Popular Culture Review Vol. 4, No. 2, June 1993 | Page 35

Toys for Girls

33

in women’s progress and would much rather have girls settle for their
1988 Perfume Pretty Barbie in her Sweet Roses Living Room.
The overwhelming focus of toys store shelves, ultimately, is
glamour. Beauty and beauty-related issues are involved in almost
every toy for girls on the market. Even inexpensive, generic toys
reflect this focus. For example, a discount doll called Pretty Pam has
a sister named Lynn at the Gym. Both dolls come with workout
clothes and a comb and brush set. More specifically, hair, makeup,
body, and fashion are concerns no matter what the toy. All dolls,
from babies to Barbies, have pretty, long hair that can be styled.
Decapitated heads for styling purposes have become even more
popular. Pretty Cut and Grow and her sister heads of hair sometimes
do not even have faces. P.J. Sparkles, a sixteen-inch doll, has hair
that changes colors according to the temperature of the water girls
brush it with. Vanity sets also abound, holding the almost mystical
promise of glamour and beauty. The line of miniature dolls called
Kidgetts ("Just like you, yet very special") comes with a Room to
Groom—Jewel and Powder Puff Room, and Little Miss and Me features
a Magic Vanity. Magic is often associated with beauty, and why not?
Even in adulthood, beauty make-overs are described as "magical
transformations." Magic is a necessary element without which girls
are lacking.
Toys encourage girls to join the beauty game early. In fact, one of
the most popular dolls in recent times is Li'l Miss Makeup. She
'"resembles a girl that's 5 or 6 years old who, when cold water is
painted on, 'springs eyebrows, colored eyelids, fingernails, tinted lips
and a heart shaped beauty mark'" (Wolf 215). Girls can find plenty
of makeup on toy shelves for themselves as well. Sweet Secrets offers
a whole line of cosmetics for "ages 4 and over," including blush, eye
shadow, lipstick, lip gloss, nail polish, and cologne.
Face and hair are only the start; however, the toys also insist
that girls think about their bodies. For instance. Get In Shape, Girl is
a line of exercise and workout toys. While it is well documented that
American children are by and large physically unfit. Get In Shape,
Girl products promote the look of health, and hence are nothing more
than weight paranoia toys. Every box of weights comes with
headbands and other glamour workout paraphernalia; more
importantly, every box features a very young girl bent over in an
essentially pornographic position, completely outfitted in adult