{"id":24852,"date":"2010-06-28T10:41:23","date_gmt":"2010-06-28T15:41:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=24852"},"modified":"2012-01-23T23:45:49","modified_gmt":"2012-01-24T04:45:49","slug":"the-activepassive-gender-binary-in-kids-meal-toys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2010\/06\/28\/the-activepassive-gender-binary-in-kids-meal-toys\/","title":{"rendered":"The Active\/Passive Gender Binary in Kids&#8217; Meal Toys"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Thomas S. sent in this photo of the toy options for kids meals available from Burger King as part of their tie-in with the <em>Marmaduke<\/em> movie. The dogs are helpfully divided, as in most kids&#8217; meals at fast-food chains, into those for girls and boys:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-24853\" href=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2010\/06\/28\/the-activepassive-gender-binary-in-kids-meal-toys\/marmaduke\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-24853 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2010\/06\/marmaduke-500x375.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"496\" height=\"373\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2010\/06\/marmaduke-500x375.jpg 500w, https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2010\/06\/marmaduke.jpg 720w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 496px) 100vw, 496px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Notice the gendering of the dogs. Both girls and boys have the option of a Marmaduke figurine, though they are posed in different ways: the girl version is lying down, while the boy version seems posed to run or jump. The other girls&#8217; options are passive in their poses, the descriptive words in their names (cuddly, loungin&#8217;, comb &#8216;n&#8217; style), and <a href=\"http:\/\/toyalert.blogspot.com\/2010\/06\/burger-king-marmaduke-toys-2010.html\" target=\"_blank\">what they do<\/a>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Comb &#8216;n&#8217; Style Jezebel: you can comb her hair<\/li>\n<li>Bone Catchin&#8217; Marmaduke: his tail wags when you move the bone<\/li>\n<li>Loungin&#8217; Giuseppe: he just sits on the tassled cushion<\/li>\n<li>Cuddly Raisin: he&#8217;s soft<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>On the other hand, the boys&#8217; options are given active descriptive names and different types of actions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Pouncin&#8217; Marmaduke: leaps in the air<\/li>\n<li>Darting Lightning: you wind him up and he moves<\/li>\n<li>Stick &#8216;n&#8217; Move Bosco: you attach his leash and he walks<\/li>\n<li>Turn &#8216;n&#8217; roll Mazie: you wind up her tail and she rolls over<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So the boys get the option of a doberman (or maybe a Rottweiler?) and what looks like an Australian shepherd, while the girls get a toy dog (a papillon, I think) and a collie, which is also a herding dog but here is presented as something to groom.<\/p>\n<p>Obviously, the breeds and names (Bosco, Giuseppe, etc.) come from the movie, so Burger King didn&#8217;t create that part. But in creating the tie-in toys, different dogs from the movie were defined as girls&#8217; or boys&#8217; toys, and were designed accordingly.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a great example of the feminine = passive, masculine = active gender dichotomy and the way children are socialized into it. Toys aimed at girls emphasize posing and appearance\/grooming, while boys&#8217; toys are usually more active and rarely involve grooming or dressing up (unless you count changing out the weapons G.I. Joe <span style=\"text-decoration: line-through\">dolls<\/span> action figures carry).<\/p>\n<p>Of course, this doesn&#8217;t mean that kids and their parents will request the gender-intended toy. My sisters and I didn&#8217;t get kids&#8217; meals often, but when we did, my mom almost always requested boys&#8217; toys because they were usually more fun and <em>did<\/em> something, whereas the girls&#8217; toys often just sat there. I&#8217;ve heard similar stories from lots of women. Given that men are discouraged from crossing gender lines more than women are, though, I wonder if parents are as willing to get their sons the girls&#8217; toys if the son asks for it. And if we found the girls&#8217; toys boring and wanted the boys&#8217; versions, it seems likely that boys would generally reject them too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thomas S. sent in this photo of the toy options for kids meals available from Burger King as part of their tie-in with the Marmaduke movie. The dogs are helpfully divided, as in most kids&#8217; meals at fast-food chains, into those for girls and boys: Notice the gendering of the dogs. Both girls and boys [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[155,223,55,2099,2096,2087,1711],"class_list":["post-24852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-animals","tag-childrenyouth","tag-gender","tag-gender-childrenyouth","tag-gender-femininity","tag-gender-masculinity","tag-toysgames"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24852"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24852\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44364,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24852\/revisions\/44364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}