The New and Diminished Toys for "GirlZ"

Today I saw on my Facebook feed a beautiful little image of a red headed girl proudly holding a free from Lego castle...She has red pigtails, well worn blue jeans, shirt and shoes. She is practically beaming with pride, obviously thrilled with her creation.

The ad is from the 70's, from the decade of my birth when I relished going to my friend David Messent's house to play with his inordinately huge stash of house and space Legos. When I was a younger girl, I loved the house Legos best. I would make your typical cottage house, the type with flowers in the window boxes and picket fences out front
Later,when I was 8 or 10 or so, I preferred the space Legos, and would endeavor to make stream lined space ships, making sure that all the bricks matched, so the body would be entirely grey, the wings black, and so forth. But let me assure you, neither my house or space creations ever involved instructions.This is the kind of thing I would build
And this is what concerns me.
Want to see what the image our our intrepid girl builder is now and what kind of Lego's SHE is told to play with?

Lego's poster girl is now perhaps not accidentally portrayed as taller, thinner, and older, and while she wears blue also, her clothes lack the well worn quality of the little red haired girls jean's, and to my eyes is clearly just an homage to the prior add.(Judging by the toys in her hand if it wasn't for this prior add she would probably be dressed in a more "girly" fashion.) But the girl herself doesn't concern me as much as what she is holding...not just primary colors accessible and appropriate for boy or girl architects, but pink and purple bricks with female lego figures that look like they had a celebrity makeover

The Huntington Post already did an article on this subject so I know I am not breaking any new ground here, but considering I have a 50/50 chance of having a little girl, this really worries me. What has happened to toys marketed for girls? In my youth they were definitely girly, but they were just that, like GIRLS, little girls like we were, not young women or teenagers or god forbid supermodels...
My Little Pony, Strawberry Shortcake, and late comer Polly Pocket...how did you go from this
to THIS

I mean, who is designing these reboots? Cristina Augulera? The worst thing is I read in another blog that it is the GIRLS THEMSELVES...Lego apparently launched a campaign surveying little girls and what they want...and they supposedly 4 months and 4 million dollars later came up with this crap based on what the girls said! Now my question is, have little girls changed, or has their exposure to mature and sexually themed adult aimed media changed? I think it is pretty obvious that it is the latter...I almost wanna blame the genesis of the trend on the rise of the Spice Girls, who's supposedly female affirming message of "girl power" always seemed dubious to me...what is this power they were pitching? The power to wag your thong a man and make him drool like a dog?
the one that concerns me most here is "Baby Spice" the one in the middle looking seductive, dressed in attire generally considered appropriate for a 5 year old. In fact that dress is so short it might FIT a five year old. What the hell is this supposed to be saying to our girls? Pull up your skirt and you can be internationally famous too?
Which leads me to the final chapter of my rant, which is the most dubious,most morally vapid toy for girls on the market...the BRATZ (who I think look suspiciously like the aforementioned spice girls in this picture, but even MORE sexual), and these are actually aimed DIRECTLY at little girls...

Sooo...if I read this marketing campaign correctly, my little girl should aspire to look like Pamela Anderson when she grows up? Or perhaps Ru Paul?
I mean seriously folks, I don't think I am exaggerating the situation to much, I mean LOOK AT THIS SHI...erm...stuff! this is an official image to advertize Bratz folks!

I don't think I need to even go into the title of these dolls, as if THAT was something to aspire to be.

at any rate, I rest my case.
If I do have a girl I will be finding most of her mainstream toys on Ebay it seems, so she can safely play with images of little girls like herself. And if she like me, also liked He-Man and Transformers all the better. I am sure they have these on E-Bay too.
anyway I found a camera in my house. So tomorrow maybe I will post some pictures of the gender neutral or at least delightfully nonsexual and un-plastic toys I have been making.
have a great weekend
x
jess