Barbie vs Batman
How Gendered Toys Affect Child Development
I am writing for The Guardian, which is primarily addressed to progressivists.
Progressivists are forward-looking individuals that are curious about the world and embrace
change and technology. My audience is mainly around 30-45 years old and typically female. The
majority of my audience is also college-educated mothers who work full time. I will be trying to
convince my audience to avoid forcing gendered toys on their children.
To achieve this persuasion, I will use ethos, or ethics. Specifically, I will use sources that
are mothers themselves. Using sources that are from mothers, my audience will be more open to
hear opinions that are from other mothers. While I’m not a mother myself, I was a little girl once
who loved to play with barbies and baby dolls. My parents never opened my eyes to other toys,
nor did I really want to play with anything other than my cabbage patch doll. In doing my
research, I see the cons of only allowing children to play with a specific gender of toys. I will
discuss this directly after my intro, to gain trust from my audience.
I will also use Logos, or logic. In the last 5 years, research has shown that negative
effects of gendered toys. To introduce this to my audience, I will use my source, “Gendered Toys
Could Deter Girls From Careers in Engineering.” This source uses lots of statistics and it will
inform my audience with facts. I will use this in the paragraph after ethos.
I will use many different pieces of pathos, or emotion. First, I will explain my story and
how the toys I played with as a child has influenced my career choice. I will also use the video,
“My Heroes.” This video follows a family on Halloween. The son dresses up as superwoman and
the daughter dresses up as batman. It goes against gender stereotypes and really shows how not
following them, can be a good thing. I will insert my pathos after my logos paragraph, as using
emotion needs to come after I have gained my audience’s trust.
I will use “Let’s Go Toy Shopping,” “Breaking Gender Stereotypes in the Toy Box,” and
“Guys and Dolls No More,” in my ethos paragraph. All of these articles use logic to defend their
argument and it will help strengthen mine. While they agree with me and disagree with my
audience, they are not harsh and explain their claim efficiently. My audience are progressivists,
so while they are open to change, they want proof and credibility. These articles will help me
achieve this.
Also, to strengthen my argument, I need to have an opposition article. I will use, “Why
We Can’t Have Gender Neutral Toys,” as my opposition article. It agrees with my audience, but
I will address how the points the author makes are weak and not so important compared to the
outcomes of my argument. I will do this in a slow manner, as rushing into it will turn my
audience off. I will do this before my conclusion.
