Posts tagged feminism

I’m a big fan of Mike Abbott’s blog The Brainy Gamer, and yesterday he posted an interesting story about Happy Meals at McDonald’s.

So I’m at the counter, I order Zoe a Happy Meal, and the woman says to me “Would you like a girl or a boy toy?” I didn’t know we had a choice. I look at Zoe who’s wearing a hat and jacket, and I realize this woman can’t make out Zoe’s sex, so I ask her “What’s the difference?” She tells me that girls get an iCarly Happy Meal and boys get a Star Wars Happy Meal. I ask Zoe, “Would you like Star Wars or iCarly?” She stares at me clueless and then says “Carly,” and I immediately kick myself for listing it second. Zoe always chooses the last item offered if she doesn’t know what you’re talking about.

When we opened the box we found an iCarly “Lip Gloss Phone,” a purple and silver flip phone that opens to a makeup mirror and container of lip gloss.

There are obviously huge implications about the gendering of these toys, but they’re so huge they’re beyond the scope of this post. People have literally written books about that, so I’m going to focus just on what Happy Meals are really about: marketing.

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