first blog

When a child is young what is it that shapes who he or she grows up to be?  Is it the clothes their parents buy them?  Is it the children they play with?  Those both have roles in what affects a child's personality, but what controls a child's behavior most are the toys they play with.  Hair accessories, makeup, jewelry, toy cleaning and kitchen supplies, and plastic babies are aimed at young girls.  Violent war toys such as guns, knives, and grenades are targeted at young boys.  Boys who play with "girl toys" are looked down upon and made fun of.  The dolls that are aimed at young girls set an impossible standard for what boys and girl should look  and act like.  G.I Joe suggests that in order t be manly and cool, boys much be tall and extremely muscular.  It also suggests that war, weaponry, and all together being tough and violent is fun and cool.  Barbie dolls send a message to girls saying that in order to be beautiful, they must be unrealistically skinny and have long, blonde hair.  Toys like Barbie that are aimed at young girls say that if you look a certain way, then you can achieve a "dream house", a "dream job", and all in all "a dream life".  Toys teach boys to be violent war heroes and they teach girls to be unrealistically pretty young women.