A few weeks ago I was shopping for my friend's baby shower and was browsing through the registery list at Target. The items on the list included a blue Pooh Bear onesie, safari themed daiper bag, towels embroidered with dinosaurs, etc. It was obvious that the baby was going to be male. At the time I didn't think anything of it but after reading a chapter from Women, Men, and Society by Claire Renzetti and Daniel Curran about gender socialization I realized how much impact these toys are going to have on the social aspects of this child's life. I started to remember the toys I had as a child and wondered if they had a role in shaping who I am today.

From as far back as I can remember I had a wide range of toys and a lot of them were obviously not marketed for little girls. Although I had Barbies and babydolls I also had G.I. Joe, Micro-Machines, and transformers. I also had several gender neutral toys such as legos and play dough. I discussed this with my mom and asked her if she had felt troubled by this or if she encouraged my interest in these toys. She said that she had never really thought about it and added that when I was three my favorite toy was a huge, yellow Tonka truck. She said if there was a mud puddle anywhere in sight I was sure to be in it, splashing my yellow truck around and making loud engine sounds. Although this made me laugh it also started to raise a lot of questions in my head.

Growing up I guess you could say I was somewhat of a tomboy. I didn't like dresses, despised pink, and prefered to be outdoors. My lack of interest in these things hasn't changed much over the years. Although I do like pink on certain things and dressing up can be fun, I still prefer to be outside, in the mud. A few days ago one of my girlfriends even jokingly called me a "dude" because I apparently act more like a guy than a girl. Is this because I was free to choose between a doll or a truck?

My younger sister, however, had completely different interests growing up. She wore frilly dresses, had bedazzled purses full of plastic lipstick and compact mirrors, and loved to bake cakes with her Easy Bake Oven. My mom said she never had an interest in trucks or G.I. Joes, just "girly things." She too has not changed much since then. Is this because she was encouraged to play with more gender appropriate toys? Or does the fact that she was the second child, or "baby", have more to do with it than the fact that she is female?