While gender-based toys may seem like a way to help children form identities, they also hurt children and force children into stereotype. Toys are being divided. Children are being divided. Children are being assigned roles by the toys marketed towards them. This perpetuates harmful stereotypes and inhibits their overall potential. We are idly allowing our kids to separate themselves and unlike an evolving species our development is going stagnant.

Sexism and homophobia are behaviors that are started and endorsed in childhood. Both men and women suffer from this. Sociologist Sweet says, “Parents tend to stick with gender-typed for boys, either they understand that the social cost for boys who transgress into the “pink” zone are especially high in homophobic culture or because of their own desire for gender conformity.” Gender divide toys inhibit special reasoning. The underdevelopment caused by the lacking “girls” toys cause a drift in the ratio of women to men in science fields. “Spatial skills are a piece of the explanation for the underrepresentation of women in science and tech, not only important for math and science but for what we call ‘executive function’—higher-level thinking,” says Jirout in the article How Today’s Toys Maybe Harming Your Daughter. Unlike a popular phrase, words do hurt. Children are constantly learning and adopting what they see. And when you see a bunch of people like you doing a thing you will want to reciprocate that said action. When boys see only boys playing with something, they are turning away the girls and implying it isn’t for them. And vise-versa boys will be less likely to get a doll when they only see girls with them.

Some claim that gendered toys make the most sense. In an article Dellingpool says, “Give a girl a doll and she will cuddle it and nurture it. Give a boy a doll and he will either torture and dismember it or use it as a hand grenade.” Many share these opinions. They say gendered marketing and toys in separate isles make it easier to shop for children. It is this type of thinking that allows harmful stereotypes to thrive. It isn’t the idea that boys playing with toy knives is bad. It’s the exclusion that is harmful. Buy making it only ninja swords and nerf guns they are associating violence with boy only hobbies. And thus, demonizing children who wish to do something that is out of their “norm”.  It hurts the little boys who want to play daddy with a doll and the girls who want to play ninja. Things affecting adults stem from childhood. People take for granted how gendered marketing might be affecting their child.

Gendered toys and the attitudes that perpetuate them are harmful to children. It is irresponsible to continue segregating children into gender boxes. It slows down progress by eliminating diverse ways of thinking. There isn’t a reason for a boy to not like easy bake ovens. Girls like the superhero action figures. By separating the toys, they take down the validity of children playing. We are as a society are enforcing how a 4-year-old plays.