Re: Toys and gender (More)
Barbara J Tavares (btavares@hawaii.edu)
Wed, 23 Oct 1996 14:51:40 -1000
Before I became a full time gender equity specialist (11 years ago) I was
in early childhood, so I have enjoyed the lego conversation. As
condescending as pastel legos may seem, the color would have nothing to do
with what they "teach" children. if it takes a pink lego to signal to a
girl that this toy is for her, then fine. It is the math concepts that
she will gain that are important. We didn't have pastel legos when I was
with Headstart, but that would be an interesting research project to see
how changing the color would affect who plays with them.
Also, even though young teens, male and female, are concerned with
appearnace, any one that thinks it the same for both genders hasn't read
much of the research on the topic. That would be like saying that the
draft affected women the same as men in the 60s.
Barbara Tavares