Significados de gênero nos brinquedos infantis: influências e percepções parentais

Abstract

The genre segmentation of children’s toys contributes to the propagation of stereotypes and prejudice among children. Since parents are the main responsible people to select and buy these objects, they also collaborate with the perpetuation of the female/male binary system. In this context, the design emerges as a tool capable of conveying the meanings related to the genre present in society to the consumer goods. Therefore, the objective of this work is to analyze the perception of parents in relation to the genre segmentation in the children’s toys, searching for ways to comprehend how these toys communicate and reinforce genre stereotypes from their meanings. The research is characterized as a descriptive exploratory one and also from a qualitative approach. For that, children toys available in the market were selected and analyzed. Then, a focus group procedure was used, which allowed the interaction between the group of parents and the researcher. The Content Analysis method was used for data interpretation. The results show that the visual and functional aspects of the design, the social experiences, the cultural industry and the marketing are thematic axes that work in the construction and communication of genre stereotypes. The participants of the research demonstrated to be aware of the existence of this categorization and express opinions that, sometimes, were in disagreement from what is proposed by the market. In general, parents seem to have more difficulties when identifying the toys considered as neutral.