Why do fast food restaurants call them “girl toys” and “boy toys”? Is there supposed to be a difference? Not long ago I got 2 children’s meals from the local fast food restaurant, and they ask if I wanted boy toys or girl toys, I said I wanted 1 of each. Generally my daughter will play with the “Boy toy” and unless it’s Barbie, my son will play with the “Girl toy.” (He used to, but my wife asked him to stop stripping the clothes off them.) This time I got home and took the toys out for them to see, I had a sword spinning pirate, and a super-villain’s race car that shot plastic missiles. So which is which, and why were they labelled boy and girl?

The concept of gender based toys is an old one, that when you think about it we propagate a lot. If you go to most major toy stores they have them divided clearly (Some even mark on the walls “for him” or “for her”) But you will have black sleek bows and arrows made like a ninja assassin would carry, with a boy on the box. Next to that you will have this pink bow covered in hearts and teddy bear stickers, with a girl on the box. Now I know a couple of girls that like archery, and they aren’t going to choose the pink cutsie bow, they’re going to sneak up in their ninja clothes behind you with their black or blue ninja bow and shoot you with that suction dart in your butt.

There is also a major misconception about how toys will dictate your emerging sexual preference (especially for boys). When I was young, a lot of people were certain I would be gay. Why? Because I had an easy bake oven, a small collection of dolls. I played house with my girlfriends.I really didn’t care for toy cars or GI Joe. I wrote poetry in grade school. I got invited to “girl’s nights out” in highschool. (I loved that. ^_~) I am a happily married straight man with 2 children. I’m just a nice guy. (please don’t post me and tell me I’m not.)

Even today these old fashioned attitudes of what girls should do and boys should do is everywhere. Yesterday I was at the post office and a woman came in with her little girl, about 4 years old. The little girl got bored, as anyone does in the line at the post office, and she starts crawling on the floor pretending to be a lion. Her mother’s first comment to me, like she had to defend her daughter’s actions was “She’s been playing too much with her brother.” I thought, but didn’t say “Nope, she just young and bored.” After a bit she bruised her knee, and much like one of my brothers would, sat there and calmly told her mother that it hurt, then started poking the bruise over and over and over, just to make sure it still hurt.

Now my question, do any children fit these gender molds we have set up as a society? If so, honestly why have I never met one that does completely. Why do we set up these molds? Is it because subconsciously we believe that is the way things should be? Is it something our parents and their parents trained us to do? What are your thoughts on this?