I was at a toy store today for the first time in ages, and saw one shelf with the following toys:
- Scarface Action Figure (complete with machine gun, sunglasses, and briefcase full of cash)
- Moses Action Figure (with a stone tablet inscribed with the 10 Commandments)
- Geek Man (with a pocket protector and glasses)
- Jesus Action Figure (100% Pure Bible Action!)
Signs of the times... if the toy industry is supposed to respond to the whims and desires of children, this paints a very absurd picture. The question is then, are toys designed to respond to what children want, or are they designed to control what a child wants? During my childhood, GI Joe was clearly a clever propaganda tool to raise a new generation of Americans that would conveniently hit adulthood at the dawn of the Patriot Act.
So what does a kid conditioned by Mafia dolls and Jesus toys grow up to become? How do you reconcile geek culture with gangster culture? Absurd.
You gotta love Toys 'R Us... they stock up on so many toys that you may not see necessarily anywhere else.
ReplyDeleteActually, the store was Mrs. Tiggy Winkles. The title of the post referred to the fact that toys represent us.
ReplyDeleteOops, my mistake...
ReplyDelete