I was wearing corduroy bell bottoms and had my hair in an unfortunate bowl cut (thanks mom and dad, it was low maintenance, but really!), I also had this:
I remember it being very cool, where you put the little plates, seen on the left, into the center part. You could then interchange them and make different outfits. Then, you would do something similar to a coin rubbing, where you would gently pencil over the plates, and it would color in the outfit.
Not too long ago, I was watching televsion. Yes, I have many better things to do with my time, but hush.
Then, this commercial came on:
If when writing this commecial, the people at Playskool thought to themselves, “Let’s film something that will get people’s panties all in a wad!” then they certainly succeeded.
I agree with the basic sentiment of this commercial. I happen to think that boys and girls ARE different.
Go ahead, put your head between your legs and breeeaaaathe. Iiiiin and ooouuuut. Feeling better?
Now before you go pounding your fist on the computer, begin composing nasty emails about the conspiracies behind why the ERA was never passed, or how I am a betrayer of my own sex or whatever, let me explain myself.
I happen to have a son and am myself a woman who was once a girl. I think I have a pretty good perspective.
It doesn’t mean that girls can’t play with trucks and that boys can’t play with dolls. It just means that the main demographic for this toy is boys, plain and simple. Just as the main demographic for My Pretty Pony is girls. There are reasons for this, and the use of the word “different” does not necessarily connote that one is better than the other.
Is the commerical an enforcer of outdated stereotypes, or simply a reflection of our society?
And why is it that I have never heard a peep about the lack of boys in a My Pretty Pony commercial?
*If you would like to see for yourself the controversy I was referring to go here. I didn’t originally link because the site usually requires that you watch an ad, but I thought I would present an opposing view since most commenters are agreeing with me!
I’m lazy today, so I thought I’d sift through some blog posts and put up some I thought were newsier, more celebrity-encrusted, or simply more amusing than anything I can come up with today, so here ya go!
I saw this new electronic banking version of Monopoly and I thought, how could that be as fun? I mean, wasn’t the whole power trip of “I’m the banker” and trying to rip off your younger siblings a major part of the appeal? Who didn’t love finding out three quarters of the way through the game that all the five hundred bills were gone and that you had to go and make a bunch on your own? Or how about my husband’s version of the game, in which it was a family tradition to try and steal money from each other. I’m thinking I would totally miss stacking up all my hundreds and twenties and sticking them under the board so I didn’t lose any of them, whether to an errant breeze or some sticky fingers.
On Amazon, they list the features of the game, and one of them is “An experience that capitalizes on today’s trend of a cashless society.” While I agree that we are moving to a cashless society, I’m not sure I would promote that as a reason to buy the game.
What about you? Is it not the same without the itty bitty monies, or would an electronic version just make life that much easier?
I was watching television tonight when a commercial came on for this product:
Now, the name of this particular item is the “Smart Cycle.” It is from Fisher Price, and yet again, I am amazed at what these toy companies must spend on research and development to come up with such innovative product names. I wonder how many meetings it took to come up with that one.
Apparently, the purpose of this toy educational tool is twofold. One, it purports to teach letters and numbers to your 36 month old to 6 year old (whew! that’s quite a span) while they pedal through such idylls as Math Mountain, Shape Lake, Number Fields, and Letter Creek. So not only can your child learn the difference between circles and squares, they can sweat off those unwanted calories at the same time!
Has the research not already pointed to the fact that video learning such as this does not necessarily make our kids any smarter? That it may in fact be detrimental to their development, as every moment they are parked in front of the television deprives them of true interactive learning? Now before harried moms start hurling the nearest pacifier at me, every mom has been faced with the choice of popping a DVD in, or not taking a shower. And the DVD will win almost every time. Those videos can keep kids occupied in order to give us some precious moments of much-needed sanity sans screaming infant. But relying on them as a primary teaching tool rather than just one of many in your educational arsenal is not the way to go.
Maybe those ad people at Fisher Price realize the jig might be up, so now they are using the rising numbers of overweight children to guilt parents into spending a hundred bucks into believing that they can give their children the best of both worlds. A smart mind and a skinny body! Who could ask for more in one product? We are a society that places value on the ability to multitask, damnit. Too bad most research has also shown that we adults are basically lousy at multitasking and that the human brain is not really set up to perform multiple tasks at a time and do them well. So let’s set up our kids for failure at an even earlier age!
Now perhaps I am speaking from the perspective of a mother who has never really had to deal with multiple days of snow and/or rain keeping my family sequestered inside of our home. Perhaps this would be considered manna from heaven to a parent who has kids in the basement who need to blow off some steam since they have been unable to go outside for an extended period of time. I’d love to hear the opinions of parents who have encountered this situation, and if you would buy this in the hope of keeping your kids from destroying your house. Or maybe you would rather give them some pillows and let them have at it.
What I do know for a fact is that homeboy up there had better turn around and keep his eyes on the road, or he’s gonna crash! You are never too young to learn the rules of the road, buddy! Maybe there is some value to this toy, or as Fisher Prices likes to call it, ”physical learning arcade system” after all!
Well, she doesn’t want it for herself; she simply wants to take it away from your child.
As she explains in her article in yesterday’s Guardian (titled Cuddly toys are ugly monstrosities – and it’s time we stopped our kids from fetishising them, I kid you not) she grew up without teddies, and just look how she turned out! Why, her interpersonal socialization skills are legendary.
Children haven’t always screamed themselves into conniptions if Teddy or Bunny or Cuddles got left behind. Nowadays, cutesy effigies of animals are apt to turn up almost anywhere; they gaze soulfully from car dashboards, loll in heaps on undergraduate beds, peep out of rucksacks and grace restaurant tables. Teddies and bunnies are taken into exams and sat on the desks, as if to be without them for three hours would induce hysteria and fainting spells. Soft toys are left along with the flowers at the scenes of fatalities. Wherever they are, they are truly hideous, beyond kitsch. By making our children fall in love with such ugliness, we are preparing them for a life without taste…
How to respond…and yes, she’s obviously hoping for a response; for someone so famously elitist, she is startlingly dependent on the masses, otherwise she’d have published that screed at Blogspot, not in the Guardian, or just done what most other people of such inclinations do: xerox a hundred copies at the drop-in centre and hand them out at intersections.
Well, I have puzzled and puzzed till my puzzler was sore, and I think I have come up with the proper response. My first, contrarian impulse was to suggest we pummel the bitter old weasel with an avalanche of sock monkeys and teddys whenever she appears in public.
My second, better suggestion is this: that, to save future generations from turning out the way Germaine Greer has, that we toddle ourselves off to the local toystore (or craft store, if you’re crafty) and purchase/make a stuffed toy, which we donate to a local children’s charity.
Manolo the Shoeblogger is not Mr. Manolo Blahnik. This website is not affiliated in any way with Mr. Manolo Blahnik, any products bearing the federally registered trademarks MANOLO®, BLAHNIK® or MANOLO BLAHNIK®, or any licensee of said federally registered trademarks. The views expressed on this website are solely those of the author.
