{"id":52733,"date":"2012-11-29T11:00:21","date_gmt":"2012-11-29T16:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=52733"},"modified":"2012-12-03T18:11:52","modified_gmt":"2012-12-03T23:11:52","slug":"teaching-infant-and-toddler-girls-to-beautify","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2012\/11\/29\/teaching-infant-and-toddler-girls-to-beautify\/","title":{"rendered":"Teaching Infant and Toddler Girls to Beautify"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cross-posted at Jezebel<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

I’d love to draw your attention to The Alpha Parent<\/a>, a blogger who has collected a stunningly large number of toys for infants that socialize girls into preening.<\/p>\n

Some of the toys are purses\/handbags that include pretend lipsticks, compacts, and related-items. \u00a0My Pretty Learning Purse<\/a>\u00a0includes a toy lipstick and a mirror; the Gund Sesame Street Abbey Purse Playset<\/a> includes a compact and powder brush; the Lilliputiens Liz Handbag<\/a> includes an eye shadow compact complete with three shades and an eye shadow applicator.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>In case you were wondering if this is a trend, the Alpha Parent post features TWENTY examples of purses filled with such toys.<\/p>\n

It also includes examples of toy make-up bags. Going beyond the inclusion<\/em> of beauty items in infant toys, these make beauty the sole point of the play<\/em>. \u00a0Here are just two of the NINE pretend make-up bags she collected, the Oskar & Ellen Beauty Box<\/a>\u00a0and the Learn and Go Make-Up and Go:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Since we wouldn’t want a baby to miss the point, companies also produce and sell vanities for infants. The Alpha Parent’s post included FOUR; here’s two, the\u00a0Perfectly Pink Tummy Time Vanity Mirror and the\u00a0Fisher Price Laugh and Learn Magical Musical Mirror<\/a>:\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Alpha Parent goes on to cover real<\/em> nail polish made for infants, beauty-themed clothes for little girls, and a common category of dress up: beautician outfits. \u00a0I counted a surprising ELEVEN of these:\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The latter reverses into a nurse’s uniform<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Alpha Parent concludes:<\/p>\n

\n

Makeup toys prime girls for a lifetime of chasing rigid norms of physical attractiveness through the consumption of cosmetics and fashionable accessories.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

They are also generally non-sex-transferable, meaning that parents are often loath to allow their boys to play with girl toys. \u00a0Gendered toys, then, increase the rate of toy purchasing, since parents of a boy and a girl have to buy special toys for each.<\/p>\n

It’s a win-win for corporate capitalism. \u00a0Socialize the girls into beauty commodities by buying these toys now, plan on reaping the benefits with the real thing later. \u00a0Brainwash the boys in an entirely different way (the Alpha Parent notes tools and electronics), do the same with them simultaneously.<\/p>\nLisa Wade, PhD<\/a> is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of <\/em>American Hookup<\/a>, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender<\/a>; and a forthcoming introductory text: <\/em>Terrible Magnificent Sociology<\/a>.\u00a0You can follow her on Twitter<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>.<\/em><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cross-posted at Jezebel. I’d love to draw your attention to The Alpha Parent, a blogger who has collected a stunningly large number of toys for infants that socialize girls into preening. Some of the toys are purses\/handbags that include pretend lipsticks, compacts, and related-items. \u00a0My Pretty Learning Purse\u00a0includes a toy lipstick and a mirror; the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[257,223,225,229,98,55,2089,2099,2096,1711],"class_list":["post-52733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-hygiene","tag-childrenyouth","tag-clothesfashion","tag-consumption","tag-capitalism","tag-gender","tag-gender-beauty","tag-gender-childrenyouth","tag-gender-femininity","tag-toysgames"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52733","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\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52733"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52746,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52733\/revisions\/52746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}