Why Boys Don't Play with Dolls by Katha Pollitt

The piece "Why Boys Don’t Play with Dolls" by Katha Pollitt relates very much to the topics that we discuss in class and to Ramamurthy. Pollitt’s piece basically talks about why boys don’t play with dolls and why girls do. Pollitt writes a lot about stereotypes such as boys like trucks and girls like dolls. Pollitt also talks of the mothers of children such as these, who either love Barbie or hate Barbie, and also complain about their son’s passion for sports but at the same time won’t stop him. The love Barbie or hate Barbie thing that she talks about is, the mother can’t really choose to love or hate Barbie. They don’t love Barbie because they’ve at least once in their lives suffered because they couldn’t fit that ideal American standard, which is being a Barbie. However Pollitt also gives reasons to why they can’t hate Barbie which is, if they hate Barbie its as if they were rejecting what Barbie represents, being sexy, thin, and stylish, and this they know is utterly important. Pollitt continues on to talk about boys and sports, like if the mothers find sports a manly activity. She also talks of feminists that complain of their sons eagerness for sports but, would not bother to stop them, because they think its certainly better that their son doesn’t stay at home on the weekends writing diaries, baking, or even reading. Pollitt concludes her piece by stating that its not the children or parents fault that they are so stereotypically raised, but its mainly due to the bombardment they receive from their daily lives, from the television commercials to the ads on the bus.

The connection between this and Ramamurthy’s idea’s of Gender Representations is basically that women are depicted as beautiful sexy “things.” In Pollitt’s article, it’s the Barbie doll which is the ideal image of an American woman, a plastic doll is the model for a human being to follow. Ramamurthy talks of how women are objects, and are such represented as passive and as a object of sexual desire. This particular piece relates to what we’ve discussed in class because I think we’ve established that advertisements are very influential on our society, like whatever that sexy model is wearing in that billboard is the thing to wear and etc. In this piece of writing, the author talks of how boys grew up playing with trucks and girls with dolls. The author blames the fact that children fit stereotypes such as these, on many factors such as the parents, friends, surrounding adults, and media. The constant bombardment the child faces daily of images of boys his age in toy car commercials, of girls her age in barbie commercials, their own mother using make up, and the dad watching sports every sunday from noon to evening. Though people are one factor why children fit stereotypes, the other main reason why is because of advertisements, with it's big impact on people of all ages, help to push children towards those stereotypes.