It is a common assumption that toys are supposed to be objects in which a child can create and use their imagination. It may be unclear to our society how toys have actually molded children into a roles which are already preexisting for them. Roland Barthes in his book Mythologies writes an essay called Toys that has the intention of drawing attention to this truth commenting on the “bourgeois” or capitalist society that we currently exist in and how it applies to the usage of toys. Barthes splits up the concept of toys into two categories objects that make children “users” and ones that make them “creators” (Barthes 54). He argues that today’s toys (doctor’s play sets, baby dolls, and army men,) make children users “All of the toys one commonly sees are essentially a microcosm of the adult world” (Barthes 53).
By being a user children are prepared for the roles that our current capitalist society is providing for them, “French toys always mean something, and this something is always entirely socialized”(Barthes 54) a depiction of some idealized perfect adult life. Compared to toys like blocks which give a child the ability to create without constraint to imagine something without boundary, outside of the current ideology that exists. Even though almost a century has passed since this article was written, can we say if anything has really changed about the way toys are made? Especially with the newness of digital age, and all the constructed worlds that exist in video games that children play, we are still feeding into capitalist views.
Not much has changed with toys since Barthes essay on them, in fact toys have strayed even farther from the “creator” ideals he discussed. Today each set of toy that exists on the market comes with it’s own backstory or world for imagining, something that has already been made up before the child can get the chance to create their own. Toys like Barbie dolls, Care Bears, come with characters who are already set in their roles or identities, sparing no room for children to create their own. Other toys today come from television of films that kids specifically buy so they can become their favorite hero or tv show character.
This Pokémon commercial is displaying a lot of the user ideals that Barthes discusses in his essay. The way the that commercial is shot encouraging the viewer to join the world of Pokémon as opposed to making something of their own creation. Even the terminology used to describe playing video games is mirrored in Barthes language when speaker of becoming a user. Player is a very close term to user. In this commercial we also see children lifting up their consoles to play a game that the concept is to bleed both worlds together, losing sight of creation all together. The world of Pokémon is exactly how Barthes describes, “He does not invent the world, he uses it: there are, prepared for him, actions without adventure, without wonder, without joy.” (54). In this viewpoint a player does not create his or her own adventure they are playing a predetermined role placed upon them.
Barthes would label players of video games and extension of users, because they are merely acting a role that was created for them, instead of creating their own adventure. Capitalist culture really takes advantage of preexisting roles our identities in our culture and we slowly lose our creator selves. Capitalist culture also abuses our sense of escapism and wonder to make people always seeking another adventure in a different role. You can see in this following ad how exploits our sense of escapism and nostalgia through the lens of childhood. But that is a blog post for another time.
UMF English Department Blog 