{"id":117289,"date":"2016-01-22T21:17:16","date_gmt":"2016-01-22T21:17:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2016\/01\/22\/wheres-rey\/"},"modified":"2016-01-22T21:17:16","modified_gmt":"2016-01-22T21:17:16","slug":"wheres-rey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2016\/01\/22\/wheres-rey\/","title":{"rendered":"Where’s Rey?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Where’s Rey?<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

dduane<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

This is the article that caused the \u201cwhiny emo pissbabies\u2026\u201d response<\/a> regarding Kylo Ren. <\/p>\n

Another interesting takeaway from this: <\/p>\n

\n

The industry insider confirmed that the Black Widow character is widely
\nconsidered \u201cunusable\u201d within the toy industry. \u201cShe has a tight black
\noutfit. Our main customer is concerned with \u2018family values,\u2019\u201d said the
\ninsider.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

So that\u2019s Wal-Mart\u2019s fault, then? Notice taken. (Not that I\u2019d set foot in the place unless dragged in at gunpoint. Fortunately, when you live in Ireland neither condition is likely to occur.)<\/p>\n

And this is worth noting too:<\/p>\n

\n

At the same time, however, it\u2019s increasingly apparent that marketers\u2019
\n perceptions are seriously out of touch with consumers\u2019 tastes.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrincess toy sales are in freefall. Disney can\u2019t give away princess
\ntoys anymore,\u201d according to the insider. And yet, the insider said, the
\ndirective is there: Maintain the sharp boy\/girl product division. Marginalize girl characters in items not specifically marketed as girl-oriented.<\/p>\n

The toy industry is more gender-divided now than at any time in the past 50 years, according to Elizabeth Sweet<\/a>,
\n a professor of sociology at the University of California at Davis.
\nShe\u2019s a noted authority in the sociology of gender-based toy design and
\nmarketing. Analyses of historical toy catalogs show that in the 1970s
\nmore than half of toys were not designated as being specifically for one
\n gender, whereas now, very few toys are marketed as gender-neutral,
\naccording to Sweet.<\/p>\n

Marcotte points back to the deregulation of the advertising industry
\nin the 1980s under Pres. Ronald Reagan as the origination point for the
\ngender-division trend. \u201cOnce that happened, toy manufacturers realized
\nthey could increase sales by designing toys to be more narrowly
\ntargeted. Instead of having just a ball, you could make it pink and put a
\n princess on it; or, paint it blue and put GI Joe on it. Now parents
\nhave to buy two sets of toys, one for their daughter and one for their
\nson.\u201d<\/p>\n

But that long-term trend has had significant sociological impacts.
\n\u201cGirls and boys do not play together as much as they used to,\u201d Marcotte
\nsaid. \u201cThese gender divisions are hard-coded into their toys and it
\ninforms their behavior in ways that has lasting results on their
\npresumptions.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Where’s Rey? dduane: This is the article that caused the \u201cwhiny emo pissbabies\u2026\u201d response regarding Kylo Ren. Another interesting takeaway from this: The industry insider confirmed that the Black Widow character is widely considered \u201cunusable\u201d within the toy industry. \u201cShe has a tight black outfit. Our main customer is concerned with \u2018family values,\u2019\u201d said the … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Where’s Rey?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[2090,14186,14184,2759,14185,4],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117289"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117289\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}