On Tuesday all of Primary 4 walked to Tesco, Corstorphine. The purpose of the trip was to investigate gender stereotypes within the store. In groups we visited the toy aisle and the clothing department. We discovered that the supermarket encourages common stereotypes in a variety of ways.
The colours used were all divided into typically ‘boy’ and ‘girl’ colours.
The style of font used on packaging was very different. The ‘girl’ toys used very soft, curved lettering and were often written using cursive writing. The ‘boy’ toys used very straight and angled text.
It was a similar story in the clothing department. Colours, style and pattern were very different across the boys and girls clothing.
The children also thought about disability. In particular, the obstacles people with different disabilities may face when trying to a fairly simple task of shopping. They thought about wheelchair users, visually impaired people and deafness.
