men from women, and the qualities that go into what we call “masculine” and “feminine,” are arbitrary and culturally defined. Gender roles are perpetuated and learned through gender socialization, and toys may be considered a [Page 1462]type of gender socializing agent. Socialization connects the different generations to one another. Socialization constitutes the set of processes through which the values, norms, and practical know-how of a society are handed down from generation to generation. It is the expression of the value system characterizing the various societies and plays a role of great importance in the formation of identity and of male and female roles. On it depends the success of the transformation process of the biological characteristics into behaviors ...