as an American baby-boomer, there was a definite gender toy pattern

[Jonathan Bailey]

My mom wasn't interested in grounding us kids.

It was like punishing her more than us.

For us, grounded meant we stayed in the house and did whatever we wanted, pushing the envelope of what we could pull off. For mom, it meant being stuck with us all day. We're trying to get away with stuff, she was trying to stop us.

Mom was too sensible to ground us.

Tom

ETA.
My parents were quite practical. They punished me by taking away my books.

No sci-fi novels!
No encyclopedias!
I couldn't even read my textbooks from school!


That hurt.
Tom

My mother believed in spankings and face slappings. I would get beat to death with a nasty little flexible bamboo stick she called a switch. Thrashed all over the body, felt like a million bee stings at once. There were hair brushes and wooden spoons to boot. I shook in my shoes whenever I heard that kitchen drawer open up when she was mad.

 

[Jonathan Bailey]

I am not sure if instincts concerning speed and power can be transferred to an innate response for trucks, though.

If there is, the shape of the truck could be an attraction for resembling an animal, but that should be a response for females as well.

Without evidence at an early age before adults begin surrounding their senses with specific images, it is impossible to dicern from an innate response and something that has been imprinted due to familial exposure.

I am willing to accept the possibility that there could be gender differences in some innate responses (innate responses in humans is a convoluted subject among ethologists), but would add the caveat that humans are generalists and very adaptable, hence the great spectrum of behavioral differences we are capable of.

A doll resembles a human, often a baby. It could be that baby girls are drawn to such images (innate maternal instinct ) while baby boys are interested in something different than the familiar human baby face. It may be innate paternal instinct in primates to protect family (or troop as in baboons) from danger: the truck may seem like an unfamiliar foreign object, a monster, a wild animal, a possible threat. Just a theory. Who knows why certain genders seem to be drawn to certain things?

 

[SomeRandom]

I used to play with He-Man and Transformers action figures. When I got bored of those I went across the street to play with my friend's brother's G.I. Joes.

Tomboy for life!

Hells yeah!!!! Tomboys unite!!!
Omg Transformers!!!! I remember getting those randomly in McDonald’s meals. Pretty intricate for cheap Maccas toys tbh.

 

[SomeRandom]

A doll resembles a human, often a baby. It could be that baby girls are drawn to such images (innate maternal instinct ) while baby boys are interested in something different than the familiar human baby face. It may be innate paternal instinct in primates to protect family (or troop as in baboons) from danger: the truck may seem like an unfamiliar foreign object, a monster, a wild animal, a possible threat. Just a theory. Who knows why certain genders seem to be drawn to certain things?

Oh gendered stuff differs wildly by culture and time era. Blue was once a girly colour and pink was manly, due to it resembling blood (albeit paler.)
Baby boys used to be dressed in dresses. Like **** just changes over time!

 

[Milton Platt]

Some of this had to do with advertising in the old days. Some studies show that infants may naturally focus more on a toy that is stereotyped for their own gender. When shown a truck and a doll, baby boys will fixate on the truck more while baby girls will fixate on the doll more. So, some of this has to do with how the brain is wired in the womb with regard to self gender identity.


traditional toys for boys


1. toys resembling tools, animals and equipment for traditional male trades/occupations

2. toys resembling land vehicles, vessels, aircraft or spacecraft especially fast-moving ones

3. toys resembling guns and other weapons

4. toys resembling military equipment

5. toys resembling sports equipment for masculine sports

6. toys resembling figures of men in various male occupations: soldier, cop, hard-hat, cowboy, carpenter, fighter jet pilot, farmer, fireman, doctor

7. certain animal figures deemed especially masculine as large dogs, lions, tigers and wolves



traditional toys for girls


1. toys resembling the household equipment associated with female domestic life

2. dolls, mostly figures of females and infants

3. dollhouses and play furniture

4. certain animal figures deemed especially feminine as ponies, bunnies and kitty cats

5. toys resembling fancy decorator telephones

6. toys resembling beautiful female figures in fairy tales

7. toys resembling figures of women in various female occupations: school teacher, nurse, fashion model, nun, airline stewardess, telephone operator, librarian, office secretary

While I can certainly attest that boys and girls got different toys, I think girls had more leeway in the end. If my sister wanted to play with my toy trucks, nothing would have been said. If I had asked for a doll for Christmas, all hell would have ensued....I would have been made fun of for asking, and other kids would have made fun of me for playing with a doll.

 

[Milton Platt]

Oh gendered stuff differs wildly by culture and time era. Blue was once a girly colour and pink was manly, due to it resembling blood (albeit paler.)
Baby boys used to be dressed in dresses. Like **** just changes over time!

Yep....I have a very old photo of my father as a small child (born in 1912) wearing a dress.

 

[Jonathan Bailey]

While I can certainly attest that boys and girls got different toys, I think girls had more leeway in the end. If my sister wanted to play with my toy trucks, nothing would have been said. If I had asked for a doll for Christmas, all hell would have ensued....I would have been made fun of for asking, and other kids would have made fun of me for playing with a doll.

So, there is a gender double standard.

Boys can't mimic girls: to appear as female is to humble oneself if one is male; to appear as male is to rise to a higher level if one is female.

We can put up with girls with guns in overalls but we can't put up with boys with dolls in dresses.

 

[Jonathan Bailey]

Yep....I have a very old photo of my father as a small child (born in 1912) wearing a dress.

My grandfather said his mother bobbed his hair page-boy style as very small boy but then when he got older he got a short haircut at the barbershop "like a boy" he told me.

What is with this maternal emasculation of baby boys in olden times?

 

[Stevicus]

I got one once.

My father was horrified. "Tom is playing with a doll!" The fact that G I Joe was a fictional WWII hero, with weapons and fatigues and a tank(if you could afford it), didn't matter. It disappeared.

Maybe it's because my dad was a navy guy, and spent years aboard a destroyer in the Pacific.
Tom

It was pretty popular among the kids when I was growing up. Yes, it was a doll, but the kids didn't really think of it that way. It wasn't like Ken and Barbie, although come to think of it, they should have paired up Barbie with GI Joe in the first place.

 

[SomeRandom]

Yep....I have a very old photo of my father as a small child (born in 1912) wearing a dress.

Same but it’s my grandfather lol

 

[SomeRandom]

So, there is a gender double standard.

Boys can't mimic girls: to appear as female is to humble oneself if one is male; to appear as male is to rise to a higher level if one is female.

We can put up with girls with guns in overalls but we can't put up with boys with dolls in dresses.

That’s called toxic masculinity last I checked. And is frowned upon by most modern people. Let boys be feminine let girls be masculine. Let people be themselves

 

[columbus]

It was pretty popular among the kids when I was growing up. Yes, it was a doll, but the kids didn't really think of it that way. It wasn't like Ken and Barbie, although come to think of it, they should have paired up Barbie with GI Joe in the first place.

I liked mine.
Not that I would have touched my sister's Barbie.(I don't think Ken was born yet).

It was my dad who didn't like it.
Tom

 

[SkepticThinker]

Hells yeah!!!! Tomboys unite!!!

Oh yeah!!

Omg Transformers!!!! I remember getting those randomly in McDonald’s meals. Pretty intricate for cheap Maccas toys tbh.

Oh wow, I had totally forgotten about that. They used to have much better stuff in those meals.
I got a whole Smurf village from McD's when I was a kid too. I was quite proud of it.

 

[SkepticThinker]

Same but it’s my grandfather lol

I was just about to say this exact thing.

 

[sooda]

So, there is a gender double standard.

Boys can't mimic girls: to appear as female is to humble oneself if one is male; to appear as male is to rise to a higher level if one is female.

We can put up with girls with guns in overalls but we can't put up with boys with dolls in dresses.

Annie Oakley or Davy Crockett?

 

[Milton Platt]

My grandfather said his mother bobbed his hair page-boy style as very small boy but then when he got older he got a short haircut at the barbershop "like a boy" he told me.

What is with this maternal emasculation of baby boys in olden times?

I don't really know the answer to that. Maybe it was in their mind a way to keep small children "gender neutral" by making them all the same? I know what you are thinking.....that isn't really gender neutral. You are right.

 

[SomeRandom]

Oh yeah!!


Oh wow, I had totally forgotten about that. They used to have much better stuff in those meals.
I got a whole Smurf village from McD's when I was a kid too. I was quite proud of it.

Ahh man the Maccas toys were awesome!
The best ones I thought were the ones which eventually all fitted together like a giant puzzle. I had two honey pots (one blue one yellow) that had all the figurines from Winnie the Pooh. I was very happy with them.

 

[SomeRandom]

I don't really know the answer to that. Maybe it was in their mind a way to keep small children "gender neutral" by making them all the same? I know what you are thinking.....that isn't really gender neutral. You are right.

I just googled it. Apparently it was because the type of trousers (called “breeches”) were intricate and young children often had trouble undoing them. So it was common to dress young boys in dresses or gowns until they were old enough to handle trousers.
Breeching (boys) - Wikipedia
And they say women’s fashion is complicated, sheesh!

 

[Milton Platt]

I just googled it. Apparently it was because the type of trousers (called “breeches”) were intricate and young children often had trouble undoing them. So it was common to dress young boys in dresses or gowns until they were old enough to handle trousers.
Breeching (boys) - Wikipedia
And they say women’s fashion is complicated, sheesh!

Thanks for that. I am a Google fanatic...don't know why I didn't simply do that.

 

[SkepticThinker]

Ahh man the Maccas toys were awesome!
The best ones I thought were the ones which eventually all fitted together like a giant puzzle. I had two honey pots (one blue one yellow) that had all the figurines from Winnie the Pooh. I was very happy with them.

Those were the days.