Carolina Becerra

07/02/15
Expo. Writing
This I Believe
I believe toys can be universal to kids, there should not be the stereotype that boys have
to play with cars and girls have to play with Barbies or other dolls of that sort. I often think about
my childhood and how, even if it was unintentional I would always be hurt with how my family
would laugh it off or not consider that I wanted toy cars instead of Barbies. What frustrated me
about this was that I wanted to follow in the footsteps of my family and be a mechanic like the
majority of my family that consisting of males, and how their gesture told me that I was not
allowed to follow in their footsteps because I was a girl.
Even though not many people see this stereotype/gender role as a bad thing or have a
problem with how toys are labeled; there are also the cases where people limit kids options
because of the parents/guardians superstition. By doing this, the parents are oppressing the kids
to a specific gender because they are afraid that the kid will be the minority that will not have
equality in the future. As Audre Lorde argues about Women Redefining Difference, similarly
parents are trying to make their kids less of a minority. It was also mentioned in Policing the
National Body by Jael Silliman that the government is policing minorities so the rest of the
population can have better lives and viewed as more civilized than the minorities. This goes back
to parents and how they are policing what their kids play with so the kids can be more defined
with the rest of the population and not as a minority.
A close friend talked to me about how he was policed when he was child. He said that
there were always situations when his grandmother would take away My littlest pet shop toys
claiming that those were his sister's toys but also mentioning those toys were for girls.
However, he questioned what even made these toys girly? There was also the case of a student I
interviewed who stated that her parents did not mind what toys she would play with. I asked if
she thought there was a stereotype on toys, she answered by saying that it never showed in her
life. Since she was raised in a household with many brothers, there was not a problem when she
would interact with their toys because her parents believed this would bring the siblings closer.
She did agree that there is indeed labels and stereotypes associated with certain toys. Another
person that I questioned also told me that there is a stereotype because stores always label the
girls and boys section. A question that came up from this was, Why did society create this
stereotype? She answered that she believes this was created in the past when the belief was that
men were strong/superior and fit for combat, while women were weak/fragile and were fit for
motherhood, housecleaning, and making food. Therefore it has been something that stayed for
many generations that was taught to children to prepare them for this type of work.
While I have to admit that gender roles were never an issue, my family would address or
enforce them upon me because as I grew, my parents realized how passionate I was with the
automotive industry. They saw that no matter what toys I interacted with, it would not affect me
in a negative manner way and the simple reasoning of my liking for these types of toys was

because the majority of my cousins were boys, and so influenced by the working background
most of my family had.
I believe that the major setbacks or misinterpretations people have with toys, they believe toys
have gender roles that then could create a sexual preference of the same sex. However, based on
the people I interviewed about this matter would agree that toys should not be considered a factor
of what the child's sexual preference will be. Therefore toys should not have labels that will
make society choose what kids want because in the end, this issue should not determine who you
are. Ultimately, kids should not be limited to what they want because of society's stereotypes.