Topper Toys for Squares

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

I think I'm a little insulted by this.

Comments

[vinib.livejournal.com]

Not gonna lie, I'd have loved the cooking set. As it was, we had to stick with our imagination, and mud-pies, and yucky moss veggies...

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

I didn't have anything like this growing up. Like you, I used my imagination - and Play Doh - for food. I still think our way was the best.

[vinib.livejournal.com]

We picked moss and other unmentionables from the garden and cooked them in water and spices... my mom was prone to finding really colourful fungus in lots of tiny tiny containers. Ah, those glorious days ;P

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

That they were!

Oh, Topper Toys.

[heather mccrillis (from livejournal.com)]

Have you never heard of the term, "Double life"?

Re: Oh, Topper Toys.

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

You mean Miss Suzy Square is a protesting, Molotov cocktail tossing radical by night?

Re: Oh, Topper Toys.

[heather mccrillis (from livejournal.com)]

You bet your burger buns she is!

Re: Oh, Topper Toys.

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

Rock on!

[tprillahfiction.livejournal.com]

This is the kind of toys my parents insisted on buying me as a kid, I had the vacuum and the stove--I wanted a chemistry set so bad, but that went to my brother. I guess I'm a kook. :/

but don't worry, i do plenty of cooking, cleaning and waiting on husband, trying to make myself beautiful (with a vanity table) these days to make up for it all. I somehow got turned into a 60's housewife. LOL. (and my dad would be proud).

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

My mum gave up on me and bought me trucks and tools (and lots of dinosaurs). I never played with dolls even as a child and it worked out well for me. I have never been what I would classify as a typical woman, but my argument has always been that there is no such thing as a typical woman - we are all extraordinary.

[tprillahfiction.livejournal.com]

You got that right. We are all extraordinary. Which is why it was so frustrating back in the day to be shoved into these "women's roles" because parents, in those days, thought men and women should be one way.

I'm glad to hear that you got the toys you asked for--and at the same time very jealous! I asked for trucks, tonka toys, dinosaurs, space legos, etc. My parents didn't want me turning into a tomboy so at that young age I got dolls and the afore mentioned kitchen stuff and barbie dolls. To basically learn how to be a good housewife and mommy, pretty much.

I got my revenge though at the time. XD I never played with the dolls so they just sat in my bedroom, getting dusty. One day I chopped their hair off. Every one of 'em. My mom went nuts! hehehe. I used my Barbie and Skipper dolls to play characters from Star Trek (one was Kirk, one played Spock, one played dr. mcCoy and so on), acting out stories in my head. I made star trek uniforms for them, instead of playing with them in the "traditional" way like some of the other girls.

However, things did change at home for the better--after my parents divorced, and my dad was long out of the house (when i was a pre-teen) I was in fact able to get Star Wars toys, Masters of the universe, stuff I really wanted. I guess my mom also just gave in and bought that for me too because I kept asking for that stuff. But she lamented me for still being into toys as a pre-teen, not "growing up" and giving up playtime, not helping dinner get ready but wanting to play like the boys, being a "tom-boy" which was considered a terrible thing in those days. I never took joy in helping around the house. It felt like drudgery, not fun to be keeping house. If my parents had stayed married, I never would have gotten had those "boy" toys, I would have had to be stuck in the house cleaning. My dad was ultra conservative and anti-woman's lib and at home, his word was law.

Thanks for posting the ad, though! This was really neat and brought back a bunch of memories. The language of that ad is jarring but in those days that normal, wasn't it. Things have come a long way.

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

Rock on, you! Star Trek saves another one. I was fortunate in that my folks decided early on that I would be the one to break the mold. Mum did teach me cooking, sewing, housekeeping (which saved me as I put myself through college as a maid) while my Da taught me auto mechanics, carpentry, electrical wiring and plumbing. The three of us built a house my junior year and I have thanked them every day for the skills they gave me. I went on to be a stage carpenter and then the foreperson of a scene shop (one of the few in the country).

Heh, I played with toys well into my teens and still do occasionally, when the cats aren't running away with them!

We have come a long way and I hope we will continue the march forward. Honestly, I'm a bit worried about girls today. There seems to be some backsliding.

[pony-rocks.livejournal.com]

I'm from a different country and when I was growing up behind the Iron curtain, there seemed to be slightly less of the gender division when it came to toys, perhaps because everybody had to work and women were encouraged to do the same jobs as men (not that it resulted in salary/promotion equality, but that's a different story). Also, when we were getting Christmas presents in the kindergarten, all kids got the same toys (a rubber doll and a toy car, I think). In any case, my oldest sister preferred dolls and toy makeup and all girly stuff, while my older sister and I liked boy toys better (though I actually had a really wonderful Sindy doll which I adored), and mother and father just heeded our wishes. I think father was even glad I was eager to ride bike with him and wrestle. Strangely enough, today he is a tiny bit perplexed when my oldest sister's son plays with a doll. :)

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a lovely way to grow up, though. It would have been nice to grow up without gender stamping, but it was huge here in the 60's. I honestly think it was because they were afraid women would abandon the house and children for the working world.

[pony-rocks.livejournal.com]

I really liked my childhood - though while gender stamping might have not been that hardcore, there were other things, of course. And I suppose the situation differed in various regions. I grew up in the capital, both of my parents were uni graduates and mother actually earned more than father for many years, which was slightly unusual back then. Also, my parents shared household chores more than other people's parents, I think. I still remember one of my friend was perplexed that our daddy did all the ironing. :D

As for working women, it was simple: it was illegal to be unemployed unless you were sick or a mother staying home with a very small child, though even that wasn't that usual - most women put kids into state nurseries or kindergartens and went back to work after two or three years. The ideal woman was a strong, no-nonsense superwoman who worked during the day - in any possible job; some of my great-aunties in the country were operators of heavy machinery and my best friend's grandma was in charge of a mobile crane, and they all rather enjoyed it. Some fields were very feminized: most teachers were women and there were even more female than male doctors. To this day older people often say: "I am going to see a doctor" using the female form of the word.
On the other hand, women often did not get the same salary and weren't promoted nearly as often, despite having the same workload. It was not unusual to see a school with all-female teachers and a male headmaster, or a hospital ward with all-female doctors and a male senior doctor. AND after finishing the heavy work, women were still expected to cook and do all the housework. All the ads for food, kitchenware, cleaning utensils etc. were strictly aimed at them, not men. So - in a way, gender roles were cast aside. In another way, they were as strong as anywhere else.

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

My mum tried to make sure I had all the homemaker skills I needed (and I was thankful because I put myself through college working as a maid) and my Da made sure I had other skills (carpentry, auto mechanics, etc), which helped me with my career (tech theatre). I owe them both a lot because they had tor foresight to prep me for just about any challenge. All kids should be as fortunate as us.

[dandyads]

Well, it's not subtle!

Weirdly, even though I realize this ad is sexist, it doesn't bother me. Maybe because it's just so on the nose, it almost feels desperate. I don't feel like it's telling me that I'm supposed to be 'suzy homemaker' so much as it's blatantly playing on the fears of my grandparents' generation - telling them, yes, things are changing and it's probably pretty scary but don't worry, this toy will totally stop your daughter from turning into a dirty, shoeless hippie. (And I also know that's bullshit - I look at this and I think, 'give your daughter something to rebel against!').

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

It took me a while to decide before posting it. It seemed so heavy handed and yet it was totally the voice of the times - desperate parents trying to keep control of their kids.

All I can say is Thank the Goddess I made it through the 60's and 70's!