Children's Toys and SocializationToy stores are perfect places for a sociologist to use their sociological imagination. Gender and racism are thought to be socially constructed things, not biologically constructed. Sexual differentiation begins in early childhood, and around age 2, children begin to internalize these gender differences. I argue that children's toys help socialize children into gender-specific roles. Toy stores, like Target and Toys R Us, help us understand what types of toys contribute to children's gender. I will explain how the toys in the toy aisles differ and compare. Not all toys are male or female, some toys are gender neutral. I went to a Target store on a square in Framingham. When I got to the toy section of the store, I realized that there were separate toy aisles for boys and girls. The aisles that contained girls' toys had pink colors and those for boys had a blue color scheme. The toy aisles for boys and girls have been divided into age groups. I observed a family of 4 in the toy aisles (a mother, a father, a boy and a girl). The girl looked like she was 4 years old and the boy was about 6 years old. Little children were walking down the aisles playing with all kinds of toys. The color of the toy and the type of toy didn't seem to matter to any of them. The mother called the girl to the next aisle and helped her choose a Barbie while the father helped his son choose a toy from the boys' aisle. In the girls' section there were lots of dolls, pink tricycles and scooters, princesses. Lego themed castles, pink plush dolls, Cabbage Patch babies and lots of doll strollers. The shelves in the aisles containing these princess dolls and toys were pink. They had... middle of paper...... it wouldn't change how the toys are made, but I would change their location. This would give children the opportunity to play with whatever they want. Works Cited Auster, Carol and Claire Mansbach. “Gendered Toy Marketing: An Analysis of Toy Color and Type on the Disney Store Website.” Sex Roles 67.7/8 (2012): 375-388. SocINDEX with full text. Internet. April 30, 2014. Fisher-Thompson, Donna. "Adult sexual typing of children's toys." Sex Roles 23.5/6 (1990): 291-303. SocINDEX with full text. Internet. April 30, 2014.Conley, Dalton. (2013). You may be wondering: An Introduction to Thinking Like a Sociologist (3rd Edition). Columbus, OH: W. W. Norton & Company. Martin, Karin A., 1998. “Becoming a Gendered body: Practices of Preschools” American Sociological Association (4): 510. Interview #1, Target, Framingham MA, April 10., 2014