This author talks about how certain toys and advertisements can communicate specific gendered messages to the children playing with them. Barbie dolls as an example, teach young girls what femininity is “supposed” to look like, and they are trained from a young age to appeal to those definitions. These toys don’t just reflect societal norms and ideals; they actively construct them by teaching children through play what roles, behaviors, and attitudes are expected based on gender. For example, “Barbie, a registered trademark of Mattel, Inc., was introduced in 1956. Originally, she had five movable body parts, large pointed breasts, a skinny waist, wore high heels and a black-and-white striped bathing suit. She was fashioned after the German Lillie doll, ‘a lascivious plaything for adult men… marketed as a sort of three-dimensional pinup’” (Wagner-Ott, 2002). Basing a children’s toy on the ideal feminine companion promotes certain underlying ideals about what young girls are supposed to be as women. These children then internalize these ideals through repeated exposure to different forms, for example, Bratz and Polly Pockets, along with the original being Barbie. Overall, connecting personal identity with consumer culture.
This is extremely relevant to my research as I am discussing this exact phenomenon. The way gendered toys can perpetuate certain gendered stereotypes. After being so normalized to this idea with toys at such a young age, being introduced to filters and modification apps that can help adhere to those stereotypes is certainly correlated. This analysis starts the foundational argument that the process starts early, toys like Barbies and Bratz initiate the internalization of artificial gender standards that evolve with technology into digital self-modification through those online beauty ideals that are further pushed.
On Tuesday, while we didn’t have class, I met with my chair and we discussed a timeline for when I should get my major pieces to her and what I should focus on first. We also finalized my discussion question, so I can properly begin doing research for certain archival footage. The meeting went well, and I am going to begin by sending my committee the form to sign before Thanksgiving break.
Wagner-Ott, A. (2002). Analysis of Gender Identity through Doll and Action Figure Politics in Art Education. Studies in Art Education, 43(3), 246–263. https://doi.org/10.1080/00393541.2002.11651722