GWSS 1001 - Gender, Power, and Everday Life

I was paging through an InStyle magazine, looking at all the ads. While there were many brands and products that were advertised, most of them a little pricey, two of them stuck out the most to me as a very interesting contradiction. One ad is for the brand DKNY and the other is for KY Intrigue personal lubricant. First the ad for DKNY, which I will focus on a little more, has nothing to do with the clothing brand. It features a man and a woman looking like they are about to have sex, the woman on the supine to the man, depicting helplessness and subordination to him. The lighting highlights certain features of the woman’s body: her breasts and stomach, focusing on sexual features. Both the man and the woman appear to be in good physical shape, furthering the “ideal body” both for men and women as well as the idea that only these types of bodies are desirable. The only part of the ad that actually shows the brand is on her underwear, in very small print towards the bottom of the page. I think that ads like this contribute to many of the problems in society. Young girls see these ads and think they need to strive to have beautiful bodies, big breasts, tan skin, full lips, so that the “hot guy” will want to sleep with them, because that is of course the goal here right? Not a relationship or emotional connection, but sex.

Which brings me to my advertising contradiction. My second ad is for KY Lubrication. My curiosity was peaked when I noticed that the one product that is sold for use during sexual activity, is one of the few that does not use any sexual images to sell it. Why is that so? All the ad says is “How Valentine’s Day blurs into night.” It implies sex, yet there are no toned bodies, no “beautiful people” on top of each other to sell the product.

I found a website with many different controversial ads from different places, it was an interesting website with a blog type set up. Check it out if you want to see more ads!
http://www.mediawatch.com/gallery/ads

Posted by Desiree Guida at 06:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I was looking through my Men’s Vogue magazine when I came across a ridiculous perfume ad. I thought it was funny, soI searched online for perfume ads. This is the one I found.

I personally think perfume ads are pretty funny (you know, kind of like Abercrombie ads). What are they actually trying to sell in this ad? Sex? Racism? Objectification? (I have concluded they are selling anything but the actual product). Apparently this ad is selling a perfume called “In Black”. The woman in this photo represents an exotic, untamed, wild, sex object. Having her be completely naked wrapped in a thin string of beads only ads to the selling of her body, not the perfume. The woman is completely objectified in this photograph. Does she have a name or a personality? This ad definitely fulfills the stereotypes of what a feminine woman should be. She is wearing tons of makeup, she is seemingly hairless, thin and somewhat fragile.
It’s interesting that a black woman would be used for this ad. When I think of “in black” I imagine a woman in an outfit that is black. Black is often viewed in our society as sexy and impure. It seems so racists then, to have a woman who isn’t wearing black, but who is black. She isn’t wearing the sexy and impure she is the sexy and impure. The product name is only amplifying her skin color and the stereotypes that go along with black women. I can only assume that the dove represents some sort of virginity or purity, to sell to a non-black audience (the audience I believe this ad is selling to). The dove seems to contrast her lack of purity as a sex object.
I seriously wonder what the point of an ad like this is trying to make. Will I turn into this exotic sex object when I put on this perfume? Will someone please let me know?

Posted by Kevin Oran at 07:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

There are so many things wrong with this ad that it’s hard to even find a place to start. First let’s start with the fact that this is an image of a woman, yet the top half of her head and the lower half of her body are completely cut off. This is dehumanizing to her by just taking her body and amputating any part that the company wants to. Removing parts of a female’s body is extremely common in advertising, but rarely do you ever see a man who has part of his head cut off.

Another thing that is wrong is a more obvious one. This woman is almost completely naked with huge breasts that are only partially covered with her own hands. She is extremely thin which only further enforces societies emphasis on how being thin is the body type to strive for.

The next thing is the question in the middle of the ad that says “Who cares if they’re real?” What are they referring to in this question? My immediate thought was they were talking about her breasts. Then when I read what was being advertised I found they are advertising for “designer inspired jewelry.” So apparently they were referring to who cares if the diamonds are real. Yeah right. I don’t think it is appropriate to be referring to women’s breasts being real or not in an advertisement. Plastic surgery isn’t something that should be joked about. It is a serious decision that someone makes, not just something that they decide to do spur of the moment as this advertisement implies.

Basically, this ad is disrespectful to women in many ways. This advertisement for fake designer jewelry is very upsetting to me.

Posted by KIS at 05:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Blog Post Category 8. Adbusting (2 points)
Due by NOON on Monday April 2

Assignment Details: In American society (and increasingly in other Western and non-Western countries), children and adults alike are being socialized by the mass media as well as by parents, peers, schools, and other institutions. Advertising is a particularly interesting medium because it is meant to turn a profit. Much money is spent to induce you, the consumer, to have certain emotions and to feel certain needs. Advertisements can be viewed as very effective tools of socialization that suggest the statuses that are available within a society. They can also give insight into the values of a society.

Use About-Face.org as a resource

In this assignment you are asked to examine an advertisements in popular magazines and select one to bring to class). You must consider the following questions and write a 150 - 300 word post, OR, create (and post or bring to class) an ADBUSTER like the one you see below.

Questions to consider for your short analysis post:
1) What magazines did you examine? At what audience is each directed? How can you tell?

2) What roles in society are defined by these ads? Are they represented in any way that defines who (i.e., race, class, gender, age, ethnicity) should be in these roles?

3) What emotions are being elicited by these ads?

4) How is beauty portrayed in these ads?

5) What do these ads have to say about gender? What gendered norms are reinforced by these ads?

6) How might these ads be different from ads of the past? For example, can you see changing attitudes about men and women's work? Have ideas of beauty shifted—even in your lifetime?

7) Do you think these ads contribute to the gendered "problems" of eating disorders, sexual victimization, or cosmetic surgery? What would today's author have to say about what you found?

ADBUSTING EXAMPLE:

Here are other examples:
Adbusters spoof ads
Feministing has some in "Fun with Feminist Flickr" category

* NOTE * You may choose to write a post AND do an adbusting example for extra credit.

Posted by Rae at 09:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

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Over the weekend I was at SuperTarget and wandered over to the doll section. The past few years I have done the kids ‘Santa shopping’ for my uncle’s electric company holiday party and like someone had previously mentioned it is hard to walk down the aisle and look at things critically after you have spent many afternoons picking out dolls for people you know. On this trip however I focused on the doll aisle (the one without the Barbies and Bratz dolls). There were the Cabbage Patch dolls, the Little Mommy dolls and the ones I found interesting were the “Our Generation” dolls.

I was hoping to find something more about them online but all the search results came up with were dolls for sale. These dolls were ones I had never seen before (although they were not that different from any of the others). There were dolls with varying skin tones, different personalities and their own deluxe set of accessories that came in the same package as the doll. They were located on the shelf at eye level for about a 3rd or 4th grader and the shelf was as fun as it could get. The name “Our Generation” is catchy as some girls may hear their moms talk about Barbies and want dolls of their own (even though Barbies are always up to date with fashion, celebrities and ideas.) When I saw these dolls I thought back to the “Ethically Correct Dolls” article. The first point made was that “our children gain a sense of self-importance through toys. So we make them look like them.” These dolls all seem easy to relate to for young girls and since they are their generation, they can relate even more. All of the dolls at Target were female and I found myself immediately drawn to the doll that I would have picked out as a child (the one that looked like me back then.) Jenny came with an mp3 player, a passport and luggage for all of her travels (even stuff that I enjoy too). Sandie, Robyn and Katherine also lined the shelf, one dressed very feminine, one in her sports apparel and one “regular” girl. These dolls were larger and more realistic than a Barbie but still had a typical flawless appearance of most dolls.
Looking at the dolls closer I realized that none of them ever depict the changes a girl goes through as she goes through puberty. None of them have acne, or are awkwardly proportioned. They don’t have goofy haircuts or braces.
Dolls have changed quite a bit over the years but none of them surprised me. They continually attempt to diversify dolls but they all remain beautiful and flawless. Children will play with dolls no matter what they look like and enjoy doing so. It isn’t until people like Clarkson analyze how dolls will “empower them as racial beings” that children even realize that the doll they are playing with isn’t exactly like them. Although we are all able to criticize doll companies and pick apart the negative ideas they display, children have and will continue to love them and play with them until someone steps in the way.

Posted by michelle lynn at 09:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Groovy Girls are an interesting looking doll that my sister used to go crazy about. I thought it would be interesting to see how their online store was set up. They are the “wildly popular soft dolls with their own unique sense of funky style”. On the main page there is a lot of flash animation, big flowers, and attractive looking dolls. Everything is animated and inviting you to come and dance, chat with friends, or take photos! The possibilities seem endless, and I haven’t even entered the site.

To actually buy the doll, you must go to the Manhattan Toy website, which opens in a new window, allowing you to continue all of the fun activities on the groovygirls.net site. When I click on the Groovy Girls section at the top of the site, the banner claims that their “products encourage girls to celebrate their own unique personalities!” On the side banner you may choose from these categories: Dolls, Clothing, Furniture and Accessories, Pets, Groovy Girls Mini, Dreamtastic, Petrageous, All, and New. In the Dolls drop down list, there are Girls, Boys, Super sized, Poseable, and Fun packs. My first impression was, “Whoa, cool, Groovy Boys!” Then I clicked on it and realized rather than the 46 options under girls, I can only choose from Josh or Dylan under the boys. I have slim pickings!

The dolls are very eccentric; no dolls are quite the same. The Dreamtastic Girls represent many of the images of women in our dream and fantasies. You can choose the Bride, Bridesmaid, Flower girl, Ballerina, Fairy, Princess or Mermaid, none of these girls which come in any race other than white. There are other people of color represented in the Girl section under Dolls, here there is quite a large variety of hair styles, skin colors, and outfits. Sexuality is not addressed.

My overall response to these dolls is that even though there are boys represented, they are only two boys and both of whom are white. The girls come in a much wider range, as they should. 2 out of 25 Groovy Girls Mini is available as a doll of color. The proportions are terribly skewed.

Posted by believer. at 03:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I decided to delve into the world of MyScene.com, a website that a little girl that I baby-sit frequents. I’ve wandered at times where she picks up certain expressions and attitudes that neither of her parents or siblings portrays, and I’ve often figured it was her friends at school that she borrowed demeanors from. I realize after the MyScene exploration, that she has picked up some of her qualities from the dolls she does not even own, but simply visits over the internet. I’m uncomfortable with this.

The website was pretty exclusively geared towards little girls. It is definitely one of the “ethnically correct” doll collections mentioned in the reading, in which four different token colors of skin are supposed to represent every little girl of the U.S. The four main dolls (Kennedy, Madison, Chelsea, and Nolee) each represent four slightly ambiguous ethnicities, white, African American, Latina, and Asian. The white doll is seen the most, as it appears first always as blond, with tan but white skin. The African American doll is seen often as well, with the same long hair but dark this time, blue eyes, and mold, but with slightly darker skin. The Latina doll is seen every once in a while and is described as sassy and flirty much more than the other dolls. She has the same long dark hair and even whiter skin than the “white” doll. Lastly, the Asian doll is rarely seen. She is introduced first in the “Let’s go Disco” doll sets where she is in a set of 2 along with the African American doll, all ready for clubbing.

The most shocking finding, was that if not every, than almost every page referred to the dolls “turning heads”, “catching all the guys’ eyes”, “Get[ting] noticed”, “Need[ing] a sporty cutie to step up to match her”. Appearance was highlighted, but was to be judged on how many boys paid attention to her. This is what is being taught to young girls right now. There were about 30 short little clips of cartoon depictions of the dolls in their everyday life. The “dolls” were giggly, shallow, and lacked personality. They all had the same voice, thought the same things, fought over the same outfits, and crushed on the same guys. Despite the variety in ethnicity, the dolls were all identical.

I’ll touch on the fact that these were definitely not being marketed to lower class children. The dolls were depicted as being obsessed with shopping, clubbing, and fashion. There must be some deal that Mattel (the owners) made with Claire’s, Sketchers, and Mudd jeans retailers, because they were mentioned on occasion and their were links to these stores in the “Fashions For You” page where kids can find and buy the exact same outfits as the dolls. These outfits were mostly, faux fur, denim mini skirts, tub tops, huge boots, and tiny little jackets.

Posted by Lauren Mulvey at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I visited Toys 'R' Us' website and found out that what we talked about in class about dolls being gender oriented is completely correct. Maybe shoppers looking for something specific wouldn't notice, but after analyzing many different types of toys, I realized it's all over the place!! On the topic of marketing, I think they really try by appealing to what is popular "now" and they rely heavily on their paragraph telling what the toys does, comes with and basically why it should appeal to the young child. I believe that is where the true marketing lies.

ACTION TOYS: While scoping through several actions figures, I noticed that all the male-gendered action figures were very muscular, with huge thighs, arms, pectoral muscles and usually a six pack of abs. All the Women-gendered figures were very thin, toned (but not too muscular) and had giant breasts. They came in blonde hair, red hair and black hair. I did not see one that was any other race but Caucasian. Some of the painted on clothes were very sexist because they pointed out certain sexual body parts. For example, one figure called the Marvel Legends "Wasp" was all black and has yellow on her breasts and then going down her middle and stopped at her vagina. I was curious about the age and realized it was for a 4 year old. Interesting.

PRETEND PLAY/DRESSUP: There was a lot more items for girls to pretend play with than boys. I noticed certain categories as jewelery, makeup/nails/hair, gardening, housekeeping, money/banking and tools. Under such catgeories I noticed that when I clicked on "just girls" It would take away things like a BBQ set, sushi set, and tool belt. Obviously girls do not want to cook outside, make some sushi or like to fix anything!! This is what they are telling young girls and they are telling young boys that girls are the ones that need to clean and cook inside. All you find is lavender and pink aprons that come with hot pads, and oven mitts. You'll see vacuums and brooms... and wonderful kitchen sets. Kitchen sets really got me. This is where class comes into mind. None of the kitchen sets pictured were of one that a middle-class average family would own. They came with little extras that cost alot in real life.

The one that stuck out in my head was the "Grand Walk-in Kitchen." This kitchen came complete wtih arches, btwo breakfast bars, detailed woodwork, hardwood floors, granite look alike counter tops, stainless steel refrigerators... as you can see... it was for the avg. child millionaire. And it showed a little white girl serving her two black friends at the breakfast bar.. she was waving her hand over her kitchen..

One other toy that stuck out to me was called "My first purse" and it read "Just like mom's purse! in every little girls favorite colors pink and purple. Comes with wallet, debit card, lipstick, mirror, cell phone and keys." great for roleplay. THis showed me that obviously girls only shop and care about what they look like and talk on the phone. Definitely stereotyping the avg. girl.

I am running out of time but i wanted to talk about barbies. i noticed only a few african american barbies and they were always titled with something that had to do with their heritage. "festival of worlds barbie." and I also noticed that Barbie must always have to be white because if she is colored, than they change her name!!! What?!

Posted by JMP at 11:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I visited the FAO Schwarz website for this assignment. When the site first came up, I was amazed that all the items featured were advertised with pictures of white children and babies. The featured toy on the bottom of the screen said, “Create your own Madame Alexander Doll Today”. There was a white girl holding a line of dolls- all of which were white. I clicked on the link to begin creating a doll, and the description read, “You can choose from skin, eye, and hair color . . .”. Really? Can I? Because according to what I can see and what you have made very obvious (the enlarged picture from the last page), I can/should only choose the white skin color. Hmm…

Next, I started clicking on some of the specific options to check out from the long list on the right side of the screen. I made it about five items down the list before I had seen any kids that were not white. There was an overwhelming ratio of white to non-white children modeling the FAO Schwarz toys. Also, I was sickened by the prices of these toys. Toys for children that are way too young to need or appreciate expensive gifts like these. Parents and kids of the lower class might as well be counted out as far as those who can shop at FAO Schwarz. For example, I clicked under the headline, “Luxury gifts” and discovered that a Dance-On piano costs $250,000. That’s a pretty penny to spend on an eight-year-old. Other gifts such as Digital Jukebox with iPod connection, Jennifer Delonge Ava Microsuede Chair and Ottoman, and Grand Victorian Mansion only confirmed for me the fact that this toy store targets the upper-class; the rich and sophisticated. Lastly, this toy store clearly supports the normalization of gender by depicting girls with dolls and boys with toy cars.

Posted by coffee drinker at 11:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We all got a sneak peak into the “American Girl” website (http://americangirl.com/) in class, so I am not surprise so many of us chose to write about this site. From the little I saw of other people’s impression of other websites and stores, “American Girl” is as ethnically diverse as it is going to get. As for class-if you (or your parents, assume the site aims at 3-8+ year old girls) do not have at least $42 for the simplest (“Bitty Baby”) doll, this is defiantly not the site for you. Assuming you have a computer access (whether it is at home, in the public library or in school) you can start looking for the dolls of your dreams-and dive into one of the most “American” experiences you can get in a mouse-click.
From the pink, red and other light-colored front page I dove into the “shop” link, to get to business (my computer at home is just way too slow for watching movies or playing sophisticated games online). All the girls in the front of the “shop” page where white (including the dolls) and most had light hair-blond or brown. The whole appearance is not very welcoming to Americans of non-European (or actually, non-Northern European) descent, but since the site is looking for the people with expandable income, that not seem to be a problem (in their minds’ eye). “Bitty Baby” is marketed for girls at age 3+, and offer five skin, eye and hair color combinations. I think that this is not bad in comparison with the “Barbie” or “Bratz” websites, but maybe it is just because I became too “American”.

Continuing my “shopping” I looked at the “Bitty Twins”, all of which would have made white eugenicists very happy: apparently only white women can afford having twins, and the boys are always blond, with price tag which begins in $87 for pair of twins. The “girl of the year” was also white and blue eyed. I would not see the first current doll (not part of the historic dolls) until I reached the “just like you” section, which has the first (and last) picture of an Asian-looking girl to promote the dolls. “Just like” come only in long, smooth hair that looks the same for the dolls of all “ethnicities”. Now the “just like you” dolls are for girls over 8 years old-it is just wrong for you to know that there are so many different “ethnicities” before you are at this age.
The historic doll section was the most refreshing, and also showed some ethnic diversity (3 out of 8 historic dolls were “non-white”-37.5%), but the histories that were chosen were “problem free” mainstream accounts. Kaya the Indian girl lived in the 1760’s with her people. There was seemingly accurate description of some of the tribe’s customs, but in the 1760’s it ended; no mention of where they are today, any interaction with other (non-native) people, and of course- nothing of knowledge, culture or spirituality, just facts on they way they lived and generated food.
Addy, the Afro-American doll, lived in Philadelphia after the civil war. No mention where she, or her family, before the war. Addy is the only girl who does not have grandparents, and have only one sister and one brother. If you can read between the lines you may understand she supposedly came from a background of slavery and from Africa before that, but Addy does not have a culture, or a country she came from. She is just planted in 1864, and like Kaya (the Native-American doll) she does not have past or future.
The “American Doll” products and website are primarily for white girls (and doll-collectors) but I actually thought it was somewhat positive that the dolls were not sexualized (like Barbie, or the Bratz), and that they had some characters that were not white. This site is, as mentioned in the Ethnically Correct Dolls article, for “minority children only as long as these children could buy their products” (152). There is a long way to go before any of the “mainstream” or big corporate websites will show real wide and ever changing diversity of class, sexuality and gender, but it seems as if some of the toys manufacturers are slowly moving in the right direction- as long as they can make money out of dolls from diverse ethnicities.
I was not shocked to see the same patriarchal, racist and classist messages that one can see on television being reflected in toys, but I hope at least in my own life (or more accurately, those of my future children) I will be able to at least reduce the damages created by such “eugenic” dolls. Maybe in the future somebody should make GLABTQQ American dolls, as well as Irish, Somali and Hmong ones (and others), but right now I will still think that “American Doll” conveys better messages (to children and parents who can afford it) then those messages that were conveyed by “Barbie” or the Bratz (especially in the body image and sexuality departments).

Posted by Athesit-feminist at 11:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Download the flyer with full info - HERE

Posted by Rae at 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My daughter has at least one of almost every type of doll in each aisle—yes, including the more typical “boy” dolls like G.I. Joe and Star Wars figures. Although, every time I attempt to diversify her collection, she opts for the doll that looks the most like her, and that is the reason she will give as well. She chooses her dolls by who they look like-- Moms have dark hair, kids are usually blonde. We’ve walked the toy aisles of Target, Wal-Mart, Toys ‘R Us, Kaybee Toys, and every other toy retailer there is in Minnesota more than likely. Her bedroom is covered in Barbie, Bratz, Polly, Joe, and Princess Padame.

To actually walk through these aisles trying to see a different feminist perspective was difficult for me because I’m used to walking through choosing birthday and Christmas gifts for Madeline or her friends.

First, walking through the Barbie aisle, which can be seen from nearly across the store by its pink glow, I wanted to see what things were placed at different eye levels. I did find that the more conservative or occasion dolls—like Special Edition or Collection dolls were placed at or above my, or the adult’s/parent’s, eye level.

Just below that were some dolls that were had an abundance of accessories and themes. There were a few minority dolls, but primarily the dolls were white with blonde or brown hair. This is where most of the male dolls were matched up as "boyfriends" as well. This must be for the 7-9-year-old girls.

I found that close to the bottom of the shelves were dolls that had more accessories like pets or friends or houses. I would guess that this is targeted at the 4-6-year-old who would be walking along holding her Mommy’s hand. Before "boyfriends" the interest seems to be in animals, and so this marketing would make sense.

Towards the back end of the aisle is where the generic Barbies were found. Also, more accessories could be found here—clothes, shoes, etc.

On the opposite side of the aisle, were flashy real-life-size princess dresses and combination packs of dolls and princesses.

I do wonder about whether or not they take into account the children who ride along in shopping carts. This would put a kink in any of my eye level findings.

I didn’t find any obvious race-related organization, but this could be because of the area of town that we visited the Target store. I suppose the lack of diversity is something that should be noted, but I found the more ethnic/exotic dolls to be mostly mixed in.

I always find it quite humorous that they actually have a doll that smells like tanning lotion and that most the cars that go along with the dolls were pink convertibles. Not to mention all the matching shoes, handbags, and hair bands… I’m just waiting for a Coach or Dolce & Gabbana or Louis Vitton doll to be released.

Posted by samantha at 11:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

In this short essay, I will focus on the marketing of toys to children within Target. As I walked through the toy section at Target in Marshfield, WI, I couldn’t help but notice that I could pick out who was targeted, pardon the pun, for certain products based on nothing more than the color of the packaging and toys themselves.

As I walked by each aisle of the toy section, I could tell within a split second whether the toys in the section were marketed to boys or girls. In the sections that were targeted toward boys, all of the packaging and toys themselves in the entire aisle were blues, greens, reds, blacks, and browns. When I walked by a section that was targeted toward girls, the entire aisle was pink, purple, and pastel blues and greens. Instantly, as a child, you would know whether a section was for you or not for you based on the colors in the aisle. Even the games that were not meant to be gender specific, had a dominant color. For example, Texas Hold’Em was dominantly blue, red and black in its packaging, but an electronic pet game was pink and purple. These games could be played by either a boy or a girl, but based on what I saw in the rest of the store, a boy would be hesitant to play the electronic pet game based on its packaging “for a girl.”

The colors of the packaging were the first things that caught my attention in the store. The second was the way in which the products were organized. In the “boys” section the products were organized in a way on the shelves that put HotWheels, Matchbox and Go Tools together. Also, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers, Star Wars, and Marvel Comics heroes were all together as well. I found it interesting that these shows or characters were not meant many times to be focused at males over females, but that the products tied to them were entirely focused on a marketing plan toward males. Within the “female” section, Bratz and Barbie dolls were located right across the aisle from each other and were right at eye level of someone who was about four feet tall. It was almost as if you could play with Barbie as the Bratz mother if you bought each.

The final item that I noticed when I was there was the lack of racial diversity amongst the products. I noticed that the majority of dolls, male or female targeted, were white. This may have to do with the fact that Marshfield, WI is about as far from diversity as can be imagined, but it was still disturbing. The only racial diversity that did exist within the marketing of products was very African-American dominated. I did not notice any other races represented on packaging or within products in this particular store. I found this interesting since obviously everyone in the world is either black or white.

My overall reaction to the shopping experience was that I felt discouraged. I felt discouraged because all that we have learned in this class so far has been very good, and I would love to think that as a society we could adopt what we have learned and put it into practice, making the world a better place for all to live. This experience brought back a reality that we have a long way to go. How can ideals of equality and love for all overcome consumerism when we live in a society driven by monetary reward and materialism? As a child there is no way to distinguish between these things, and as a result, from an early age we start developing dichotomies between gender and race that last a lifetime. The toys we play with most definitely play a role in this!

Posted by Derek Blanchard at 10:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I took an online tour of Toys “R” Us. The doll section was arranged in several categories including fashion dolls, princess dolls, and ethnic dolls. Under the top selling list, the top selling doll of the month is the “Irish Dance” doll from the Barbie Pink Label collection. The doll is depicted in the perfect Irish stereotype with long curly red hair, pale skin, and green dress.

It is part of the festivals of the world collection which also includes a Ciyco De Mayo, a Kwanzaa, and an Oktoberfest doll. I was interesting to take a closer look at the Kwanzaa doll. In many of the Barbie dolls I looked at my Matel the African American Barbies were darker skinned versions of Barbie. The Kwanzaa dolls has different facial features and is missing the scary tiny Barbie nose that looks like it has been hacked away with plastic surgery. Kwanzaa Barbie comes with extremely long wavy hair and beaded earrings. Kwanzaa Barbie does not appear in the ethnic dolls section however.
Twenty Seven dolls appear in the ethnic dolls section. A vast majority of the dolls are African American, with the remainder being Hispanic. No Asian American dolls were shown. This was the only section of dolls where images were not available for many of the dolls. One of the dolls was titled “You & Me: Hispanic Baby Darla Interactive Doll” the picture of the doll however was a very pale white baby with blue/hazel eyes.
A huge section of dolls on the Toys R US website is the princess section. More often than not princesses are depicted in a tutu, a tiara and often have a wand. In the section I also came across the Prince Derek doll. Prince Derek is an African American doll complete with faux middle ages apparel. Class manifests itself in an interesting way in this doll. Although Prince Derek is a royal Prince, he is also the Royal Cobbler. He spends his time making shoes for the head white Barbie princess and her twelve princess friends. He comes with twelve pairs of shoes. So in reality Prince Derek is not a Prince at all but a house servant who wears a crown. Off all the prince dolls I looked at, Derek was the only one who had a service job, the white princess don’t spend their time making shoes.
A Medieval theme is also present in the boy’s action figure section. Many of the toy sets include knights and castle themes. Recently I read an article by Leslie Feinberg discussion transgender repression. Feinberg marks the Middle Ages and the time in which transpeople and gender crossing became a terrible taboo and crossing gender lines lead to in most cases death. It is also a time which gender relations are ideally depicted. Women are soft and feminine waiting around for their knight and prince suitors to court them with poems and flowers.
The boy’s action figure also showed elements of what was talked about in the films we viewed in class regarding males and violence. A vast majority of the toys were intensely muscular warrior type figures. A large section was devoted to military figures; compete with an arsenal of firearms. One of the more disturbing lines of toys made for boys is the series “WWE Ruthless Aggression.” The figures are of wrestling characters with huge bulging muscles and tiny Speedos, which are fairly homoerotic, except the characters beat the crap out of each other.
It was also interesting to see how non human figures were gendered. Monsters and fantasy type creatures were in the boys section. Talking bears and horses were in the girls section. Interestingly the horses often have been “feminized” with extremely long mains and tails, giant doe eyes, and often have coats of pastel colours. In the boys section there is also a coin collection category. The category does not have any real collector coins except for one set of 2001 quarters. The rest of the toys in the section are play money sets. There is a cash register and scanner, on of which is hot pink. It is interesting that this does not appear in the girls section despite its gendering. Apparently girls are not to handle money or run a business; instead they should be feeding babies and braiding hair.

Posted by Jerry at 10:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

My Twinn is an online retailer selling-- oh, did you guess it, you clever thing?-- child-replica-type dolls. The website itself is pretty girly, hearts and flowers and that shade of pinky-purple that I never know what to do with... I didn't see a single photo of a boy paired with his doll, even though there is a boy-doll option.

One of the first distinctions is to choose a hairstyle and texture for the doll. There are six textures to choose from, ranging from "Straight hair with a slight wave" to "African-American." It seems odd to say that the hair is segregated, but it is ordered from straightest (read: whitest) to... blackest? The last two hair options are of a "coarser texture," one with tight ringlet curls, the other "relaxed with a perm or heat." It seems odder the more I look at it. In fact, I only saw a photo of one little girl of color and her doll-- and no boys.

One is then asked to choose between five swatches of skin tone, looking for the one that "most closely matches your child's skin tone." Olive, and two light-to-dark variations each on "fair" and "brown." Aside from the pallor of the "very fair" option, the variety of tones isn't very great. They look like splashes of the same paint with a drop of blue or yellow added in. It appears to be possible, though, for the "artisans" at My Twinn to work a little more closely than this process suggests.

Upon completing an order, the parent is asked to upload a photo of the child. Then the "artisans" [I'm sorry, I just can't get over my amusement at that word] will mold the face to match the child. I find this idea really interesting. Aside from the creepiness factor involved in preserving a child in plastic-- there is a real possibility that giving a child a doll in his or her own image could help teach self-love at an early age.

But for whom is this available? The doll costs $139, before shipping and all that extra junk. It seems that their clientele would be limited to the wealthy.

So there's both a racial and a class division in their offering and the dolls are clearly gendered....I try to think of their appeal, and I imagine if there were a doll that I thought would help my little sister feel beautiful and learn to love herself, I'd buy it. But then I know that the real influences on her life are the people around her, and anyway, that little girl is so full of contradictions already that no doll can replicate her. She rarely responds to physical compliments, but grins like a diva whenever a camera is nearby. She digs on lipstick but doesn't usually bother to brush her hair. She can't find a beat to save her life and rides her pink bicycle through the mud. If I really wanted to make her feel good about herself, I should teach her how to do it herself, shouldn't I?

Posted by SuperTree at 09:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

For my doll report I decided to check out the Toys “R” Us Website. They had many different categories of dolls to choose from. I decided to focus more on the Barbie and Ken dolls. I looked at the collector’s dolls first and found that there were dolls of many different ethnicities and cultures. Most of these were Barbies. Some of these were Cinco de Mayo Barbies, Wizard of Oz Barbies, Tooth Fairy Barbies, Kwanzaa Barbies, and Hard Rock Cafe Barbies just to name a few.

For my doll report I decided to check out the Toys “R” Us Website. They had many different categories of dolls to choose from. I decided to focus more on the Barbie and Ken dolls. I looked at the collector’s dolls first and found that there were dolls of many different ethnicities and cultures. Most of these were Barbies. Some of these were Cinco de Mayo Barbies, Wizard of Oz Barbies, Tooth Fairy Barbies, Kwanzaa Barbies, and Hard Rock Cafe Barbies just to name a few.

I noticed that there was definitely more than one race represented, but if it was a non-white Barbie it was always specified. This was much more noticeable when I went to the princess doll section on the site. The dolls here were obviously mostly female again, with the exception of a few Ken prince dolls. A large majority of these dolls were white, and the only other ethnicity that was represented was the African American Barbies. All of these Barbies were specified as African American Barbies, while the white Barbies were specified by something else, usually what they were wearing. It seems like if you want an African America doll, you won’t really have much choice as to what it looks like, but there were many more choices of white dolls.

If I wanted to buy a Barbie, it would be extremely easy to find a Barbie that is from my ethnic group. People from other ethnic groups might find it hard to find a Barbie that is more like them, and if they do they may only have one or two choices, instead of many many different white Barbies. People will see this, especially young girls, and be persuaded to think that the white Barbie with the blond hair is the Barbie that most people look like since there are so many more white Barbies than non-white Barbies. Children should be shown that there can be many different ways that a person or a doll should look, and while this is improving with dolls nowadays compared to when I was a kid, the white blonde Barbie still provides an unrealistic model for young girls to look at. It definitely contributes to the normalization of the female gender in children.

Posted by Alex at 09:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I had to write about Barbie for this assignment; my childhood ties are so strong (I know, like millions of other kids…). But Barbies took a kind of special place in my home- while I had a few, it was my brother (3 years my senior) who had the real collection. My brother would spend hours creating elaborate sets, talk shows, outfits, scenarios, you name it. It is often his Barbie obsession that people raise their eyebrows at when looking for clues of his homosexuality in our childhood past.

The issue of gender identity is a very complicated one- yet I know that my brother identified with women. Perhaps this is why he liked female Barbies so much. This would fit into the idea that children want toys to represent themselves.

For Christmas (when I was 4 and my brother was 7), my parents gave my brother and I deluxe Barbies for Christmas. My brother received the beautiful (white) swan princess, and I received the handsome (“African American”) Ken doll in a glittery white tuxedo. I didn’t really like him, and I was jealous of my brother’s princess.

The “Ethnically Correct Dolls” reading talks about the commodification of race in toys, and the Barbie website (even in the year 2007) seems to back this up entirely. Through browsing over much of the site, every image of a girl or Barbie as a representative image is white. The only time the Bride Barbie [(AA) next to it, for “African American”] will come up is under a product search. The descriptions for the Bride Barbies are exactly the same, but one has (AA) in her title. The same goes for the grooms. For the women dolls, the Bride Barbies looks to be entirely the same save for color- they share the same, glossy long nylon hair and pert features.

The scarcity of the black dolls (and much more infrequent Latina, Hawaiian, etc.) definitely fits in with the “commodity” theory. As if only someone looking and specifically inclined to buy a black doll would do it- they seem to be set aside, special, for those “special” situations in which the doll is being purchased for and used by a black child. When I visited the Cabbage Patch website, I had similar findings. Although the race wasn’t included in the product description, I had to actively seek out the ethnic dolls (perhaps one on each page of 10 or so) and I had to scrutinize them very closely.
I have to wonder why so many Barbies and Cabbage Patch dolls alike have red hair, if indeed 1% of the white population has this trait. The percentage of people with different skin tones far exceeds this red hair color rarity- there must be 3-4 Cabbage Patch Kids with red hair for every ethnic one.

I applaud my parents for trying to break boundaries, at least on a small level, in our home. I ended up liking my black prince charming (until one day my brother’s friend threw him up into the neighbor’s storm drain). We ran out the day the Barbie with “realistic weight” was released, bouncing up and sown in the car shouting “we want the fat Barbie!” She wasn’t even voluptuous. But that’s what you must expect from Barbie, I suppose. It seems the divides are as strict as ever.

Posted by Annie at 09:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Throughout high school, I worked in a privately owned toy store. The store is located in the busy tourist area of Duluth by the lake. I remember placing orders for dolls, marking them and stocking them on the shelves.

We didn’t sell any Matell dolls, but we did sell other brands with similar physical constructions. We sold a brand of dolls called ‘Groovy Girls’. These dolls were not all similar. They were not all blonde with white skin color. There was quite a diverse selection. The Groovy Girls mantra is as follows, “The hippest playmates and most fashionable friends, our Groovy Girls ® collection is spectacular! Designed with an eye for style, our groovy girls playmates sport funky removable outfits with cool details like hook and loop closures and awesome accessories. Groovy Girls show that beauty comes in all colors, styles and sizes. As no two are alike, our special Groovy Girls® teach children to celebrate diversity.” As you can see, the degree of diversity is great. Besides white, there were different races including Latina and Asian, as well as representations of both genders. Their sexualities are not an issue here. They do not have a trim waistline or a high bust. They are in their younger teens, specifically the ‘tweens’ group. The dolls are dressed appropriately, and have a Holly Hobby time of feel to them. The hair is not strait with sheen; it is in braids, short, bangs, ponytails etc. The Groovy Girls try to fit into several different niche markets.

When I would work, we would always get phone calls about the Groovy Girls, “Is the new Groovy Girls in yet? Are there any new accessories? What is the size of your stock? When do you get more in?” Their high demand allowed us to buy more products of the brand. We didn’t advertise in any forms of media in Duluth. Our business thrived on loyal customers, word of mouth and the plethora of tourists every season.

We designated a ceiling to floor shelving area for the Groovy Girls. We didn’t have any specific tactic of organizing them by their race, gender or class. When I would stock them, I would first lay out their accessories and toys on different shelves (Tents, Bikes, Boats, etc). I would then fill the ‘sets’ I had made with different dolls. The sets themselves weren’t identifies as white only or asian only. I had all the dolls in a pile on the floor and would grab one randomly and set it on the shelf. Considering that there were less male dolls than females, I made sure there was an even amount of male dolls per shelf.

I was glad that our store chose a brand that embraced diversity. It grew to be extremely popular. Never once did I receive a phone call in my time there asking about Matell, Barbie, Ken, Kimmy and etc.

Posted by Mr. Hilton at 09:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I’ve been out-of-touch with the doll business for quite awhile. As a child I loved playing with Barbies and my older sisters’ porcelain dolls, though my best friend and I had always dreamed of getting American Girl dolls. Since my childhood long, long ago I knew that the new Bratz collection had been introduced, but I hadn’t ever heard of the “My Scene” dolls, so I decided to check out the website.

My Scene dolls are a Mattel brand, introduced in 2002 to compete with the Bratz collection, which was gaining much of the market share that Barbie used to own. As Bratz did, My Scene looks to move away from the “traditional” and conservative nature of Barbies, and focus on the “contemporary” and “hip” modern girl.

Upon my visit to the My Scene website, I wasn’t too surprised by the layout and color choices used on the home page. The target market for these dolls is certainly girls, probably ages five to eleven. The home page was adorned with pink and sparkly animations. Because the page doesn’t allow one to purchase the dolls directly from Mattel, I also visited the Toys “R” Us website. Toys “R” Us actually allows visitors to narrow their searches by category (dolls), brand (My Scene/Mattel), age (five to eleven years), and even gender (girls).

The gendering of these dolls is very apparent. All of the girl dolls have long, voluminous hair. Eyeshadow is caked above the girls’ eyes, along with eyeliner. Their lips are full and painted, and their eyelashes are long and very apparent. The chest on each of the dolls is very pronounced, and long with the curvy legs and hips. There is no ambiguity in the gender of the doll by the way they are dressed, either. All of the clothes one can purchase for the girls are typically things that women would wear; tank tops, skirts, halter tops, dresses, and capris. In searching the website I only found one pair of long pants, which came in a “yoga wear” set. They were white with pink stripes and came with a matching halter top with the same patterns. Many of the accessories that can be purchased for the My Scene girls are mostly associated with girls: fashion magazines, purses, “bling rings.” In other words, there is no ambiguity as to what the sex of these dolls are.

I also considered how sexualities were portrayed through the dolls. I concluded that the makers intended for the dolls to be “straight,” based on how society portrays sexuality, i.e. lesbians are supposed to have short hair, wear “manly” clothing, baggy pants and no makeup.

Race was another issue with the dolls. Though some of the My Scene dolls appeared to be of a different race (African-American and maybe Asian) other than white, all of the girl dolls had the same body type. I actually thought of Gimlin’s cosmetic surgery article here, where she talks about “Ango-Saxon ideals of beauty.” Did the creators choose to make all body types the same because of these ideals, or was it merely to save money on the manufacturing of the dolls?

I wasn’t completely surprised at what I found when looking at the dolls on the website because I’d seen Bratz dolls before. I don’t approve of the scantily-clad nature of the dolls, especially when they are targeted towards girls from ages five to eleven. Furthermore, upon analyzing the My Scene dolls further, I realize that the gendering of these dolls will continue to make girls, even at a young age, feel the need to “do gender,” to dress in certain clothing, wear their hair a certain way, and so on, to appease society and its need for homogeneity.

Here’s the My Scene home page:

http://myscene.everythinggirl.com/home.aspx

Posted by Karina Holtz at 09:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Throughout my childhood I was the proud owner of an array of dolls. These dolls were my primary source of entertainment and I would spend hours every day staring into their faces and using them as the basis for my fantasies. My mom recalls that I would wake up and go into the living room with an arm full of dolls and arrange them under the piano. I would sit under the piano without saying a word and once in a while I would move a doll from one spot to another. I remember this game well, I was pretending I was a homeless single mother with three or four children and I had to work to help my family survive. I have talked to other girls who have recounted similar fantasy games involving dolls and single motherhood.

Although I had many barbies, (between my sister and I we had about 24), I also owned some lesser-known dolls. Two of my favorites were the “nobody’s perfect” doll and the “happy to be me” doll. My mom bought the “nobody’s perfect” doll at a garage sale and it was a small stuffed thing with a big nose and a t-shirt that read: Nobody’s Perfect. My step-mom gave me the “happy to be me” doll that was the same size as Barbie but with red hair, breasts that did not defy gravity, a normal waist, and flat feet. I loved these dolls because, with my glasses and goofy teeth, I could identify with them more than I could with Barbie dolls.
Girls today do not often own dolls which reinforce that beauty is not the main goal in a woman’s life. Instead, girls own beautiful perfect plastic molds that construct the notion of the beautiful female body. In the video, “A Girl Like Me,” 15 out of 21 dark skinned children preferred white dolls because they saw them as “good” and as more beautiful than dolls with darker skin color. These children had been socialized to believe that the beautiful body is white, or light skinned.
As Ann Decille writes in her piece, Dyes and Dolls, “Dolls in particular invite children to replicate them, to imagine themselves in their dolls’ images” (48). In this way, dolls determine what it is that children place value in. I researched the Bratz dolls website because Bratz dolls are so popular with young female children. Their website reads, “Bratz: The only girls with a passion for fashion.” Bratz dolls perform their female gender by being interested in fashion, make-overs, boys, and super secret slumber parties.
All Bratz dolls have long, smooth, relaxed, “white-girl” hair and gigantic eyes. The girls portray the stereotypical beautiful female with their fashionable dress and makeup. The combination of giant eyes, eye makeup, and the come-hither look painted on the Bratz makes the dolls look sexualized. Bratz represent the Britney Spears/Paris Hilton culture that persuades girls to dress to maximize their sexuality and please boys.
The worst thing I found about this website, aside from the fact that girls are taught to interest themselves only in fashion and make-up, was the collection of Bratz babies. Even the babies have long hair, (often with dyed highlights), eye-makeup, and lipstick. This sends the message to very young girls that they should dress like their older female counterparts and plants notions of beauty in females at an early age. Bratz dolls do the work of patriarchy (Decille) by keeping girls aware from a young age of the importance of beauty and instill in them what it means/is to be feminine.

Posted by Eve Kodner at 06:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I used to play house with my Barbies, but it wasn’t the kind of house where I wanted to cook or clean and stuff like that, it was house where I made my brother and sister act out the roll of my son and daughter (or pets) and then I would be the mom (or owner). My brother and I would go back and forth on the issue of a doll versus an action figure. To him male figurines were action figures, not dolls and I thought GI Joe and Ken were dolls. I still do. Ken is such a doll! The doll was used as only when I wanted to dress up and put makeup on this perfectly skinny doll. I was never envious of my Barbies long beautiful blond hair, I just wanted her light skin. I used to lie on the ground closing my eyes and daydream on what it would be like to be White and what it would be like if my White friend’s parents were actually my parents and what it would be like if we were in the same family. I wanted to be White so badly and have a name like Samantha (like my American Girl doll) or Rebecca (because that seemed like a nice normal name to me). After the animated movie, Anastasia came out, I got my first non-blond hair, non-American doll. My mom bought me the beautiful Anastasia doll...

and I loved her until I threw her out with the rest of my Barbies. When Barbie didn’t grow up with me, and I got bored with her I begged my parents to spend lots of money on the next best thing, the expensive American Girl dolls.

Addy, the Black American doll that is now offered through American Girls was not an option when I chose my doll for my 12th birthday, and even now thinking back, I do not think I would have chosen Addy in place of Samantha. I wanted to be in contact with the most important characteristic of beauty to me - Whiteness. Everywhere in the media and in my culture, lighter skinned people or White people were held in such high regard. Not to say that I wasn’t pretty, I just wasn’t the prettiest. I am one of the darkest people in my immediate and extended family and I have had to fend off countless well-meaning aunts and cousins who offered skin-bleaching cream time and time again, so that I could be fair skinned and more beautiful. Even my own mother struggled with my darkness when I was much younger, she would yell at me for being in the sun all day because I would get really dark during the summer or she would say that if I ever married a White guy and had kids with him, they would turn out so beautiful because they would have such a nice olive skin tone between my White husband and I.

After I discovered computers from my tech-savvy brothers, I immediately dropped my dolls and practically gathered them all up and threw them away…all except for my American Girl doll, which is still under my bed at home. I didn’t play with dolls anymore; I discovered the joy of competing with my brothers, reading books and Mavis Beacon’s typing program, that’s when my parents started to worry. Why was I always inside reading late at night or on the computer all the time? If I was too old to play with dolls then I should be old enough, my dad thought to start learning how to cook. Ha. I still hear to this day from him that I should learn how to cook or else I won’t find a husband….oh, well…looks like I am doomed.

Posted by Bethany Khan at 05:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

* The dolls are marketed online at their fully interactive website www.bratz.com. The dolls aren’t sold directly from the site, they are, instead hyped up with their pictures plastered all over the place with links to how one can buy on from a retailer near by. These dolls are definitely marketed to the young ‘valley girl’ type. These dolls are only interesting in fashion, pampering puppies, and now, a Bratz fantasyland with their new breed of Pixie dolls. These dolls are not sold with a price tag, no, that is too old school, these dolls are sold with a lifestyle with a price tag on it, it’s just that that price is not relevant.

* A huge majority of the Bratz dolls are female; there are three male dolls that I came across: One older father figure and two boyfriend material dolls, all three of the males dolls are White. There are four main dolls. Two White, One Black American, One Asian, and one that is definitely not White, but she is hard to categorize specifically, I would say she is Middle Eastern or Persian. All of the dolls are wealthy or at least well-off enough to afford their pretty outfits and expensive accessories. I assume all of the dolls are “hetero-normative,” for every girl there is a boy, but the coupling is not so visible, it is just understood that the dolls are heterosexual; it is a hidden underlying rule. I assume that the Bratz company doesn’t do much with sexuality and relationships because the parents of the companies’ target audience would not be happy with their 6 year old daughters thinking about boyfriends just yet, much less a same sex relationship.

* Bratz has different dolls to appeal to different age groups.
Teen:

Kidz:

Baby:

They have the most popular ones that look about 13-18, and then younger ones that look about 6-9, and then even younger that look around 8 months to 3 years old. Of course, all of then have beautiful long shiny smooth hair, fashionable accessories to go with every stage of life, and a fully makeup’d face. It was kind of weird, it was like some weird photo album of the Bratz dolls and how they have grown up. Upon further investigation of the different types of dolls I discovered that there was indeed a sporty or athletic selection of Bratz, of course they were all so pretty and decked out from head to toe in their awesome accessories.

* I was annoyed by the website. It had loud pop music, tons of flash and java scripts written all over the website that made my computer slow down so much and the dolls themselves all looked like they have had cosmetic surgery. I can definitely see that these dolls will have an adverse affect on young impressionable girls who will grow up absolutely surrounding my images of the perfect body, what the good hair is, and how skin colors are categorized,. My first exposure to Bratz dolls was about 4 years ago, right after they first were released. My little cousin had a couple of them and I thought that they look rather deformed. Sure they were no Barbie, but still, they look so bobble-headish. I wasn’t surprised or angered, just a little disappointed in the lack of diverse representation, or maybe just that I couldn’t identify personally with any of the dolls. I barely identified with Yasmin only through her ethnic name, other than that, there isn’t anything else.

*All of the dolls represented my hair texture, and there was one doll that was darker skinned, Sasha, who was I think the African American doll. I am not African American but she did kind of have my skin color. I believe Yasmin could pass for a Middle Eastern girl, so I guess I could identify with her. I found a picture of the dolls dressed up in ethnic garb.

It looks like the dolls were dressed in a flamingo, Gypsy, genie, tribal and belly dancer style…I thought it was cute and if I had to buy my daughter a Bratz doll, I would have bought her one of these.

According to the quiz on the website, “Which Bratz Are You Most Like?” I am Yasmin.

Who according to the website is “a little quiet, but even without opening her mouth you can sense she’s special. There’s just something about her that seems almost regal. But Yasmin’s not pretentious! She ‘s really open-minded she’s always up on alternative trends in fashion, fitness and beauty!” Because I am “always out ‘n’ about and know how to have a scorchin’ good time. [I] love to read and write and [I am] ‘in the know’ of everything that’s going on. [I am] ambitious and have the smarts to go far, but like to keep it real with [my] gal pals who know they can count on [me] to be true. I thought the quiz was quite funny and soooo accurate! Yasmin is definitely the doll for me! I mean, I am like totally always up on the alternative trends in fashion, fitness, AND beauty. Oh, Bratz…

Posted by Bethany Khan at 05:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (35)

Fisher Price is known for its emphasis on growing and learning. The website itself has tips on parenting, pregnancy, grand parenting and fun and family time. Fisher Price’s marketing aims to convince parents that their products are not just enjoyable for your children but they are an integral part of their healthy development. Fisher Price is different from Mattel (It’s Parent company) and many other doll manufacturers in that it advertises itself as a service which, “offers products and services consumers can trust to improve their family’s lives” (taken from “Our Values” on Fisher Price website).

On the Fisher Price website dolls are sold by type along with age group. Dolls and accessories are pitched to parents starting at the toddler ages of 12-36 months. Focusing on the “Little Mommy” Doll sold by Fisher Price, the ages in which this doll is seen appropriate starts at 18 months. As a marketing ploy “Little Mommy” dolls are described as being, “perfect for your child’s first doll”; and when they speak of your child they specifically talk about girls who, “will love playing mommy with this sweet baby doll” (taken from “Little Mommy Doll” Fisher Price website). All of the dolls are female although their gender is not specified it is implied in their dress and names. The dolls are marketed as being available in multiple races consisting of Caucasian, African-American, Asian and Hispanic; as if these are the only races in the world. The dolls are “adorable, soft and cuddly, and wear adorable sleeper and bib with a matching headband” which implies that they come from a well to do class, taken care of and given all necessities.

Looking at these “Little Mommy” dolls I see a very young population of girls being brought up in a heteronormative manner with expectations of taking care of their children and being taught how to do so early through “play” and “growth”. While Fisher-Price emphasizes an improvement to family lives along with a healthy development to children’s learning and growth, they reinforce at an extremely young age many of the restrictive stereotypes which I seek to deconstruct. Growing up playing and learning children should be allowed to come up with their own games, their own expectations, their own roles in this world. This doll is marketed exclusively to girls and this brings up the discrimination of boys playing with dolls and the gender divide with toys and societal roles. The question which arises for me is what harm is there in a girl playing with trucks and a boy playing with a “little mommy” doll? Feminize the girl early enough on and toughen the boy early on with trucks and society will continue to grow and thrive and be homophobic, heteronormative, oppressive and restrictive in its stereotypes. While a “little mommy” doll may seem “natural” to most there is something extremely unnatural about it to me.

Posted by Abby Newberg at 03:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Browsing the FAO Schwarz website, I found a section called “make my own monster.” It has a lot of green and blue in the design so it looks like it’s geared towards boys, and there is even a little boy advertising it. But on the bottom, there are monsters that have been made by other little children that can be purchased. They don’t look as gender specific. There is a black and yellow one and a yellow and pink one and a blue one. I was drawn to the pink one because of the color association with girls. It was named Oliver Monster and when I clicked on the picture, I was offered more information about the monster. It was designed by a four year old boy named Niko, and there was a quote from him, and I was taken back by this quotation.

“Oliver loves pink and really wants to grow his hair out long when he gets big and be a princess. Oliver has no arms and legs, but that's ok. Everyone is different.”

Pricewise, the site is aimed at those who are privileged enough to have a lot of money and a lot to spend on toys. The custom made monsters cost $249, which is outrageous but the already designed ones are only $18, which isn’t that bad, but are most likely the cheapest toys on the website.

I think this website does a good job of not gendering the toys and not dictating which toy is gender appropriate for children other than by preconceptions of what a "normal" girl or a boy will like. There is not a boys’ aisle or a girls’ aisle, a girls’ section or a boys’ section to steer the child into an area of predetermined gender appropriate toys. Also, generally, the toys are advertised by themselves with no indication of which gender it is aimed at, and it is through this style of marketing that gender limitations or gender stereotypes on which toy a child should buy are able to be broken.

There is a section of playhouses and they are very expensive, not for the average buyer. What one house costs is equivalent to a house payment on a real house, if not more. In the first couple pictures, there are both boys and girls playing what looks like a game of “house.” A house titled “the princess cottage” has no children outside of it and says in the description that “princes and princesses alike will love climbing the ladder that leads to the cottage's loft” making it a toy for both genders though it is classified as a girl house. Under arts and crafts, the main picture is an easel with a boy and a girl painting on either side both wearing the same outfit, neither gendered off in pink or blue, but both are in red. Another advertisement features a little boy and little girl a playset, and another has a little boy and girl not dressed in pink and blue, playing with building blocks.

When one clicks on science and exploration, a category that is typically associated with boys, there are no little boys that come up, there are only the toys advertised and then under “our favorites” there is a little girl advertised with a spelling chalk board. Under electronics, there is a lazertag set that features a little boy and a little girl playing together. Under the vehicles category, children size cars are advertised. The main picture is a little boy driving a red mini cooper but right underneath, there is a little girl driving a yellow Mercedes. I was surprised to see her there especially in a gender neutral color, not just in some pink Barbie jeep. Also under this category, there were two trikes, a “hot rod retro trike” and a “pink Pegasus trike” and these could be easily associated, the pink for the girl and the racing stripes for the boy, but there is no child demonstrating this so it doesn’t necessarily have to be this way so if a child wanted the one that has not been normalized for him or her by societal standards, that child wouldn’t feel “weird” based on the context of the site.

They have a “dress up and accessories” section, which when one sees that category, one would generally think of little girls in dresses, but a little girl in pajamas comes up. They have a firefighter and an astronaut costume but they have little boys wearing them but they didn’t have any princess ones or very ultra feminine costumes to really emphasize girls in the opposite direction. But it was interesting and unexpected for anything for little boys to come up in that category, even if they were in more gender stereotyped professions.

Under dolls, a Harry Potter doll came up, so there was at least one male doll that strayed from the typical female doll. Under action collectibles, there were no children displayed so there wasn’t an image present to say this is for boys only and there was actually a girl action figure, Princess Leia, but she was only in a swimsuit. I’ve never seen the Star Wars movies but I’m sure she wears more than a swimsuit, so it was disappointing that the one female action figure was inappropriately dressed to accentuate her female parts.

One strong feminist critique was the “become a fashion designer” feature. The opening of the explanation starts off with “every girl dreams of being a fashion designer. Now she can actually design her own clothes.” The harsh generalization and direct assumption that only little girls dream of doing this cuts little boys off from partaking. If there were boys that wanted to do this, this advertisement makes it quite apparent that this is socialized as a girls’ activity and is not normal for a boy to desire to design his own clothes. Throughout the description it says “for her” and “she will choose”, automatically generalizing that a girl will be the one doing this. It is also terribly pricey, for it costs $800.

Under luxury gifts, a fashion design party came up for $25,000. Wow, this is not for under-privileged people. There are also gift cards for $50,000 and $100,000, very much assuming that these people are high spenders with money to burn. This website is not for families of lower income. The toys are outrageously priced in the hundreds and even the thousands so that even upper-middle class families might not even consider purchasing these items. I was shocked at the ridiculously high prices for children’s toys and playthings and wouldn’t dream of spending that much money on something that wasn’t more applicable to real life and issues of importance.

The site represents children of different races; however, the dominantly presented race is Caucasian, with the homepage displaying white children. But there are appearances of other races throughout the website to offer a range of ethnicities. There was a little Asian girl, a little boy with dark skin, and several African-American children.
There were also two children that struck me as gender neutral and this idea was also reflected in their choice of toy. In the advertisement for hand painted stacking pyramid cubes, there is a baby wearing red that has long hair that could either be a boy or a girl, and playing with a Noah’s ark set, an African-American child with long curly hair and tan clothing offers ambiguity as to the child’s sex.

There are obviously more stereotypically feminine or masculine toys or items, but they are not categorized that way to limit the buyer. There are stereotypes that a traditional toy store wouldn’t be expected to break such as a little girl playing with a baby doll or some of the stereotypical gendered toys that are being sold but I think that for the giant toy conglomerate that FAO Schwarz is, the company does a fair job of limiting gender stereotypes and not adhering to gender roles for children through their use of marketing. There is no gender dichotomy for categorization for toys “girls’ toys, boys’ toys” other than the toys themselves. I do see negatives in this website but I also see some good, which signifies some progress, some hope that gendered scripts of normative roles for children are slightly diminishing.

Posted by taylor at 02:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

According to the official Cabbage Patch Kids website: http://www.cabbagepatchkids.com/, Cabbage Patch Kids were invented in 1976 by a young man named Xavier Roberts. Legend has it he was walking through a magical cabbage patch when he saw bunnybees sprinkling the cabbage. Out popped “all sorts of different babies and kids each with their own special look.” He then started the Babyland General Hospital where people could “adopt” a little baby complete with their own adoption papers. In 1983, the Coleco Toy Company began mass producing the dolls and received their new title the “Cabbage patch Kid.”
I can remember growing up and adopting around 10 of these dolls myself, they were my favorite. I had white dolls and Hispanic dolls but never really put much thought into the difference between them.

I decided to look at the availability in the market of the Cabbage Patch Kids. Naturally I looked on the Cabbage Patch Kids official website first. There, I found an official brochure that had an array of different ethnicities ranging from Hispanic to African American to White to Asian each individually labeled. They also had a skin tone selection chart with the options of; cream, latte, mocha, and espresso.
Next, I looked at the Toys R Us website. There, I found a list of twenty dolls on sale ranging from every ethnicity to both sexes. Not listed in any particular order and all priced the same. Finally, I searched Wal-Mart’s website and found the same results.
In conclusion, I see the Cabbage patch dolls as a very realistic display of ethnicities. Each doll on the ethicality spectrum had a couple of different “traits” including; different hair and eye colors for each. Therefore, children can not only learn about other races by playing with Cabbage Patch Kids but also interact and participate with them from a young age. This, in my opinion, will help educate children and in addition neutralize them from judging people by color.

Posted by KT Mags at 01:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When I was little Polly Pocket really fit in your pocket. She was a very small doll that lived inside a makeup compact type thing. This made it easy to bring her everywhere but there was also a limited amount of things you could do with her. I think it is probably best that they have made her bigger because she was easily lost and not good for very young children. I visited Target as well as the Polly Pocket website to check out the new Polly.

Target’s doll section filled up several of the toy section. Polly was a small portion of this. I noticed that most of the more expensive dolls were at a low eye level and all of the ones which were on sale were at a more adult eye level. Most dolls were dressed in pink and had light skin and light straight hair. The Polly Pockets were about a half of row and no different than the rest of the dolls in how they were arranged by price and looks.
On the Polly Pocket website it is obvious what the companies idea of being girly is. There are several areas of the website to visit and play games. The games include things like playing dress up or styling Polly’s hair all of the hairstyles to choose from are longer and straighter hair. You also have to choose what type of clip to put into it. Some other activities on the website are decorating Polly’s room and picking out what is out of place in the kitchen. It is obvious of what this website is pushing as things that are girly. All these things are what girls are getting to play with and thing of as things that women do like their hair get dressed and hang out in the kitchen.
The racial diversity of the Polly dolls was also very limited. There was only one darker colored girl that was offered. Most of the differences in the dolls had to do with the color of their hair. The darker girl was also always shown in the background instead of the main character. There was also on only one boy doll that I saw available.
These dolls seem to be implying the gender roll of how all women should fit into this fashion and designer loving while also enjoying the kitchen and using animals as accessories. They could do better by giving Polly some more diversity in activities as well as in the race category

Posted by Tyra at 12:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For this blog post I decided to check out target.com to see what the dolls looked like and how they were sold on there. Once on the website they have a toy tab that you go to. On this tab many toys come up and there’s a doll link that you click on to see all the dolls the store sells. The first thing I noticed is that the most popular dolls were on top and that not until the middle of the page did the ethnic doll link show up. There was a black doll on the front page of the doll section though, which kind of made up for it. It was just kind of interesting to see that they didn’t make it at the top with all the “normal white” dolls like Barbie.

The second thing you notice is what all the dolls are dressed like and what comes with them. It seemed like all the female dolls were dressed as the world portrays them such as dancers, nurses, teachers, and housewives. A ton of dolls were babies as well which kind of makes it seem like all the girls are supposed to do is practice becoming a mother. It was also very hard to find male dolls unless they were portrayed as athletes as well. They definitely didn’t help with the social norms that the world has with what women and men are supposed to be and do when they grow up. I’ve never really looked at dolls this way but it was somewhat surprising to see how they actually looked and where certain ones are placed to get the most attention. I guess I myself didn’t get too affected by what I saw and kind of expected that was what I was going to see. I could see how many people could be offended by what they see when shopping for dolls though. There’s not many ethnic dolls out there for sale and the ones that are out there construct this norm of what the guys and girls playing with them should be when they grow up.

Posted by Clayton Gripp at 12:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

My Twinn: The-Just-Like-Me Doll is a business aimed at young girls to promote individuality, uniqueness, and reinforcing stereotypes of girls to play the role as “girl” and apply the “girl-like” characteristics to themselves and their dolls. By simply looking at the pictures below, we see how girls are persuaded to dress like princesses, bake imaginary food to satisfy the domesticated housewife role, and play with their dolls that represent them to create fantasies about growing up, always trying to maintain their physical beauty with make-up and hair products, meeting the perfect boy, and making a family.

It was interesting to go through the website and take notice of the propaganda that this company feeds to young girls and their parents (parents = MOM). Like many other doll companies, this particular business has the additional accessories that go along with the doll. What makes it stand out from the others is that not only do they have purses and shoes, it also offers furniture, eyewear, pets, sports gear, My Twinn Toddlers and My Twinn Babies so the dolls have other companions, and even arm casts if your doll should injure itself. If your doll should start to wear and tear, have no fear and send your doll to My Twinn Doll Hospital where they offer services to revive the doll (makeover package, hair restoration, new heads, repainting eyebrows, everything!) And remember it only costs anywhere from $15-$65 to make your doll just like new!

The company also tries to be racially diverse so that the choices aren't limited. There's plenty of different hair textures from slight-wave to loose curls to African-American (a category that is only racially labeled). When observing the skin tones, I noticed that the darkest color of skin was a brown that's pretty light (like Halle Berry) which reminded me of "A Girl Like Me" when they talked about how light-skinned girls are the sign of beauty and dark-skinned girls are discriminated as the lesser beauty.

The clothes have flowers, stars, and anything else that symbolizes what a feminine girly-girl looks like. The options presented when choosing your own doll are intentionally racist where white is always the first option (and white hair, skin tone, etc.) and then descend in order of skin tone (aka dark is at the bottom - always).

Just another way of telling girls that by society's beauty standards, white is always at the top.

Posted by Lauren Alms at 12:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For this assignment I chose to look at FAO Schwarz’s website since I had gone there as a kid and had been fascinated by all their unique toys. The first thing that caught my eyes on the homepage was a pretty little blonde face complete with rosy cheeks and a ribbon in her hair. When I clicked on her, I was introduced to Wendy by Madame Alexander, all ready for Easter in her pink and green flowered dress with her pink puppy Penelope.

To me, Wendy looked boring, or maybe just bored, with her expressionless face and passive stance. Wendy’s only movement was her arms stretched out in front of her, seemingly waiting for someone else to support her. The description didn’t add much to Wendy, unlike the similar American Girl dolls, and only described her attire, which points to the priorities of the doll maker: dress and appearance over thoughts and individuality.

After studying Wendy, I decided to investigate further into the collection and looked up the doll makers website. Madame Alexander makes a wide array of girl dolls, ranging from themed dolls like “Cat in the Hat” and “Cinderella,” to character dolls like the “Scottish Lass,” and finally relatable and inspiring dolls such as “Winter Fun Dolls” and “Graduation Dolls.”

There were several themes in the collection that I found disturbing and damaging for children to idolize. The first of which was that unless the doll was dressed to a theme, she always had on a fashionable, delicate looking dress and the same passive “hold me” stance. Their image clearly stated that they were not for playing, for running in the grass or climbing on rocks, they were for proper tea parties and, well, looking pretty.

I almost skipped this argument as I was flipping through the different dolls and found a couple that I thought contradicted it, then I realized that they held the same message in different words. The first was Maggie, a Peter Pan inspired doll dressed as Hook with an intense, menacing expression and a lunging stance. But I realized that it was only when a girl was pretending to be male that could she have expression, personality and action. The second was Swashbuckler Cissy, dressed as another, female this time, pirate. The doll has movement, and seemingly a personality, even if the high boots and short tight corset don’t portray the most favorable one. The part of her that took me a back was her description, which stated that even though “Cissy may look like one of the brigands of the sea… she doesn’t act like one.” In fact, Cissy is only dressed as one because “pirate gear is so in this year.” The description even goes so far to say that she uses her sword to cut her nails, because what else would a woman have use for a sword?

The second theme I noticed was that the majority of them, including every doll on the homepage, had a pale ivory skin color. Only a few of the relatable dolls had different tones, and even then there was usually only one African-American doll and one Latin doll found at the bottom of the page. This enforces the stereotype that White is normal, acceptable, and common, and makes it hard for children of other ethnicities to feel represented and important.

The third similarity among the dolls I found disturbing was that many of them were dressed to holidays, but only holidays from the Christian religion. This Christian theme was also supported by a series of “First Communion Dolls” and a special “Christening Celebration” baby doll. The Christian religion is posed as the sole faith of all the dolls, and pushed strongly through the relatable dolls by taking up three of the eight styles under the “Everyday Celebrations” category.

In all, I found this collection of dolls very typical and very offensive at the same time. I went in with hope, that maybe since they were found exclusively at FAO Schwarz, they would branch out with personalities and styles of the girls, but I found only the same typecasts and harmful ideas as I find in the rest of popular media.

Posted by Rebecca Stoffs at 12:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Available at Target, Toys’R’Us, eToys, Amazon.com, K-mart, JC Penny, WalMart, KB Toys, Macy’s, and BestBuy.com, Bratz are sweeping the nation as the elementary school girl’s new favorite toy and role model.

By just glancing at the different Bratz dolls, one would think that the creators did a good job of including many races and ethnicities. However when you actually look at the dolls and start to read the “’Bout Bratz” section of the website, you become startled at what you find.

On the outside, each Bratz doll is mixed and matched a skin and hair color combination. Then, these combinations are applied to the same prototype of a ridiculously skinny teenage girl with full, pouty lips, big breasts, high cheekbones, and sexy almond-shaped eyes. What is most troubling is all of the Bratz have background stories that hint at their race, ethnicity, hobbies, favorite music, etc. This implies that in order to be cool (my six-year-old cousin has informed me that Bratz are “just about the coolest thing on the planet”), a young girl must fit into this mold of an unattainable physical perfection, love fashion, be entrenched in pop-culture, and have a hobby of some kind that she is very good at. According to Dana’s profile (Dana is a Bratz doll), it’s acceptable to be a bookworm as long as your goals are fashion oriented (she spends all her time studying… because she wants to open the first shoe store in space).

Aside from the ridiculous physical standards upheld by the Bratz dolls, their profiles also provide hints to young girls about different races/ethnicities and the stereotypical social characteristics of each. For example, Sasha (an African-American Bratz doll), is not afraid of confrontation, and is interested in Dance (what else?), Hip-Hop, Beyonce, and J-Lo. With descriptions like these, young girls non-African-American girls are going to enter the social world thinking that all African-American girls are confrontational and love to dance. Furthermore, this sets another standard for young African-American girls to live up to.

The Bratz dolls website, Bratz.com, is loaded with bright colors and catchy music. The dolls themselves represent our society’s unattainable and unrealistic standard of beauty. These dolls look like supermodels and actresses seen on TV, on billboards, and in movies. Why wouldn’t young girls want to be like the Bratz? They are the epitome of cool, but, to me, they are just adding to the pressure women face in their struggle to conform to the d