Thank heavens, for little girls

The ultimate test of gender at a young age: do you play with dolls or trucks? Is your toy aisle pink or blue? In reality these things have little to do with gender at all but merely the cultural work that men and women are each socialized to do in order to be coded a certain gender. Invariably, these codes center around the body and what to do with the body.

One of the most disturbing things about childrens toys, especially those of girls, is how early on our kids truly learn what is acceptable and not acceptable to do with your gendered body. Boys play with trucks and action figures. Products that center on the body as an active, aggressive and always working dynamic force. They learn to DO with their bodies. Girls play with Barbies and baby dolls. They learn how to dress their body, make their body pretty, and ultimately how to be a mother to another persons body. They learn to MAKE their bodies. And both girls and boys, in playing with these objects, learn that bodies are there to be played with, to be manipulated and bought as products. They are socialized to play with these docile bodies the same way they play and manage their own bodies as they grow older.