When we are kids, we don’t get much choice about what toys get to play with. Our parents are the ones who influence us, install their own ideas, and raise us to be the people we are today. They choose toys for use based on what they think we would like and what society suggests for them. However, once we reach a certain age, for myself this is probably around seven or eight years old, I was able to understand the things that I wanted to play with and one of my first toy memories of toys is a bug net. I didn’t realize how strange my favorite toy was until I saw other girls playing with Barbies or American Girl Dolls. From my childhood, I remember being outside immersing myself in nature, playing with bugs, and getting dirty. I have two brothers so that was something that definitely influenced me and shaped my childhood activities. Playing with dolls was something that never really interested me, and I just didn’t find it appealing. I didn’t want to play dress up with them and I would rather get dirty in the mud. I didn’t realize it at the time but these interactions I had at a young age shaped me into the person I am today. I was able to create fun through my own imagination and the things around me. This allowed me to grow up as a very independent person and I was able to rely on myself for creating my own entertainment.
In one of the first articles, I read titled, “Social Interactions and Play Patterns of Parents and Toddlers with Feminine, Masculine, and Neutral Toys”, Calders describes how children as young as 18-24 develop gender toy preference. Unknowingly, we are able to form gender-based opinions and choose toys based on what deem as fitting for our gender. Masculine toys, such as trucks, are associated with aggression whereas feminine toys, such as dolls, are associated with peace and love. Even from this age, we are conditioned to associate gender with different activities and words. Parents choose the toys they want their child to play with and they have a big role in determining the way their children perceive their own gender and others. Martin and Rose have a similar opinion where they explore how children’s gender-based opinions are formed based solely on the appearance of toys. They concluded that children liked toys less if they believed that they belonged to other gender categories. When a girl sees another girl playing with a doll, she reasons that since she is the same gender, she should also want to play with a doll. My parents or myself didn’t realize the effect toys would have on me and the way it would drastically affect the way I perceive my own gender.