Games are usually left up to boys to play. However, if a game is targeted towards girls and includes gardening and dressing up it is suitable for girl's to play. In the Sofia the First gaming sections on Disneyjunior.com, there are many games for girls that deal with girly things. "Sofia's Enchanted Garden" allows girls to create their dream princess garden by choosing their favorite flower, watering the plant while accruing extra points for doing so. The basis of this game, gardening, perpetuates female gender. Disney is condoning that gardening is for girls not boys. "It's Tea Time" lets the aspiring princess (your daughter) create her very own tea set before serving her princess friends. However, after completing the game, you find out that the tea the princess made is served to a prince not to her princess friends. This game shocked me a bit. The game is geared towards girls by fantasizing that having tea is a royal behavior and meant to be enjoyed meanwhile you do all of the hard work only for a prince to reap the benefits. The subjects of the games such as gardening, dressing up and having tea reinstate the belief that girls should pay attention to how they look, serving others and keeping a clean house.
In the coloring section, templates are given of princesses, fairies, animals and prince charming. The subjects of these coloring pages like the subjects of the games reinforce societal norms on gender construction. Leaving out coloring pages on trucks and sports let's a little girl know that those things aren't considered to be girly things. Therefore, a girl will not attempt to take interest in them because they are not girl things to do. The inclusion of subject matters such as coloring the perfect ball gown to make your prince charming's outfit match perpetuate society's vain disposition when it comes to a woman's appearance.
http://disney.go.com/disneyjunior/sofia-the-first/sofia-the-first-games
http://disney.go.com/disneyjunior/sofia-the-first/sofia-the-first-coloring-create
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