Week #2 Eureka Moment

My “Eureka Moment” this past week was trying to purchase a new car. I love to go shopping but purchasing a new car is not fun at all. There are many reasons why shopping for a car is not my idea of happy shopping. You would think that purchasing a new car would be exciting but the idea of what people have to go through is not fun. First, the sales people are all over you when you get out of the car. Second, the price wars that people need to go through after you have decided on a car. Third, the amount of time you are at the dealership turns into several hours.
I knew exactly what I wanted and needed. So in my case there were no sales pitches that I was going to listen to. The salesman went right to my husband and begun automatically talking about the vehicles. I was ignoring them and looking at each one of the cars that they had available as they kept chatting away.
Eventually we had decided on one of them and the pricing war begun. The pricing war is really ridiculous and unnecessary. We knew the prices of the cars and we also knew what we wanted to buy it for. We had already done our shopping around town and on the internet. So, we had a bottom line number that they needed to get to and they eventually matched it.
We had spent about five and half hours at the dealership. It was way past closing time and towards the end of the deal we felt like we were being rushed to sign. My “Eureka Moment” is when the salesman automatically assumed that the car was to be put in my husband’s name. Why didn’t he ask “Whose name will the car be in?” Why do they just assume the car will be in the husband’s name and not the wife’s name?

Blog Week 1

Toys have a big impact upon our growth from a gender perspective. Most of the toys that are in the marketplace can be gender specific. Toys are targeted towards a particular market; whether it’s for a girl or boy. There are very few universal or unisex toys available. Even if they are universal, there are usually different colors that are aimed towards each gender. For example, a yo-yo is a universal toy. But there are many different colors to choose from like red, blue, pink, green, etc. But this now raises the question that colors are also gender specific. Boy’s colors are usually blue, red, black, and green. Girl’s colors are usually pink, purple, and yellow.
Toys are marketed specifically to a gender. Advertisements and commercials usually have a specific gender that they will target. The goal of the marketing tactics is gain attention from that particular gender to capture the sale of the toy. For example, flyers for Toys R Us will have pictures of girls playing with dolls or pictures of boys playing with cars. These ads never have pictures of girls playing with cars or trucks nor do they have boys playing with dolls.
Toys are promoted to children and their parents based on gender specific. The media markets these advertisements for the toys revealing which gender it is specifically for. The media reinforces which gender the toys are for and society follows the guidelines.

-Nicole

Introduction of Myself

Hello everyone! I am currently a CCS at Rider University. I am an accounting major and hopefully only have one year left. I work full time and go to school part time at night. I enrolled in Gender & Communication to fulfill my last liberal arts requirement. I enjoy taking online classes but have never had the opportunity to "Blog". I look forward to communicating with everyone via blackboard & blogging!
Nicole