[[{“type”:“media”,“view_mode”:“media_large”,“fid”:null,“attributes”:{“class”:“media-image alignright size-full wp-image-51668”,“typeof”:“foaf:Image”,“style”:“”,“width”:“100”,“height”:“100”,“alt”:“The Daily Beast”}}]]“Gender is over-designed into toys, games, and play experiences—and it hurts us,” says Dartmouth’s Mary Flanagan in a Daily Beast opinion piece.

“We know the practice of gendering toys creates and maintains stereotypes,” says Flanagan, the Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Professor in the Digital Humanities and a professor of film and media studies. “Rigid gender lines correlate to lack of female participation in STEM professions, such as computer science, the entry point for game design. And these lines set up lifelong, false notions of what opportunities are available to females in general.”

Flanagan is the director of Dartmouth’s Tiltfactor Laboratory and a Dartmouth Public Voices fellow.

Read the full opinion piece, published 2/26/14 by The Daily Beast.