Artifact Analysis I: Why You Should Care About Hot Wheels

I was a very spoiled child. I had all sorts of toys, not just the typical gendered ones. I was in love with Beanie Babies and Pokemon. I had Barbies. Do you know what the one toy I never had was? Hot Wheels. I never owned Hot Wheels and, looking back, that upsets me. My mother wanted me involved in arts and crafts. She tried hard to get me to play with dolls. It was not that I could not have Hot Wheels. I simply had never asked because it was not something that ever crossed my mind. I feel confident in saying that I never got the chance to learn about cars all because young boys were the target audience of Hot Wheels. Because of the way Hot Wheels are marketed, boys get a head start in the knowledge of automobiles and the world is left believing that girls cannot be interested in cars.

It is obvious why parents feel that buying Hot Wheels for their boys is more appropriate than buying them for girls. The shiny cars are cased in blue packaging. Blue, obviously being a traditionally masculine color, is a clear signal of who Mattel is targeting. The first thing one sees on the website is a group of boys playing with the tiny cars. Above them we read, “Be the worlds best driver!” We have boys, we want them to be the best, we get them Hot Wheels. Moms, of course, do not play Hot Wheels with her boys. It is going to be Daddy and Son bonding time. Mom gets to play with the little girl and her doll. This all works out, of course, as they are a white family with 1.8 blond haired, blue eyed children.

I really feel like that abundance of Hot Wheels owned by boys is what sparked the stereotypical interest in cars. Cars are symbols of power and status. We (meaning society) want our boys to feel powerful; we want them to feel like they should strive to be at the top. Peggy Ornstein notes in her book Cinderella Ate My Daughter that we encourage our boys to play with toys that ooze power, and excitement. Girls get excitement, too, but of a much different kind. How jealous I am of the kind of excitement the boys are encouraged to partake in. Boys learned about the world’s most iconic cars long before I could tell you that the Porsche 911 Turbo was the only Porsche I liked. Boys get to obtain the knowledge at a young that the following car is indeed cool.

This Lamborghini Gallardo LP570-a Superleggera Hot Wheel model:

Translates to this real-life Lambo:

Because boys learn that is what they should pursue in life, they learn to... well... learn. They gather information that is foreign to me. I wish I could adequately explain what that kind of information is, but I have already admitted to not knowing enough. This is not a problem, though, because girls cannot possibly be interested in cars.

I mean it, these boys and the cars they drive are my life.

There is a problem with that logic, you see. That is a problem that we should care about solving. We should care because my favorite television show is BBC’s Top Gear. We need to care because it was my idea to go to the auto show, not my boyfriend’s. We should care because I happen to find the Aston Martin Vanquish to be extremely appealing. Girls can love cars and tell people that they love cars, but nobody believes them. While at the Greater Milwaukee Auto Show, I pulled my boyfriend to the far end of a hallway because I had to look at the racing Ferrari shining in the corner. The spokesperson for the racing team began talking to my boyfriend right away about a program enabling the public to spend time learning to race with a professional. Not once did this man make eye contact with me while talking about the program. It was not until the end that he looked at me and added, “And if you’re girlfriend here is interested, she could pay seventy five dollars to have a professional drive her around the track.” I was genuinely hurt. I was dismissed as not wanting to learn to race because I was a girl. We need to care because it is difficult to be seen as uninteresting by a person who should know better. This happened the whole day. We stopped to look at some bikes on display and the man asked my boyfriend if he was into riding. I am going to be getting my motorcycle license this Spring.

It is not hard to change the color on the packaging of a child’s toy. It is not difficult to take a picture of a girl and a boy playing with Hot Wheels. It is not challenging to make eye contact with a girl looking at a Ferrari. These are not opinions, they are facts. Why is it, then, that nobody has made an effort to do these simple things? I do not know what is in the psyche of the advertising team at Mattel, but I suspect that it is a simple human flaw that is holding them back. Humans hate change and for decades the status quo has been a world where girls to not play with toy cars. It is not necessary to push Hot Wheels on our girls, but it would not hurt to give them a few cars, a track set or two, and a Barbie. Maybe then we can save our future female lovers of fast cars the hurt of being shut down at a car show.  

The Case of the Rant You've All Been Dreading

Here it comes, guys. I am about to unleash upon you the feels. All of them, actually. All of the feels you never wanted to know I had about women in geek culture. Buckle up. This is going to be a bumpy ride.

I. Am. A. Geek. I go to conventions dressed as characters most people haven't heard of. I have taken it upon myself to get into the old-school Doctor Who. I have crackpot theories about what is going to happen in series three of BBC's Sherlock. I have thrown my XBox control across the room because Dragon Age: Origins glitched and I had to start over. But holy mother of god I wear makeup! I spent a whopping $200 on my prom dress because it was too damn pretty to pass up. I swoon if I hear Hugh Jackman talking on the TV. The idea that none of these things could ever go together has me in suck a tizzy. I have thrown some of the biggest bitch fits you have ever heard over the ideas that so many male geeks have about women in "their" culture. I say "their" because men have tried to claim geekdom as their own things. Stop. Just stop because I will shove my adorable shoes up into places where the sun doesn't shine.

Let's start with cons and cosplaying, shall we? Now it's been my experience that a lot of male nerds are shy. They are not eloquent and they don't always know how to approach women. This isn't always the case, I know. I'm dating a geek and he's not shy or quiet about anything. Ever. But most of the men I've come across at cons have not idea how to function around women. In order to understand the story I'm about to tell you, I must explain the concept of real time vs. boob time to all the boys out there. 1 second of real time staring translates to about 5 seconds of boob time. Got it? Good. Geek.kon two years ago is the setting. I have just walked out of a panel about feminism in geek culture (perfect, right?). In tow are two new friends of mine, one is still a good friend over Tumblr and Facebook. As we are walking out, we see the most adorable thing ever. It's a turtle. Dressed as a Dalek. In the hallway. Holy. Shit. While we are staring at it in sheer amazement, here comes the owner of the tortoise. I'd like to mention that I was wearing a simple t-shirt and jeans. Nothing revealing. This guy has the nerve to stare of at least five seconds of real time staring. For everyone that is not good at the maths, that is 25 seconds of boob time. That is what we call rude, children. And what's worse, he pulls out a stick that says, "I was inspected by Dave" and puts it right on my chest. No asking, he just did it. My friends shuffled me off to the nearest bathroom to save the idiot from the wrath of Megan. This isn't uncommon. It is disgusting and it is made a billion (not exaggerating) times worse when cosplay is thrown into the mix. Female video game, graphic novel, and science fiction characters tend to be a bit lacking in the clothing department (we'll get around to that later). I personally don't mind cosplaying these characters, but don't tell me I'm asking for it when some bumbling fool has the nerve to make some outrageous comment or make me feel degraded. That's not okay.

Oh the fandoms. Oh the fake geek girl bullshit. Dearies, I am new to Who. I know this. I acknowledge it. I'm okay with it. I am not okay with people putting me down for not knowing when the Cybermen were first seen in the newer Doctor Who. What I hate more is people thinking that I don't know because I have a vagina. That makes sense, right? My reproductive organs totally factor in to my ability to buy and watch 50 years worth of Doctor Who, yes? Logical. Mhm. If you are agreeing with that, don't tell me. I don't want to be your friend. The fact that I am still working through playing Elder Scrolls: Oblivion (not Skyrim because that shit's gotta go down in price first) and Dragon Age: Origins does not mean that I can't appreciate the fandom. SPOILER: Don't tell me I can't have feels about having to kill of Vicente in Oblivion because dammit I have feels. I want Cullen as a romance option in Dragon Age not because he's pretty, but because he's broken and I want to fix him. Like where did that even come from? Women only appreciate games because of the pretty men in them? What? I'd like to add that I know more about the Fable franchise than a lot of men out there. It's not a good franchise, by the way. They killed it and I has sads about this. I could go on forever about this, but I won't because I want to talk about Dragon Age.

I want to talk about this because Dragon Age (and Fable, but I'm on a DA kick) give me a lot of mixed feelings. Most of my feelings are good. The character depth and customization was revolutionary. Any romance option in most other games must be of the opposite gender. Most main characters are male. Most characters are white. Most are human. But not in DA. Do you want to be a dark skinned female City Elf taken from her home to live in the Mage's Tower and then find love with a white female human rogue? YOU GO FOR IT AND OWN THAT SHIT! Hell, in DA2, you can go ahead and romance Sebastian who refuses to have sex with you because he is the Chantry's bitch (but nobody wants to do that because Sebastian is a creeper). But here is my bone to pick with Bioware, guys. Armor. Female armor. While a lot of it is ideal for fighting, there are some things that I really can't wrap my head around. Female mage armor, for example. Mages are what games like to call "squishy." If you hit us with an object, we lose like a third of our HP.

You guys, this isn't what squishy people want to wear.

And let's talk about Morrigan, yes? A strong, independent apostate who don't need not man... or clothing.

WHAT IS THAT EVEN? LIKE THOSE ARE ALL OF YOUR VITAL ORGANS ABOUT TO GET PUNCTURED!

Oddly enough, the armor provided for rogues and warriors isn't too bad. Some of it is impractical and I really need to get to class now. So I'm going to give you this little link here. Read it and find it useful for all of your feminist gaming needs, okay?

See you in class! Tatty bye!

The Case of the In Class Movie

As the rest of my class attempts to create their blogs, I have chosen to take the easy way out and recycle my old blog. Once dedicated to British Literature, this blog will now serve as a place for musings on Feminism and pop culture. As suggested, I'd like to take a moment and discuss the movie that was watched in class today.

As brought up by Dr. Hager shortly after the movie, I do have an issue with the correlation between violent video games and rape and other forms of violence against women. I date gamers. That is not a preference. If you do not play games (COD and Halo do not count because they are stupid), then I'm not interested. My ex's as well as my current boyfriend have no violent tendencies toward me. Honestly, they have always been aware that I would dole out a world of hurt before that got the chance to properly formulate the thought. I would like to direct my readers' attention to this bit of light reading regarding the flaws in the ideas of those who propose that there is a connection between killing a female elf in-game and punching your girlfriend afterwards. It's a ridiculous notion and one that makes me very angry.

My other thoughts on video games shall be reserved for another time, though. I'd like to talk about how put off I was at seeing some of the "news" clips during the film. I was not unaware of the frankly piggish nature of men in the media business. Good lord, I'd have to be living under a rock to have turned a blind eye to it! I wish I could accurately quantify the amount of anger I felt while listening to some of the statements made, though. I don't care where one stands politically-- speech like that aimed towards any news anchor or politician is wrong. That's the interesting thing about feminism, I think. In my opinion, feminism is not about extremes, it is about common decency. It's about the little things your mum and dad sit you down to talk about when you're a child. Be nice to everyone. Everyone. It's about the "Thumper Rule," as one of my high school teachers called it. If you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say it. It's about the Golden Rule, the "do unto others" rule. You know the one I'm talking about. But that's enough. I've gotten myself into a tizzy. If you don't mind, I'd like to sit and listen to some Cabin Pressure for a while and cool down.

Tatty Bye!