Many children receive gift cards or even ask for them so they can choose their own presents. But are youngsters ready to handle the wiles of advertisers and the complexities of ‘credit’ on a card?
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Articles on Toys
Displaying 21 - 40 of 44 articles
Ken dolls with a ‘man bun’. Female superhero action figures. At long last, the gendered distinctions of the pink and blue toy aisles are starting to break down.
As Amazon introduces a new smart-home device aimed at children, it’s important to know many internet-connected toys are not secure, putting kids’ security and privacy at risk.
Truly green plastic requires more than sustainable raw materials.
The technological revolution has hit the doll aisle this holiday season in the form of artificial intelligence dolls. What does it mean for children’s development, to confuse real bodies with machines?
Adults are dumbfounded – and according to an expert on fads, that’s probably the point.
Welcome to no-gender December, where parents (and Santa) are being encouraged to give children gender-neutral Christmas presents.
A new study says that LEGO is becoming weaponised. But play is more sophisticated than many adults think.
Whether gendered toys are creating stereotypes or just playing to boys’ and girls’ innate differences is a vexed question.
Barbie has a forgotten history of changing in response to market pressures. Are her multiple new bodies ushering in an era of ethical body inclusiveness, or is Mattel just shifting deckchairs on the Titanic?
Despite her age Barbie hasn’t matured – a successful formula that has worked for Mattel.
The history of disability toys – that is, both toys designed for use by disabled children, and toys that depict disability – reflects the changing treatment of the disabled.
The new conversational Barbie doll may be good at keeping children entertained, but do we really know who’s listening in?
Did your child just drop the F-bomb? What can you do?
An EU court has ruled that Lego’s iconic mini-figures are a protected trademark and so cannot be copied. Here’s why.
Makies, the #toyslikeme campaign and the broader focus on disability in digital spaces show we are in the midst of a significant shift towards an inclusive world view of disability.
The equalities minister, Jo Swinson, has suggested that boys should be encouraged to play with dolls to make them more “nurturing and caring”. This is apparently in the hope that they will become more…
Launched in 1959, named after the inventor’s daughter Barbara, and owned by 99% of 3-10 year old girls in the USA, Barbie has been a popular request on young girls’ Christmas wish lists for 55 years. So…
Australia suffers “endemic” levels of men’s violence against women, so if the child is the father of the man, then it’s time we talked about boys’ toys. And what better time to start the conversation than…
On Tuesday Greens Spokesperson for women, Larissa Waters, lent her support to No Gender December – a campaign spearheaded by the group Play Unlimited that aims to highlight the gendered marketing of toys…
Top contributors
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Professor, Curtin University
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Senior Lecturer in Retail Marketing, University of Tasmania
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Pro Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Marketing, University of Tasmania
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Associate Professor in Education, Concordia University
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Senior Lecturer in Literary Studies, Monash University
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Professor of Early Childhood Studies, The University of Melbourne
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Professor, School for the Future of Innovation in Society & School of Computing, Informatics and Decision Systems Engineering, Arizona State University
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Professor, ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods, Australian National University
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Professor of Psychology, University of Cambridge
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Senior Lecturer School of Architecture & Urban Design, RMIT University
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Lecturer, Deakin University
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Associate professor, Architecture and Design, Swinburne University of Technology
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Professor of Marketing, University of Birmingham
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Senior Research Fellow, The University of Melbourne
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Associate Professor of Sociology, Deakin University
