Meanwhile in Sweden of the Day: Gender-swapped Children’s Toy Catalogue
The latest holiday catalogue released by Sweden’s toy retail chain Top Toy is making some buzz for breaking the gender-role stereotypes in its product pages, which features girls with Nerf guns and boys with doll houses and Hello Kitty. According to Jezebel, Top Toy’s gender-swapped catalogue may have been inspired in part by the widespread debate over the issue of gender equality that has been ongoing for the past few years in the Scandinavian nation. Hat tip goes to The Mary Sue.
That is so awesome!
(via won-twon)
“No, I don’t want to be a girl,” he said, as he checked himself out in his bedroom mirror and posed, Cosmo-style. “I just want to wear girl stuff.”
“Why do you want to be a boy and not a girl?” I asked.
He looked at me as if I were daft. “Because I want to be who I am!”
By way of explanation, he told me about a boy in his third-grade class who is a soccer fanatic. “He comes to school every day in a soccer jersey and sweat pants,” P. J. said, “but that doesn’t make him a professional soccer player.”
a pretty awesome article about gender fluidity in boys/young men.
TL;DR: superheroes and sparkly princess dresses are both for everyone.
So let us assume that at least some of these women (and we can surmise from their skirts that they are predominantly women) were the mothers of the children they held. What is perhaps strangest to me is the number of women who are not wearing a black covering–something that would blend into the background, especially once the images were cropped or matted, as several have commented they would be. Instead, however, several women are draped in pattered throws…These mothers are not merely effaced–they are shown to be effaced. Their absence becomes a presence in these images; indeed, it becomes the focal point of the images. These images, consciously or unconsciously, mark the mother–or the mother-proxy–as the subject of effacement.
A lamp, a chaise, a rug, a mother. Domestic objects all.
“Where’s Ma? Oh, she’s the one ensconced in the rug.” (Part I) « Susan E. Cook, Ph.D.
She also made a response that talked about the possibility that the children in these portraits were dead. It’s absolutely worth reading/looking at.
(via fuckyeahvictorians)
Don’t read this unless you want to rip out your hair in frustration. Here are some gems:
“The art market is not sexist,” Mr Sewell said. “The likes of Bridget Riley and Louise Bourgeois are of the second and third rank. There has never been a first-rank woman artist.
“One would expect the art world to be more egalitarian. It was only in 2004 that a living woman, Marlene Dumas, broke through the $1m barrier.
The Russian avant-garde artist Natalia Goncharova, who died in 1962, holds the record for the most expensive female artist sold at auction, with her Les Fleurs selling for £5.5m at Christie’s in June. Yet this pales in comparison with the £43m made by Bacon’s Triptych, 1976 in May – the most expensive piece of contemporary art sold at auction.
Mr Wirth complained that, while even the best-known female artists sell for around £2m-3m, lesser male artists make more money at auction.
I particularly enjoy this quote: “Only men are capable of aesthetic greatness. Women make up 50 per cent or more of classes at art school. Yet they fade away in their late 20s or 30s. Maybe it’s something to do with bearing children.”
obvs it’s the wombs, guys. not institutionalized sexism or anything crazy like that.
PAY ATTENTION
PAY ATTENTION
(SEE ALSO VINTAGE SLEAZE THE DAILY BLOG)
