Respectful Student
Professor Muldrow
English 1101-103
2 June 2009
Conformity of Children
“Questions About Toys” is a poem in the book Imitation of Life by Allison Joseph that she develops to discuss issues that arise by conformity throughout life. Joseph is the speaker in all the poems throughout the book, and utilizes her past experiences in life to expose the true problems with adults, parent figures, media, manufacturers, and their conformity; therefore, these people or groups constructs what references society. Joseph uses the question strategy to express society’s forcefulness of conformity on children, and proposes that the toys children play with establish the roles children fall into as adults in the poem, “Questions About Toys.”
Joseph begins to address why the media and merchandisers mold children at an early age to play with toys stereotypically produced for their own gender; however, their views see it as wrong for children to play with toys in design for the opposite sex. Joseph begins to write, “to ditch your 11-inch fashion doll / for a rip-snorting, grenade-toting / G.I. Joe” (3-6). Merchandisers encourage girls to begin playing with dolls and boys to begin playing with combat toys, in order to conform gender-specific roles of the public’s eye at an early age; nonetheless, Joseph reflects on why toy manufacturers make toys with gender-specific roles in mind with the basis on the roles boys and girls play as adults. Since the beginning of time, boys or men suggest that women are to handle the cooking and cleaning in the family; girls or women presume that men will be the providers and protectors of the family. The toys that children play with begin to shape their minds regarding their purpose of family life, and they grow up expecting this partly due to the packaging of the toys the children see in the store or on the manufacturers’ commercials for the toys. The author describes the toys boys play with start developing their minds as providers or protectors: “to palm a b.b gun / …to fondle a Swiss Army knife” (12-13). The gun represents the person who will be the protector of the family. The Swiss Army knife represents the tool men use to be the provider in their family. The knife also symbolizes what is necessary to repair items that are broken[CCSD1] , and is another example of a gender specific toy. Joseph continues to say, “Perhaps you had a toy kitchen, complete / with sink, ironing board, washier and dryer” (24 – 25). Joseph describes the girls’ kitchen set and other items that they grow up playing with as shaping their minds to become the good house wives or mothers as their role later in live. Researchers show how conformity sets the children’s toys and the media expectancies affect the gender role: “Identity messages circulate through merchandise that surrounds young consumers … with commercial goods decorated with popular culture images, … that invite identification … gendered expectations about what children should buy, how they should play, and who they should be” (Wohlwend 57). Retailers market toys to a gender-specific public by the commercials they produce, the displays they create in the stores, and the packaging of their products, which in turn starts the process of dividing gender roles and thus, begins the formability of children’s minds at the early age of childhood. The toy manufacturers use the power of suggestion by creating a glamorous life of a toy that children want to adapt as their own.[CCSD2]
Joseph articulates why the toys children play with help define how they attach importance to their life as adults, and how children become spontaneous or stressful adults later on in life. The author challenges the reader by questioning whether or not to give up the girl toys and explore life like boys. Joseph writes, “one afternoon when you didn’t pretend to clean and cook like / mommy did one moment when you reared back /… imagining yourself invincible” (42 - 45). Women tend to deal with and take on more stress as an adult than their male counterparts; as a result, girls play with their toys and dream about settling down and becoming a parent, housewife, and/or a caretaker. At the same time, boys dream of living life to the fullest and living spontaneously. Women typically end up facing depression more often than men as women continue to take on many responsibilities in life such as the primary guardian for the children or other family members, the duties inside the home, and work outside of the home: “there is some evidence that women are exposed to more interpersonal stressors, such as primary caretaker issues, whereas men face more work-related stressors” (Meisler 206). The roles children play at an early age shape the way women and men as adults operate their day-to-day life.
Parental figures label children gay or lesbian at an early age depending on what gender toys they prefer. Parents emphasize that their male child can not [CCSD3] play with dolls because it appears these toys are for the female gender only, and the same is true for girls not being able to play with boys match box cars in fear of their child being labeled as a lesbian. This reinforces a fear parents have for their children who play with opposite sex toys, and is not true in terms of sexuality. Joseph begins her poem by questioning which sex perceives to have the better toys. Joseph states, “Growing up, did you ever think / that boys owned better toys / than girls” (1 – 3). Parents guide their children to believe that their gender related toys are the only toys they can play with, no matter how their opposite gender toy appears. Parents suspect children who play with the opposite sex toy may become a homosexual instead of a heterosexual; therefore, they encourage their children to play with the appropriate gender toy despite the children’s feelings. Scholars [CCSD4] state, “Sex-typed toy preference was not related to awareness of sex role differences but was related to gender identity” (Weinraub et al. 1493). The toys that children play with do not define their sexuality when they become an adult; however, it gives them a gender label viewed by parental figures.
Joseph takes all of her past experiences of life to explain how the public distinguishes the gender conformity of children, and she exhibits rebellion as she attempts to question the expectations of the norm that parents, media, merchandisers, and adults place on children. The author looks at how the toys we play with shape the lives children end up leading. Parental figures and manufacturers need to let children be whom they decide to become, and stop putting stress on children to conform to it’s standard lifestyle. Playing with the opposite sex toys is not wrong; after all, children will become who they want to become despite the toys they play with as children.
Works Cited
Joseph, Allison. “Questions About Toys.” Imitation of Life. Pittsburgh: Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2003. 17-18.
Meisler, Jody Godfrey. "Toward Optimal Health: The Experts Discuss Depression." Journal of Women's Health & Gender-Based Medicine 11.3 (Apr. 2002): 205-210. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. UWG Ingram Library, Carrollton, Ga. 13 Apr. 2009 <http://ts.isil.westga.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=6590436&site=ehost-live>.
Weinraub, Marsha. Clemens, Lynda Pritchard. Sockloff, Alan. Ethridge, Teresa.
Gracely,
Edward. Myers, Barbara. “The Development of Sex Roles Stereotypes in the
Third Year: Relationships to Gender Labeling, Gender Identity, Sex-Types Toy
Preference, and Family Characteristics.” Child Development 55.4 (Aug.
1984): 1493-1503. Research
Library. ProQuest.
UWG Ingram Library, Carrollton, GA. 13 Apr. 2009 http://www.proquest.com/.
Wohlwend, Karen E. "Damsels in Discourse: Girls Consuming
and Producing Identity Texts Through Disney Princess Play. " Reading
Research Quarterly 44.1 (2009): 57-83. Research Library. ProQuest. UWG Ingram Library, Carrollton, GA. 13 Apr. 2009 http://www.proquest.com/.