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Canwest News Service
The vehicle that many children are asking for this holiday season is not a fire truck. It’s not a school bus or a race car. It’s a bright green, clunky recycling truck, made of recycled milk jugs and stored in eco-friendly, cardboard packaging.
The truck’s popularity on major toy lists and gift guides is a sign of the times, and an example of a growing trend among toymakers to try to make children’s playthings fit into larger societal concerns and even political agendas. They include an American Girl doll, which retails for US$95 and delivers a lesson on the harsh recessionary reality with her back story of living in a car with her single mom; a Playmobil airport security checkpoint; and a baby doll that demands breastfeeding, not bottle.
Some experts say these kinds of toys are important because they can help children better understand larger social themes and their parents’ values, but others say it is merely parental meddling in children’s play, and that even with the best of parental intentions, you can’t necessarily influence how your children play.
Christine Williams, a professor of sociology at the University of Texas and author of Inside Toyland, said that studies have found that middle-class parents see toy giving as an opportunity to cultivate sophisticated tastes and refined opinions in their children.
“Middle-class parents would say a recycling truck conveys the right kind of values that I want my child to have,” she said. “Every toy bought is an educational opportunity to cultivate the hothouse flower that is their child.”
The recycling truck, made by Green Toys, is featured in all kinds of gift guides, including Dr. Toy’s list of 100 best products for 2009; its virtues are often extolled in the almost breathless manner afforded by SavvyMom, a national online parenting magazine: “It’s a truck, it’s a lesson in recycling, it’s an example to us all.”
Of course, these kinds of lessons may not actually get through to children. A truck is often just a truck.
“If you look at how children play with toys, they do so in ways that rarely bear any resemblance to the intentions of adults,” said Prof. Williams. “Barbie is a perfect example of that. She’s often the villain. Often, she’s run over by cars.”
But sometimes pursuing a desirable cultural message can put toymakers in awkward positions.
Popular dollmaker American Girl, a high-end retailer of dolls, entered the debate about homelessness with the release of Gwen, a doll with long, silky hair, a crisp white sundress and a fascinating back story buried deep in the pages of the storybook sold with a related doll. Well into the story, which focuses on bullying, girls find out that Gwen has been keeping a secret: She and her mother temporarily lived in a car after her father left. The doll’s story touched a nerve. Some parents praised the company for raising awareness about homelessness, while others cried foul because of the doll’s hefty price tag, well out of reach for many American families. The company responded to its critics by saying it had a pre-existing relationship with non-profits helping the homeless.
American Girl would not say how the controversy affected sales of the doll, but said that Gwen’s line is meeting expectations, according to Julie Parks, a spokeswoman for the Wisconsin-based company.
“I think it definitely aided awareness around who she is and what her story is about,” Ms. Parks said “I think it has definitely increased awareness around homelessness and children. I think it’s got a lot of people talking.”
Another well-intentioned toy that critics say crossed the line was Bébé Glóton (“gluttonous baby,”) a breastfeeding doll released by Berjuan, a Spanish company. As a nod to the prevalence and preference for breastfeeding, the baby doll allows little girls to play mother by putting on a halter top with flowers for nipples and holding the doll up to their chests. The doll, which is not yet available in North America, garnered praise from breastfeeding advocates but objections far and wide. While a La Leche League leader in Pennsylvania called it “pretty cool” and “a wonderful thing,” other parents decried Bébé Glóton as “somewhat disturbing and a little strange.”
During the wave of security enhancements that followed Sept. 11, Playmobil released a “security checkpoint,” complete with an X-ray luggage screener, metal detector and security guard. The set was retired in 2007 but is still available for sale.
“It could allow children to deal with the anxiety of the extra attention on security,” said Judith Myers-Walls, an associate professor of child development and family studies at Purdue University. “It could also remind the child that the world is a dangerous place, and that’s something we need to be cautious about.”
There is a more critical view of the toy, evident in some of the sarcastic reviews of the toy on Amazon, where one person wrote: “This toy would be a lot more realistic with about 350 people standing in line for an average of an hour. It still makes a nice set with the interrogation room.”
Of course, it is entirely possible that the little toy security guard could find a place driving a tractor or piloting a spaceship after reaching the toy box. A toy, as the experts and many parents will attest, is sometimes just that — a toy.
