After reading “Cinderella ate my Daughter”, I was surprised to find that most of the toys and feminist symbols that little girls are attracted to today were simply created to boost up a company’s profits. Without knowing, the companies, run by men, imposed a new set of ideals into the world of many girls and boys. I was amazed at how much one simple slogan, be it “Princess” for girls or the Tonka toys, “Boys, They’re Just built different” can identify who gets to play with what. These kinds of subliminal messages occur not only with toys, but with kid shows as well. I remember watching the Powerpuff Girls on TV every day, but now that I remember, there were many things that singled out one sex over the other. The Powerpuff girls were superheroes, not normal ones, however, they were made. They were made by a man, Professor Utonium, who assumed the fatherly position in their lives. When asked about their composition, the professor replied that the “perfect ingredients for the perfect little girls” were “sugar, spice and everything nice”. But in an episode in which a band of boy superheroes are created, their composition includes the exact opposite. In fact, the Rowdy Rough Boys were created using the worse ingredients possible. There was nothing “nice” about them. Finally, when the Powerpuff girls battle against them, it isn’t there super powers that defeat them, but their charm as a girl. This difference in the creation of boy and girl came to my memory when reading what Orenstein said about the gendered difference between boys and girls as well as the Tonka slogan. In the end, we are not created much so differently at all but raised differently based on the social constructs coming from a man wanting a bigger profit for his toys.
After reading “Cinderella ate my Daughter”, I was surprised to find that most of the toys and feminist symbols that little girls are attracted to today were simply created to boost up a company’s profits. Without knowing, the companies, run by men, imposed a new set of ideals into the world of many girls and boys. I was amazed at how much one simple slogan, be it “Princess” for girls or the Tonka toys, “Boys, They’re Just built different” can identify who gets to play with what. These kinds of subliminal messages occur not only with toys, but with kid shows as well.
ReplyDeleteI remember watching the Powerpuff Girls on TV every day, but now that I remember, there were many things that singled out one sex over the other. The Powerpuff girls were superheroes, not normal ones, however, they were made. They were made by a man, Professor Utonium, who assumed the fatherly position in their lives. When asked about their composition, the professor replied that the “perfect ingredients for the perfect little girls” were “sugar, spice and everything nice”. But in an episode in which a band of boy superheroes are created, their composition includes the exact opposite. In fact, the Rowdy Rough Boys were created using the worse ingredients possible. There was nothing “nice” about them. Finally, when the Powerpuff girls battle against them, it isn’t there super powers that defeat them, but their charm as a girl. This difference in the creation of boy and girl came to my memory when reading what Orenstein said about the gendered difference between boys and girls as well as the Tonka slogan. In the end, we are not created much so differently at all but raised differently based on the social constructs coming from a man wanting a bigger profit for his toys.