Should boys play with dolls?

If you saw a little boy playing with a doll, would you think it odd? Would you feel the need to say something? Would you actually call up his parents and ask them why they allow their son to play with a doll? Well, it happened to one of my professors years ago, when she took her young son to church with a doll he wanted to take with him. After she got home, she was surprised to get phone calls inquiring as to what her parenting philosophies were, and why she would let her son play with dolls. She was pretty shocked. Why would anyone really care that much?

Fact is, children are exposed to this world of gender roles just as much, or more so, than we adults are. You need look no further than the toys that you find in stores, or see in commercial advertisements. Personally, I'm pretty annoyed by how extremely gender-stereotyped toys and their promotions are, and I don't even have kids! It's just depressing that kids are pressured to conform to gender-specific roles with gender-specific interests so early in life. Especially when it comes to play, where expressions of creativity and imagination should be encouraged. In addition, the cognitive development of children is largely shaped by their play behavior, and we don't want to interfere with that. Personally, I think that more gender neutral toys would allow children more expressive play and facilitate more mutual interests to develop among girls and boys. 

Since I'm interested in gender and toys, I decided to read a study. I'll save you most of the details, and just say that the researchers were evaluating the complexity of play behavior in young children using gender-stereotyped toys (male and female), and gender-neutral toys. The study defines complexity as "the level of symbolic and representational skills demonstrated by the child during play." For instance, with a toy doll that may be feeding it and rocking it to sleep. Or with a toy car, it could be filling it with gas and making engine noises. In addition to complexity of the play, the researchers also wanted to know which toys attracted the children's attention the most. The hypothesis was that boys would express more interest and complex play behavior with male-stereotypical toys, and the girls would do the same with female-stereotypical toys.

Turns out that the girls were actually the most interested in gender-neutral toys, while the boys were the most interested in male-stereotypical toys. And guess which toys overwhelmingly accounted for the most complex levels of play for both boys and girls? Actually, it was the girl toys!

So, I can make two conclusions.

1. A variety of gender-stereotypical toys and gender-neutral toys provide the most stimulation and cognitive development for kids.
2. Let your boys play with dolls! I dare say, you might just encourage it once in a while. It's perfectly healthy, and good for their development.