1. Consider toy stores you have visited or a toy section of a department store.
2. What types of toys....
3. Or, consider book stores you've visited or viewed online.
4. Select either toys or books or one of each, and talk about the ethical issues involved in what these products communicate about gender stereotypes and gender roles.

For example, a toy made and marketed to boys is the Beyblade Metal Fusion Super Vortex Battle set. The toy is based on Japanese manga (comic book series) and its related anime (animation series), which tells the story of a group of young warriors who use powerful spinning tops as weapons in their quest to win a championship. The tops have creatures embedded in them that come out to do battle when the blades are used. The toy mentioned above appears to be marketed to boys, given the focus on its battle and weapon-based imagery and description, even though there are female characters in the manga and anime that could appeal to girls.

A toy made and marketed to girls is the ever-popular Barbie Doll from Mattel. First introduced in 1959, Barbie has evolved into a cultural toy icon, bought and sold all over the world. Mattel has risen to the challenge of addressing issues of race and gender stereotypes by manufacturing Barbie collections that depict Barbie from different countries, cultures, and races. The gender stereotype issues are addressed through Barbie donning the outfits of various occupations, both traditional and non-traditional (for example, Barbie as astronaut, paleontologist, Army medic,etc.). However, the doll is still criticized for its voluptuous shape that exaggerates female physical features.

The ethics involved in these toys centers around the message sent to boys and girls about their gender identity as well as, in the case of Barbie, their body image. Boys do battle and girls dress up. Boys master skills of physical strength, and girls focus on their physical appearance. (Even Barbie Surgeon, Barbie Computer Engineer, and Barbie Pilot have to look sexy and fashionable.) The underlying message for both genders can be misleadingboys' toys, such as Beyblade, involve violence while dolls like Barbie emphasize physical beauty.

A 2011 research paper by McCabe, Fairchild, Grauerholz, Pescosolido, and Tope examined gender disparity in the representation of males and females in titles and central characters within a sample of 5,618 children's books published in theU.S.throughout the 20th century. Since books have a significant impact on helping children understand gender roles and their own gender identity, the findings demonstrate patterns of inequality that differ with respect to time period, the type of children's book, and type of character (human versus animal).