Toys: Racism, Sexism, False Ideals.

As children, most of us have had toys that we played with while growing up. The toy industry is a large industry aimed at selling products that these kids will spend countless hours playing with. Toys will always be a part of society as children need to be occupied with objects that stimulate brain activity. While it is evident that toys do play a part in creating some kind of social construct for children in their earlier years, some of the messages that toy packages send out may hurt the self image that these children are trying to develop.

In the Blog entry titled “The Wal-Mart Barbie Scandal,” Wal-Mart was involved in a scandal where the pricing of a darker-skinned version of the Ballerina Theresa doll was less than a similar doll of white skin. Wal-Mart claimed that the lower price was due to trying to sell more inventory of the darker skinned doll. Another proposed notion was that because people of all colors tend to associate a color hierarchy where whiter is nicer, the white doll was indeed outselling the dark-skinned doll. In a move to maximize profit, Wal-Mart had no choice but to price the overstocked dark-skinned dolls at a cheaper price. The blogs goes on to mention that even though companies should follow practices to maximize profits, companies should be aware of the context in which they price their products. Even though there may not be any conscious stereotyping at work in this instance, we live in a world where actions such as this can indirectly devalue dark-skinned human beings.



While the issue of race is evident in the first blog, the blog entitled “Super Engineers vs. Fashionable Cuties” reveals an image that affirms the stereotypical image of girls and boys. The author Lisa begins by explaining that her niece received the “Three Musketeers” Barbie and Ken dolls for Christmas. What Intrigued the author was that in each box was a different caption of what the Barbie and Ken were thinking. In the Barbie “thought bubble”, it says “This riding outfit is the cutest!” In the Ken bubble it reads “I want to be an inventor!” This kind of packaging, although appearing harmless at first, can actually harm a child’s development as it creates stereotypes which children should conform to at an early age. While it does help in establishing a gender construct, these thought bubbles aim at perpetuating women to being superficial and caring about looks, while at the same time holding men to a higher regard in being an inventor.

As I have covered racial stereotypes and gender roles in the first two blogs examined, the blog entitled “The Mad Men Barbies: Slenderizing Joan” examines dolls created after characters from a show called the consumerist. In this article, the doll and actual character that is portrayed by the doll look similar in clothes, appearance, etc. However, the body shape that is shown with the actual character having a much more real body compared to the doll (slender, overly skinny) is a noticeable contrast that is easily spotted. This doll may be aimed at collectors at a staggering $75 per piece price tag, but this Barbie appears as it has been purposely slenderized to fit into the general Barbie ideal. Although it has been a known fact that pop culture icons such as Barbie display a false image of what an ideal body should be for females, these toys are destructive in nature as they create a false image of what women should actually look like when the character being portrayed in this instance has an imperfect body in real life.

http://contexts.org/socimages/2010/03/11/the-walmart-barbie-scandal/
http://contexts.org/socimages/2010/02/12/the-three-musketeers-of-fashion/
http://contexts.org/socimages/2010/03/13/the-mad-men-barbies-slenderizing-joan/