discussing what two pictures are telling

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Gender Stereotyping In Toy Marketing
The first picture features Barbie dolls. The Barbie dolls encompass girls in fancy hair and clothes. A slim body shape is also a common feature among all the Barbie dolls. Pink color is also noticeable among a majority of the Barbie dolls. A slim body, fancy clothes, and hair serves to emphasize the importance of physical appearance among women. The Barbie dolls project the ideal physical appearance of women as one where a woman has slim body, narrow hip and small breasts (Bartky 406). On the other hand, the second picture displays toys mimicking men in swords, guns and combat gear. The dummy men in the picture are also muscular. The dummy men, as well as the surrounding environment, serve to attribute aggression to males.
Toys are intended to appeal to young children. These are human beings without much knowledge about the world. It is through toys that they first learn how the world works. The young children also lack any substantial knowledge regarding gender. Their uninformed nature makes them susceptible to any information they come across in their daily lives. Toys significantly contribute to the information assimilated by children regarding gender and the expected roles of each gender in society.
Both pictures in the advertisements promote gender stereotyping. Gender stereotyping entails attributing certain features and behavior to a specific gender (Scott 41). Physical attractiveness as well as being nurturing is attributed to women while aggression and physical strength are attributed to men.

Women are assigned the role of being homemakers while men are assigned the role of being breadwinners. An ideal woman is expected to be timid and submissive, which are critical to molding great mothers and wives. On the other hand, an ideal man is expected to be decisive, aggressive and physically strong. These attributes are critical to helping a man labor and accumulate wealth while wading competition from other men.
Feminism is a pertinent issue in today’s society. Feminism entails equating the social, political and economic interests of both men and women. Feminism aims to abolish conventional gender roles and expectations linked to a specific gender (Bartky 414). Feminism is against the core tenet of conventional toy marketing whereby toys are manufactured and promoted to appeal to a specific gender. In the pictures under evaluation, Barbie dolls are being promoted to appeal to young girls in the first picture. However, the star wars toys in the second picture are promoted to appeal to young boys. This demonstrates the power relations among men and women in society (Scott 405). Young girls are conditioned to be physically attractive and to nurture good working relationships with other people. In contrast, young boys are conditioned to be aggressive and to avoid emotional investment with other people in society.
Scott (1994) argued for the need by society to do away with the belief that women were different from men (gender stereotyping). She affirmed that gender stereotyping was undermining the lives of women thus the call to abolish it. Scott (1994) gives an example of Sears’ discrimination litigation whereby women were systematically underrepresented in commission sales job (Scott 42). The reason given by the company for underrepresenting women in commission sales job was in their gender. The company’s attorneys were unwavering in their claim in court that it was unreasonable for Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to hold that women and men were the same. Scott (1994) contends that categorical differences should be used when criticizing policies as opposed to criticizing policies on biological differences (Scott 46).
Egalitarianism is a core tenet of the work of Scott (1994). Egalitarianism holds that men and women are not only equal but also that both men and women should enjoy equal rights and opportunities (Scott 44). Gender stereotyping displayed in the pictures under evaluation goes against this tenet. Young girls are the main characters in the Barbie dolls while young boys are the main characters in the star wars toys. The color pink is also extensively linked to girls while dark colors (black and blue) are linked to men. This is evident in conventional shopping stores whereby certain aisles are pink in color and others are blue in color. The pink aisles are stocked with Barbie dolls and kitchen sets while the blue aisles are stocked with star wars toys and other toys considered manly. This limits the choice of toys that a child can use for play. Parents are inclined to buy the Barbie dolls for their daughters while they are inclined to buy the star wars toys for their boys.
The type of toys that children regularly interact with has a significant influence on the behavior of the children. For instance, young girls constantly exposed to Barbie are likely to exhibit a high degree of narcissism and become timid later in life (Bartky 416). Conversely, young boys constantly exposed to star wars toys are likely to become highly aggressive and fiercely competitive later in life. The behaviors have a significant impact on the work expectations of women and men. In the case, Sears v. EEOC, Rosenberg, and Kessler-Harris testified as expert witnesses (Scott 42). The former testified for Sears while the latter testified for Kessler-Harris. Sears maintained that the reason behind women being underrepresented in high commission sales jobs stemmed from different job preferences between men and women as opposed to sexual discrimination between men and women. Eventually, Sears won the case since EEOC was unable to prove beyond reasonable doubt that women were underrepresented in well-paying sales commission jobs due to sexual discrimination as opposed to the difference in job preference (Scott 44).
The job preferences adopted by women can be linked to toys they are made to interact with in their formative years. Gender stereotyping leads women to opt for certain jobs over others. The underrepresentation of women in well-paying sales commission jobs would have been absent if gender stereotyping was non-existent at the time. Women would have been willing to take well-paying sales commission jobs similar to men. In the past, feminists have faced a difficult time trying to fight for the equality of women without the differences between men and women arising (Scott 46). Scott (1994) argued that differences between men and women should not be based on biological grounds but categorical differences.
It is evident that it is nearly impossible to fight for the equality between men and women without having to consider differences among them. Toy marketing based on gender stereotyping serves to show that men and women are different. The perceived difference between men and women sets back women since it denies them rights and opportunities enjoyed by women. Gender stereotyping limits the career choice made by both men and women. This realization has led Scott (1994) to fight for the equal treatment of women in society. Scott (1994) represents feminists who contend that women should be accorded equal treatment as their male counterparts. If women are to be linked to certain identities, it should be done without comparing women to stereotypes developed by the society (Scott 48).

Works Cited
Bartky, S. L. (1997). Foucault, femininity, and the modernization of patriarchal power (pp. pp-
61). na.
Scott, Joan W. “Deconstructing equality-versus-difference: Or, the uses of poststructuralist
theory for feminism Joan W. Scott.” The postmodern turn: New perspectives on social theory 15 (1994): 282.