Friday, February 5, 2016

First boy featured in Moschino barbie commercial

Link: http://bigthink.com/ideafeed/this-new-moschino-barbie-commercial-features-a-fierce-boy

This new barbie commercial features a young boy playing with the Moschino barbie. This commercial demolishes the stereotypical male behavior that boys do not play with barbies or care about fashion. The young boy in the commercial who is playing with the barbie is dressed fashionably and seems to highly care about his appearance, which is not expected of masculine gender behavior. This commercial relates to our current discussion in class about gender identity in regards to the articles about the male children who like to wear dresses and play with feminine toys, like dolls. The commercial is implying that the Moschino barbie is gender balanced and that boys and girls can play with barbies, instead of having children-targeted products for boys and girls. This commercial is the first time the Mattel company has used a boy to market a product, in which it is getting praise, yet backlash as well. This commercial is the perfect example of breaking gender stereotypes. This commercial also stresses the ability to allow a children to embrace their self-expression, like the families did with their young boys to allow them to wear dresses to school or play with both gender toys. This commercial brings to the forefront one of the biggest controversies surrounding being gender fluid or otherwise known as the "middle space." Society continues to question whether it is socially acceptable to all boys and girls to dress, behave, and play in any way they choose whether it be considered masculine or feminine. I think Mattel is headed in the right direction to include boys in their barbie commercials.

3 comments:

  1. After reading your comments and then watching the commercial, I agree with you that Mattel is doing a great job at setting it up for future generations to accept more gender fluidity. This also makes me think of the articles we read earlier last week, and that it's more acceptable for girls to be more masculine and not acceptable for boys to be feminine. This commercial helps break that stereotype that boys can't be feminine and play with girl toys. This is an important thing to note because society has already accepted girls being more masculine.

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  2. I'm really happy you posted this. I agree that it does go further than most of the past barbie commercials have when it comes to breaking gender stereotypes. However, in some ways, I think that it kind of still reinforces this binary scale. I just watched it with a few of my friends, and they were all laughing at how he was depicted as the stereotypical flamboyantly gay man. I think that this commercial reinforces the idea that you must be more feminine to play with barbies, like I think this commercial doesn't necessarily say that any little boy would be comfortable playing with barbies but still excludes it to the femme group of children.

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  3. I am so glad you posted this as this isn't my post week and I came across this commercial a couple of days ago. In fact, my daughters pointed this out to me when they were watching TV. They had mentioned it the day before at dinner and were intrigued by it so when it came back on they ran to get me and made sure I saw it. What was most surprising to me was their comments, "Mom, why would they put a boy playing with Barbies?" and then my youngest, "That's silly! Boys don't play with Barbies, right mom?". I had to explain to them about stereotypes and that just as boys could play with dolls and "girl toys" so could girls play with trucks and "boy toys" and that there was nothing wrong with such. I love that I was able to explain that to them and reinforce the idea so that as it is more advertised they will be aware and understand. I do feel that this will bring many talks in many households as children become more conscious of out of the norm things. I also really liked that they didn't bring in Ken to the picture and left it with only Barbies being the main figure that way it doesn't become questionable whether it has to be a boy playing with a male figure instead its playing with a female figure.

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