Toys R Us

TOYS R US is a magical place. When you step in you instantly feel like a five year old lost in the most wonderful building in the world, regardless of your age, gender or ethnicity. And yet, certain toys are clearly meant or not meant for you depending on those very categories. Just one look at the box of a toy informs us of its intended playmate. In the store, were specific sections devoted to toys for girls or toys for boys. Our group, comprised of three guys and one girl, were immediately drawn to the Nerf guns.

On the box of all Nerf guns, there is always the picture of a teenage boy with intensity burning in his eyes, looking down the barrel of his spring powered plastic weapon of choice. The box all but shouts Nerf guns are for cool boys.

Being the cool boys they are, all three of the guys in our group immediately began intensely examining the array of Nerf weaponry. We picked various objects and began to excitedly compare the features of each gun, already planning the epic battles that would soon unfold on the battlefield of the boys hall. Meanwhile, Victoria awkwardly stood there. Why is it that we did not envision a Nerf Gun battle involving all of CITY Term? Why couldn’t we see ourselves playing with girls? Was it that we assumed they wouldn’t want them to play or that we didn’t want them to play? In fact, there is nothing about Nerf guns that precludes girls from playing with them. There’s no reason they would not want to play with them besides the fact that Nerf guns have always been marketed solely towards boys.

Boys want to play with these Nerf guns fundamentally, because men shoot real guns. Because it’s a semi competitive game based on war, something that has always been associated entirely, and dominated entirely by men. Boys aspire to be men. But boys, especially in this era, have very little to do with war. What has remained is the social association between the two.

Nerf Guns are fun, everybody should want to play with them, they’re little foam bullets that don’t hurt, that anybody can use, that require virtually no semblance of coordination and skill. Yet the guys immediately left poor Victoria all alone to jump at the arsenal of Nerf weaponry, presuming that she would not want to join us.

In discussion, we realized that we were in fact an example of the gender roles we were so quick to criticize in class the day before. No amount of discussion or self-awareness changes the fact, that we are all subject, to social pressure.