When Boys Will Be Boys and . . .

No, Baby Heather is not toting an Uzi this Christmas.

On the contrary, compared with other seasons, there’s a collective tone of disarmament in toy commercials accompanying kids’ programs this holiday season.

There are, however, some violent exceptions to peace in kiddie advertising.

The Thunder Blade combat ‘copter whirs loudly in one heavily run kids’ spot, for example. Plus there’s Dynamite, the latest toy from Parker Brothers, featuring miniature plungers that children can push to simulate blowing up things (heading my list of targets would be the geniuses who created Dynamite). And, of course, kids’ TV would be untypically serene at Christmas without commercials touting the awesome war machine of G.I. Joe, including Rolling Thunder (“Nobody beats G.I. Joe, a real American hero”).

Yo!

For the most part, though, war toys are not the hottest commercial ticket this holiday season in the Saturday-morning kids’-show ghetto or during the strips of cartoons shows and youth-oriented network reruns that local independent stations run in the daytime, Sunday through Friday.

What is? Gender stereotypes: tough little guys and frilly little girls.

As if retreating a decade into a less-enlightened era, Madison Avenue is again entertaining kids with commercials showing boys who do and girls who react, take-charge boys engaged in action (including pushing down those Dynamite plungers) and relatively passive little girls who, like their predecessors of earlier times, are full of sugar and spice and everything nice.

No one knows for certain what impact commercials have on fertile young minds, especially in relation to other, sometimes contradicting influences. It stands to reason, however, that some of the social values conveyed by commercials reach their mark and reinforce lingering stereotypes that should have been buried long ago.

Again, there are exceptions to the rule.

You have to love the McDonald’s “Best Friends” spot about two very active teen-age girls, including one in a wheelchair who plays basketball. Not bad either is the Instant Quaker Oatmeal commercial that balances scenes of a boy on a skateboard with a girl on ice skates.

And what’s this? Yes, included in the customary plethora of Barbie spots is one for “Dr. Barbie.” Maybe she’s the surgeon who gave Ken his lobotomy.

Elsewhere, however, the active-passive gender theme predominates. When the word action is used in a kids’ commercial, in fact, the accompanying pictures inevitably show boys, but no girls:

--The commercial is for a “talking baseball” game called Starting Lineup, but only boys are playing it.

--The jingle for Nintendo’s new Body Power toy says, “You gotta run, jump faster . . . ,” but only boys are shown running and jumping faster. The jingle for Nintendo’s car-crashing games says, “Now you’re playing with power,” but only if you’re a boy, according to the pictures.

--Nerf footballs are getting a big commercial push--footballs thrown by only boys . As the song says, “You need the moves, you need the hands, got to be a man. . . .”

--McDonald’s “Pinball” spot features a boy athletically zooming by pinball obstacles on his skateboard. In commercials, only boys skateboard.

--Also, only boys build things. “He builds ‘em big, he builds ‘em small,” announces a Lego construction toy commercial accompanied by shots of boy builders. “Yes, construction is his knack.”

--In what will he haul his construction materials? A truck, of course. “All the boys will want one,” shouts a commercial for toy trucks, which then uses the same line to advertise toy planes.

--Boys also predominate in the new technologies. Look . . . there are two of them now, as the announcer says: “Some people have big plans after school. Know what Elliot’s going to do? Jeff too?” Yes, Elliot and Jeff are in front of their Radio Shack computers, using them for school work and to play sports games. But this commercial is not an exclusively male domain, for there briefly, off to the side, is a girl--probably a computer groupie--watching brainier Elliot and Jeff use their computers for school work and sports games.

Not that girls also aren’t an important element of the Christmas marketing strategies of toy manufacturers. The huge Barbie campaign shows that they are.

There, also, accompanied by sweet music, are some little girls playing with Baby Heather. There are some more combing the locks of teen sweetheart Skipper. And some more playing with their Dress ‘n’ Dazzle gift sets.

And see, too, those little golden girls with ribbons in that spot for Tyco’s Flower Makin’ Basket? They’re making “beautiful small flowers.” As a lilting female voice observes, “A tisket, a tasket, a flower-makin’ basket.”

Maybe the dainty flowers are meant to decorate the dinner tables that those rugged boy builders and truckers will come home to after a hard day playing with their macho toys.

What to do with these hackneyed, narrow and confining gender images? Well, we do have those Dynamite plungers. . . .