Gander

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

My Thoughts On Yahoo Parenting Listing MLP On Their List of Newly Sexualized Kid's Toys from the '80s

Hello & welcome back to Trotting To Life. Recently, Yahoo Parenting put up a list of toys from the '80s that are still around and feel that they have been sexaulized.  One of them being MLP,  my reaction to this list.
















  Now for comparison's sake,  I will take a look at both the '80's MLP toy, they showed and the current one, that they are claiming to be sexy.  (That  is so wrong to type on every level of wrongness).    Let's get this stupidity done and over with.   Okay before we begin, let's take a look at this parent's intro as to why, they came up with this list. Seems fair, right?





I consider myself fairly vigilant when it comes to monitoring June's media exposure. She watches the occasional Sesame StreetCaillou or Letter Factory DVDs but a story in The Atlantic yesterday about the sexing up of even Candy Land - Candy Land! - is a reminder that parents have to be careful about what sort of toys our kids plays with too. The classic child's board game is just the latest in a long list of examples of kids' toys in which the characters have become more sexualized, longer, leaner and sassier over time. At first glance, this may seem banal - so what if the 2013 version of Candy Land's Queen Frostine is a few pounds lighter than the 80s version? Well, it does matter-a lot, and there is ample research to back it up. Constant exposure to unrealistic beauty standards and hyper sexualized imagery is directly linked to low body satisfaction and diminished self esteem, according to body image expert Thomas F. Cash in his book Body Image: A Handbook of Science, Practice and Prevention. There is evidence that in girls as young as five watching appearance focused TV predicts body dissatisfaction. In fact, some 40 to 50 percent of kids between the ages of 6-12 already say they don't like their size or shape. Here are 6 disturbingly sexualized kids' characters I DON'T want my daughter exposed to:



-ByJessie Knadler


Okay,  so she's a concerned parent.  Fair enough, I can totally get behind that but here's the thing, a lot of the toys that she doesn't want her daughter to see, really don't have anything sexual about them.  I'm not trying to beat her up for trying to be a good parent but some of these choices just seem rather perplexing.   .  Also,  something I just noticed she brings up that the book that inspired this list talks about appearance focused TV. Well, I hate to burst your bubble m'am but MLP does not focus on the body image of the Mane Six.   Oh no, that is not an issue on the show.   No instead the show focuses on teaching lessons about friendship, telling good stories, how to respect one's differences.   Matter of fact, I'm pretty certain that throughout all three seasons, there has never been an episode dealing with body images.  Which in all honesty, would be strange considering that we are talking about talking ponies that live in a world that not unlike our own but exists in it's own universe.   I am sorry I am not trying to bring you down and I understand your concerns as a parent but this list seems as though it was poorly put together.  With these articles,  I hope to take a look at why I don't think this list works all that well.    With this out of the way, let's begin. Now, I'll be starting off with the '80s Pony.


















80s Era My Pretty Pony
The first generation of My Pretty Ponies were plump and rather staid....


Okay, first off I realize that franchise name may look wrong but it's not because apparently, that is what Pony was known as back when it first debuted.   I wish I could give you the rest of her thoughts but it seemed to cut off.  In my opinion, this pony is just a horse.  I don't find the toy very appealing but then again, I shouldn't because I didn't grow up with this generation.  It just really bugs me that her thoughts were cut off because I'm working off an incomplete thought and don't know what  else to say.  Now let's move onto the 2013 pony and see why she thinks it looks like a stripper. Yeah, you heard me right.







 











Today's My Pretty Pony
Not so in 2013. This sleek and sexy pony looks primed to prance around the stripper pole at the nearest jockey club.


Okay, maybe I'm  missing something here but I don't see how (not) Princess Celestia is supposed to be sexy.  She's just a horse. Nothing more, nothing less.  And your first thought is that she'd be more comfortable on stripper pole. How does that even work?   They can't wrap their hooves around a pole.

















Your not helping Sweetie Belle.    And also, I'd like to point out that Toy Tia is actually wearing more clothing then the '80s Pony, who is naked but again, they are horses. They don't wear clothes.  A fact that is brought up in the show.   Also, I'm sorry but it really irks me that she couldn't check to see that the franchise is no longer going by the old name.  For as long as I can remember, it's been My Little Pony.  I mean, she could've just used Yahoo's very own search engine to check this.  I'm sorry, this is something minor at best but she couldn't bother to get the franchise's name right.    It just really bugs me so much that she couldn't even bother to check to see that the name right.     Also,  maybe I'm missing something here but  I don't see anything sexy about this Toy Tia.  What is it?  Her curves are the fact that she has a skinnier model when compared to the '80s Pony.  


Can someone please explain this to me? Because I don't see it.   Look, I can understand a parent being concerned about images that her child may see but I honestly see nothing that is sexy about Tia here.   Maybe I'm missing something.   I don't know to me, it just looks like a toy horse.   And here's the thing that is just one toy out of the franchise. You can't use just one toy to represent the franchise.    Now, this is just one man's take on this as I don't see anything sexualized about it.  But this just me.  I'd really like to know what you guys think on this.  I want to hear your guys' opinions on what are some toys out there that you think that are actually trying to sell sex to young children.

No comments:

Post a Comment