Feminism & Gender Theory

'No boys allowed:' Legos for girls

In her book, As Long As It is Pink, author Penny Sparke notes the great 'distaste' she felt when wrapping up some glass ornaments she had bought for her mother. She knew her mother would delight in such items, but for her, these glass, ultra-feminine delicate 'dust collectors' signified being held hostage to both class and gender. Even the Victorian middle class ideal of domesticity, which the statues mimicked, was considered somewhat valuable for the refuge it offered from the public world of work. In mass-produced America, now everyone could buy glass ornaments and thus they had been devalued as a marker of class. In cheapening this representation of the home, the role of women as decorators and homemakers has likewise been cheapened, suggests Sparke (Sparke 1996: 3-4). In 21st century America, we are likewise in the uncomfortable position of...
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