With my kids, we tend to stick to more gender-neutral toys, wood blocks, that sort of thing. Get a lot of toys from Hapé, that sort of thing.
Went to a kid's birthday party today. Family has 2 boys. Played with the toys in the basement. And jfc, damn near every toys was heavily masc-coded. i swear to god, there was a toy fire engine that had literal muscles on it. Every vehicle had big chunky wheels and seemed to be designed with a certain masculine aesthetic. There was this cop car designed like a tank that shot out discs. Every toy just seemed overly aggressive and bought specifically to signal MY SON IS NOT GAAAAYYY!
Like, I was raised with "boy toys" like Tonka trucks. But those just seemed more like realistic representations of real thing. Even something silly like Transformers, their vehicle forms were like boring-ass sedans and shit. So many toys today seem like they have to crank up the gender coding to 11 (boys and girls); while at the same time there are a ton of toys that aren't problematic at all.
I feel like this says a lot about the social reproduction of gender and capitalism.
So many toys today seem like they have to crank up the gender coding to 11
had literal muscles on it
I find this kind of hilarious because I grew up with He-Man muscled everything, and all of our boomer dads feared that it WOULD turn us all gay.
hehe ........ wait
:thinking-about-it:
Putting muscles on the trucks will make children gay for trucks
I was not allowed to watch He-Man or play with friends' He-Man toys, because there is only ONE Master of the Universe, and He is God.
If a TV show for kids does better with a different demo then intended (like a barbie show catches on with boys 6-11 or whatever). They just cancel the show, they don't embrace it. This is from tumblr but its just screenshots, I dunno its market segmentation.
Another point to show that capitalism can also be illogical quite frequently, also jesus fuck I hate toy and cartoon companies so much
there's an episode of fatman on batman where kevin smith talks to paul dini about this and someday i'll listen to it
Okay, unrelated, but: is everybody friends with prokopetz on Tumblr? I swear, they show up in every single feed I look at!
Every toy just seemed overly aggressive and bought specifically to signal MY SON IS NOT GAAAAYYY!
swear to god, there was a toy fire engine that had literal muscles on it
Jokes on them, their gay son is gonna commission some truly weird fire engine art in about twenty years
Yeah, muscles on a fire engine sounds like something you’d see in a pride parade.
There was this cop car designed like a tank that shot out discs.
Far inferior to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles car that shot pizzas
That's the beauty of original Thomas, it was a bunch of bitchy male trains
:arm-L::train-shining::arm-R:
Reject muscle cars, embrace muscle trains.
How are conservatives still this oblivious to gay gym rat and bear culture? Big, beefy dudes getting it on is the most maculine thing there is :shrug-outta-hecks:
Yup, toys are weird, parents are freaks, doctors delivering babies that are obsessed with their genitalia are freaks. I was in the bluey section of target with my daughter. Another dad and daughter were there shopping for the daughter's friend's birthday. She was like, "oh, we can get her a bluey toy." and the dad said no that's a boy's toy. The daughter went on to explain that both Bluey and Bingo are girls, and still the dad said it was a boys show.
Sorry for the anecdote, but it was recent and very weird. Still thinking about it.
there was a toy fire engine that had literal muscles on it
That's fucked up, in the 90s only toys of normal things like sharks had muscles
Rumor has it that the Street Sharks were supposed to be the weak first sales pitch for the publisher to shoot down before the writers shared their high-concept ideas, but the publisher just said yes immediately…
I'm playing in a short incredibly silly Pathfinder game that's street sharks vs TMNT. It's so dumb and fun.
I'd pick up one of the cars and say "These toys are fascistic. Sorry to spoil your 'fun'." But I don't have kids so can't do that joke yet without getting ostracized.
Probably to counteract all the feminizing effects of microplastics, soy, kpop, and Tiktok femboys
It's just marketing, children don't need these gendered embellishments to play with the toys and they in fact hinder them from truly expressing themselves in play. There has been pushback but it's up to individual toy companies to make changes and they do such if it is profitable.
Targeting a social group and catering to their perceived tastes is just more efficient. Another example is apparently Subarus and lesbians.
The most important thing you can teach children (apart from communism in general) is to ignore and resist marketing.
I recall of the words of Bill Hicks when I think of such things.
a long time ago i read that creating and reinforcing that pink aisle blue aisle shit was some marketing bullshit that works.
ad men get the wall
I used to love that shit as a kid just because it meant I could throw them around and not worry about them falling apart
i swear to god, there was a toy fire engine that had literal muscles on it.
Really starting them early on the pathological car brain objectophilia here
