Lucy Meadmore: Like a Virgin...
Robyn Harper: Can I Write for a Living? There's Only One Way to Find…
Our friend, comedian Jared Logan, has a bit where he says, "Watching commercial for girls' toys, it's like feminism never happened."And judging from this horrific collection found over at Huffington Post, he's right. Buckle up, ladies -- if you thought the Easy Bake Oven was bad, you're about to be blown away.
For example, take the Pole Dancer doll (left)! Isn't she gorgeous? Don't you want to be just like her? Or how about the Disney Princesses' Broom and Dustpan, for sweeping up all your dreams of finding Mr. Right?
Or, if you're less about cleaning and more about making a statement, then why not try the Tramp Stamp Machine found at Toys R Us? (Seriously.) Only fifty cents -- low self-esteem comes free!
It's frustrating enough when toys for girls deal in gender stereotypes like housekeeping, as in the actual toy "My Cleaning Trolley" (from Girls Only, right). But it's downright disgusting when they teach little girls to have a negative body image (see: the girl-tech "photo retouch" studio that lets them magic away their physical imperfections) or, even worse, sexualizes them (see: the Bratz "Babyz" line).
While some of this is just funny (Pole Dancer -- really?), at the end of the day, they're more than a little disturbing. It seems that no matter how far we go in teaching young girls that they can do anything, some insane manufacturer finds a totally nonsensical way to tell them that they should stick to stripping and mopping.
Click here to check out the full collection.
Comments:
Add a comment
Wednesday 08 September
By bellagrlxitalia@aol.com
oh yes the old spice guy is perfect! where is he... a real man... nice post bolo5757
Reply
Tuesday 14 September
By SBZ
As all parents know, kids will play with the toy they want to play with. Marketing might get a kid to ask for a toy, but once it is bought and in your house no amount of coaxing by parents will make a kid want to play (or not play) with a specific toy. Every parent has had the experience of buying a toy their child really wanted only to have them play with it for 10 minutes and then move on to something else.
Buying a child a cleaning trolley is not going to make them think cleaning is fun if they don’t already think it is. The toy is not going to imprint gender stereotypes on a kid if the child doesn’t already live in an environment where such stereotypes are the norm. The existence of such toys are not going to undermined any values that parents are trying to teach their kids.
As for the pole dancer, any child who has parents would buy such a toy unfortunately has bigger problems then playing with a pole dancing doll.
Reply