Child’s Play: Moving Beyond the Dichotomy of Gendered Marketing

Gender structures of masculinity and femininity are interwoven in markets and marketing. Gender structures are especially pronounced in markets and the marketing of children’s toys – as the idea that there are fundamental differences between boys and girls is used to demarcate children’s markets. Consequently, this socialises children into stereotypical gendered moulds of “for her” and “for him” which restricts children’s educational and occupational choices. Therefore, the gendered marketing of children’s toys has received critical scrutiny which has generated broader community concern from parents, activist groups, and politicians. Despite this, marketing research has largely overlooked gendered marketing to children which remains a topic of research fragmented across other disciplines. Moreover, how these gender categorisations can be challenged remains underexamined in marketing scholarship. In this thesis, these scholarly opportunities are addressed by examining the following research problem: How are gendered differences reproduced through the marketing of children’s toys – and how can markets and marketing practices move beyond this dichotomous divide? In this thesis with publications, three key theoretical contributions are offered across three research papers. First, extant interdisciplinary gendered marketing and children’s toys literature are reviewed and synthesised to offer a comprehensive understanding of how gendered marketing operates. This is identified and illustrated through a framework that highlights how the practice of gendered marketing of children’s toys acts as a gender socialisation agent that guides children towards socially prescribed identities, in turn influencing the chain of gender socialisation which perpetuates a gendered childhood. Second, gender-bending is identified as an ‘undoing gender’ strategy through the underexamined context of the marketing of ‘feminine products to boys’. The findings illustrate that gender categorisations and masculine norms are challenged in two ways – (1) by signalling hegemonic masculinities and (2) signalling alternative masculinities. This is brought together through a framework that highlights how gender-bending can be used as a vehicle that challenges gender categorisations in the marketplace in both subtle and outright ways, resulting in the creation of a market-mediated non-normative masculinity. Third, a conceptualisation of gender-neutrality in the marketplace as the second ‘undoing gender’ strategy is offered through an examination of gender-neutral dolls. The findings establish that gender-invisibility, androgyny and inclusivity comprise gender-neutrality in the marketplace. This is presented through a framework that extends the conceptualisation of gender-neutrality in the marketplace as a practice of non- normative gender pluralities.