Girl/boy toys: Are you ready to counter stereotypes at Christmas?

Poupées pour les filles, petites voitures pour les garçons... force est de constater que certains jouets sont encore largement associés à un genre. À l’approche de Noël, ce constat est encore plus flagrant, avec certaines publicités qui misent sur le rose et d’autres sur le bleu. D’après une enquête réalisée par IDM-Families pour magicmaman, 73 % des mères trouvent d’ailleurs que les catalogues et les magasins de jouets sont trop marqués selon le genre. Heureusement, ces dernières années, nous avons pu constater une évolution qui va dans le bon sens. Par exemple, en 2019, Mattel a sorti sa gamme Creatable World, composée de kits de poupées non genrées, chacune avec des cheveux longs ou courts, ainsi que des vêtements distincts, des chaussures jusqu’à la veste. De son côté, Lego, premier fabricant de jouets au monde, n’étiquettera plus aucun produit avec la mention « pour fille » ou « pour garçon ».

If the question concerns, it is that many values, but also many stereotypes are transmitted through toys.Game in childhood, especially before the age of 6, allows the little one to eat emotionally and emotionally food.The child plays to discover, therefore to grow, because from birth, he will try to understand the world around him through his first experiences, and in particular the game.According to neuroscience, when a baby is born, only 10 % of his neural connections are built.Everything else will depend on its environment.What we put in his hands therefore has a direct impact on his abilities and skill, and the more the child plays various games, the more he will develop many skills and discover his own nature.However, according to our study, construction games, video games, sports equipment and superhero figurines are mainly offered to boys, about twice as much as girls.Small cars and superhero costumes are almost exclusively offered to boys.Conversely, dolls, princess disguises, dinners and stuffed animals are almost always offered to girls.

When sexism invites itself under the tree

As parents, even if we make sure not to put the children in boxes, difficult to escape it, as confirmed by psychologist Nathalie Anton: "To please and stay in consensus, the entourage will often offerBooks or stereotypical games.On the parents' side, even if they are aware of the gender shots that these gifts convey, it is complicated to refuse them.Even when we agree on the principle, it is still rare to offer a doll to a boy."However, they love to play with it, like little girls.It is only around the age of 3 that they turn away, when they realize that this is not what society expects from them.But don't playing the doll just want to imitate the role of parents and take care of the other?Would these altruistic qualities, precisely necessary for social ties, be valued?», Questions Nathalie Anton.

Relatives will not realize that these little things enter into the construction of identity.The pink and the dolls enclose in the delicate, the pretty, the cute.The girl will be encouraged to develop order, care, storage, aesthetics.As for the boy, we are happy to hold out a truck, an airplane, an outside opening.We also more readily push him to play outside and we more easily allow him to get dirty (motor skills, skill).It is therefore not just a question of games, but that implies many concepts: with a sword, we invite to ample movements, to the cries, we develop a rivalry with an adversary.These are behaviors that will allow boys to take place in space, to impose themselves more...And children integrate these expectations very early on to the feminine and male.

Offer a doll to girls and boys

According to a study by the University of Cardiff for Mattel, published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, we observe that boys play spontaneously with very varied toys when they believe themselves, but that they comply with those who correspondto their gender when they know themselves observed by adults.“From an early age, they have already integrated the devaluation of the feminine.They think they would meet reprobeur looks by playing the doll, "decrypts Élisabeth Moët, marketing director at Mattel.However, playing the doll would have as much interest in the development of all children, according to neuroscientists.Their research shows that the regions of the brain which are associated with the processing of social information and empathy are activated during this activity."Playing the doll thus allows children, girls and boys, to develop their social skills, and in particular empathy and understanding of the other," she said.

An observation shared by the family psychologist Clémence ProMSY."Developing your empathy is a primordial thing in the life of a human being, this faculty is used not only to put itself in the place of the other, to understand its emotions and its intentions, but above all it allows to be'Listen to ourselves, and know how to make the right decisions by finding the right response to our needs according to the expectations of the other, ”she said.For this expert, an activity like playing doll, without winner or loser, without disguised educational purposes, thus lets children escape into their imagination and develop their creativity."We now have scientific proof of what we felt in psychology.The sphere of the prefrontal cortex, the most human and relational therefore, is stimulated by playing in the doll.With this activity, the child starts many social processes which will be useful to him throughout his life, "she enthuses.

The genre of toys increases with age

Claire, mother of a 5 year old Lino, is well aware of this problem.Her little boy is absolutely a fan of the snow queen and would like to spend his life in Elsa's costume."When he was 3 years old, I found it cute, then I started to be afraid that other children make fun of him, so I tried to slow down a little taste for princesses.Finally, I decided to continue to offer him the toys he wanted, and rather to teach him to assume herself.I don't want to go against what makes him happy, just for fear of the eyes of others.Like Lino, according to our survey, 64 % of children have already asked for toys rather intended for the opposite gender, 9 % often.But they are especially the under 5s.Growing up, with entry into primary school, the gap is widening: 55 % of girls from 9 to 11 years old ask for so -called "boy" games versus 45 % of boys from 9 to 11 years old who ask for gamesso -called "girl".The first obstacle to this type of toy is that this does not correspond to the child's demand (87 %), but the parents of older children admit more willingly that they would give in to this kind ofrequests with more reluctance.

An observation that the influencer and author Alexandre Marcel, better known under the pseudo of Papa Plume, understands perfectly: "When children grow up, they expose themselves to a still largely normalized society.As parents, we must find the right balance between the development of our child, if our boy wants to go out in glitter leggings for example, and the desire to protect him, for fear of mockery or worse, ”says-he.And to continue: "We are all soaked by this society, in which the gaze of others weighs, and it is difficult to get rid of it.But I notice that it is much less difficult to offer toys or clothes called "boy" to his daughter than the reverse, because everything related to the male universe in the collective unconscious is more valued.And if, instead of deconstructing these gender stereotypes, we did everything in our power so as not to let them settle from an early age?

You will be cosmonaut, my daughter

To respond to this problem, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, Minister Delegate to the Minister of Economy and Finance, and Adrien TAQUET, Secretary of State to the Minister of Solidarity and Health, launched in 2019 the charter'voluntary commitments for a mixed representation of toys.Federations of distributors and manufacturers, associations, public actors and early childhoods are committed to combating stereotypes conveyed by toys.The primary objective is to put an end to prejudices against women, which they suffer from childhood, but also to "arouse more scientific vocations" at home."The signing of this charter goes in the direction of promoting a positive education, so that each child gives free rein to their creativity and intuition, favorable to its good development," analyzes Adrien TAQUET.

The signatories of the charter thus adopted 34 commitments.The first is to develop toys that do not convey discriminant shots, notably by presenting scientific toys in a neutral or mixed manner.Another commitment is to end the categorization of toys "for girls" and "for boys" in catalogs and present them "by product categories or by type of profit provided by the toy (creativity, problem solving, physical and/or intellectual development, etc..) ”."Particularly in the first thousand days of their lives, it is through the game and the toys that children discover the world and build their bearings.It is from this period that we must fight against stereotypes attributing to girls and boys different roles, and fight the unconscious biases that have repercussions on professional mix later ", sums up Adrien TAQUET.We blow the idea for Santa Claus?