Attributing gender to toys

[Zerbie]

Since Sherrie asked. :lol:

Yes, my husband and I assess the gender of our new plush animals usually immediately upon purchase or shortly thereafter. And we have always come to the same conclusion about which gender our new toy is. The baby cheetah was "obviously" female. The new mountain goat was "obviously" male.

Are we attributing gender to some characteristic about the way the glass eyes are set in the plush fur? Some way the animal has been constructed to carry its posture?

My favorite example of this is a toy rabbit I have who has been dressed by the manufacturer in a pink dress with a pink boy on its head between its ears. He is male. Adults argue with me that the rabbit can't be male because of the way he is dressed, or they laugh and call my rabbit a crossdresser or drag bunny. But children, when they see him, have been known to walk up to me and tell me "He's cute. I love his pink nose." And the children automatically perceive the bunny's correct gender. So - what are they seeing that adults are not? And WHY? And why is it so "obvious" to some of us?

Awrighty folks - we're playing here. Have a blast with this fun thread.

[Sherrie Z]

LOL, thanks Zerbie!

I appreciate the honorable mention ... : )

Zerbie is most graciously responding to my question to her about how it is that we have each at times intuitively sensed the inate gender of some of our plush animals ... so you may feel free to ascribe to me whatever DSM-IV designation you might deem appropriate ... as I'll be discussing this in depth with my plush animals in the meantime ... wink wink ...

[Zerbie]

LOL, thanks Zerbie!

I appreciate the honorable mention ... : )

Zerbie is most graciously responding to my question to her about how it is that we have each at times intuitively sensed the inate gender of some of our plush animals ... so you may feel free to ascribe to me whatever DSM-IV designation you might deem appropriate ... as I'll be discussing this in depth with my plush animals in the meantime ... wink wink ...

:lol: Yeah seriously, I'm thinkin', I hope if anyone out there who knows me sees this, that you understand this conversation is undertaken in fun. :p

[paul]

(also said in "fun")

The funny thing about subliminals is that sometimes they can be in your face, but will be missed by our conscious mind for er, reasons.

For instance, keltic gave Zerbie a birthday bear and I made a quip about his package. Then hid my statement by saying something about the cake that didn't quite fit. If anyone picked up on it, no one was kooky enough to respond to my kookiness. Now, that bear may have everthing under his fur, but he was definately a "he.":D

[Alecto]

For some reason (usually), I don't really do this with toys. I think most of my toys were "he" because I was a "he" (granted, this was when I was young). That said, I do distinctly remember automatically thinking of dogs as masculine and cats as feminine for no apparant reason.

[Zerbie]

That said, I do distinctly remember automatically thinking of dogs as masculine and cats as feminine for no apparant reason.

I did that too!! So did my grandmother, "All dogs are he's, all cats are she's."

:lol:

[Sherrie Z]

That "dogs are male" and "cats are female" thing (and I often tend to think that same way) might be based on the generality that quite a few actual dog traits match with human male tendencies and quite a few actual cat traits match with human female tendencies ... but going into any further detail on this could get into some dangerous territory, LOL ... : )

[tpdncr4christ]

I've always thought it was weird that it was BATman and CATwoman... I wanted to be cat-man but that just isn't cool... LAME.

[Zerbie]

I've always thought it was weird that it was BATman and CATwoman... I wanted to be cat-man but that just isn't cool... LAME.

Hey, you can be Catman and I'll be Batwoman!
:magic:

I love :love: bats.