Monday, November 29, 2010

This is a good read. Not only does the author talk about how toys are marketed along gender roles, she also goes through a number of catalogs and tallies up what boys are pictured with, what girls are pictured with, predominant colors for each, and more, putting it all in charts that really illustrate how boy-girl specific the toy industry is.
An excerpt:
As I looked through these catalogs, I saw zero boys nuturing dolls or pets, or playing with toys that encouraged fashion sense or manscaping. I saw zero girls constructing or destructing anything, moving vehicles, or holding weapons or sports equipment. Our kids, as young as preschool ages, were being sold extremely narrow definitions of gender roles.  
I want you to see what I saw. So here’s what I did – I tallied the number of kids in each catalog (Target, Walmart, and Toys R Us), then the number of boys and number of girls, I counted how many were doing gender-specific things, and how many were doing unisex or non-traditional gender things. I looked at main color themes and main activity themes. Main themes and gender-normal toys be marketed to boys were: vehicles, fighting/sports/weapons, and construction. Main themes and gender-normal toys being sold to girls were: fashion/beauty, pet/baby care, and cooking. The proof of the pudding is in the eating…. 
I don’t like that term, “playing the victim.” I think that it’s important to keep our oppressions in context and be aware of how they can fuck over our lives, and I think it’s important to fight those oppressions so they don’t fuck over other people. Trauma and mental illness are awful, and it’s a definite learning experience to be able to process and heal and cope with them in healthy ways, and I understand if some folks have trouble getting out of those dark places; I can relate. People need to do what’s best for them. But I don’t think that that should mean ignoring other people’s feelings and needs. I don’t think that that should mean shunning decency or responsibility for your actions just because you’re having a rough time. Respect, folks. Right now I’m learning to respect myself and all of the friends from whom I’ve asked and expected too much. I hope that adopting and maintaining this mentality will help to supplement all of the other ways in which I’m trying to take care of myself. I really want to grow. I want to be strong and fair and reasonable. I want to be a good person.
I did the dishes while you read out loud
this is how i feel lately. i am trying to learn to accept help when offered, ask for help when i need it, but most of all, i am trying to learn to understand what i need to do to feel grounded and get to a point where i can look after myself.
self care is complicated, and it seems few of us are good at it automatically.