This study is extremely suspicious. If the way it was explained is accurate... The girls picked toys that do stuff over toys that do nothing? imagine that. Thats like putting the tire of a Mustang next to a Honda, and saying that Adults prefer Honda over Mustang. I'm a guy so maybe I'm bias, but toys that do something usually win over toys that do nothing. You chould say that boys like girl toys better too, offer the option of an "action figure" aka doll, or a barbie car that they can get in and drive... hmmm hmmm wonder what toys the boy will want to play with. The real problem is, with the exception of a few toy makers, the girls toy market has gone undeveloped. People think girls just want to play with dolls, but girls will play video games, do virtually anything boys like to do, if you make it reasonable for a girl to want to do it. Besides, most toys are really gender neutral if adults don't put labels on them.

This isn't really shocking, but I was something of a tomboy as a child. I liked to play with blocks and Legos instead of Barbies and tea sets.

Is it wrong that I cringe every time I see a commercial for a play set that lets little girls pretend they're doing laundry and washing dishes? That seems a bit stereotypical to me.

Nah its not really shocking at all, as for the stereotypes, yeah thats a little disconcerning, but if I ever have a daughter, I'd rather her play with those than barbie... talk about teaching a child all the wrong things with one toy. Whenever I see barbie I always think of those hitler propaganda films with the pretty blue eyed blonde girl as the penticle of civilization... its a little creepy really.

patron002,

I see your point about Barbie (and it's still the European-modeled Barbie(s) that sell the most) being worse in its both gender and ethnicity pathologies.

But marketing domestic work as play--Easy Bake Ovens, teatime with implements to be cleaned--is pretty darn bad. Every time I think this country has made progess in gender (compared to the cultures I deal with on a day to day basis), I stay home from work for a day and see the toy and domestic product ads.

No wonder large numbers of men still aren't choosing to stay home even part-time--it's hard to cast yourself in a role when it hasn't been projected back to you millions of times in TV, print, or movies.