Kirsten D. sent us this link to a series of Playmobil families. She notes how the families are all racially marked (using racial categories like “Asian” and ”African” instead of nationality categories like “Japanese” and “Somalian”). The “Mediterranean/Hispanic” category also points to the social construction of race and the way in which social construction varies across cultures (Playmobil are made in Germany).
They families are also racially homogeneous. In the world of Playmobil (at least how it is sold, though not necessarily how it is played with) there are no interracial families and, therefore, no bi- or multi-racial people. In this way the toys reify racial categories and naturalize racial matching in relationships.
African/African American Family:
Mediterranean/Hispanic Family:
Asian Family:
Native American Family:
Notice also that all of the families are in contemporary clothes except for the Native American family. Ethnicized groups are often represented in “native” costume, but this is especially true for American Indians (at least in the U.S.). It is as if, in the popular imagination, American Indians are extinct; as if there are no American Indians alive today walking around in Nikes (there are).
So, in the world of Playmobil, American Indians are, like Romans, a historical artifact:
Also, because it warrants pointing out, all the female and male children all have gender stereotypical toys.
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And Romans are way paler than “Mediterraneans”. Interesting…
Oh, I’ve only just noticed… Asian Daddy has a camera round his neck, and Asian Mum has (I suppose) a guidebook. Which is rather playing into the European stereotype of the Japanese tourist.
I’ve often thought the Mediterranean/Hispanic distinction was interesting. As a European, it would never have occurred to me (until I was told) that people of Hispanic descent are not considered “white” in America. But on the other hand, to my eye the Playmobil “Romans” look terribly pallid for Italians. (Perhaps they’re Roman citizens of non-Italian heritage, of course. But I doubt the toy designer had that in mind.)
Looks like Playmobil thinks that Native Americans walk around in regalia all the time…so untrue. And why is everyone but the Native folks on green grass? Native Americans only exist in regalia and in the desert wtf??!! Also, the Native American boy doe not have shoes on…why? WHY! These toys are so messed up.
All true, but remember that there’s nothing stopping you from mixing and matching at home… give the Roman girl’s doll to the African-American boy, match up a couple of the moms, attach the baby carrier from the Native American set to the back of the Asian dad…. My kid would make any and all of these modifications to the catalog norm, and then mix them in with the pirates and aliens and random Polly Pockets… It’s always been our practice to break up the “sets” as quickly as possible.
I notice Black Dad also appears to be popping his collar.
@Penny - I agree that there is nothing stopping us from mixing and matching. However, the initial sets and imagery are reinforcing societal stereotypes. Give me toys that do not reify the dominant paradigm.
nitpicking - romans in nikes are as common as native americans in nikes.
which brings the question why do we have such a clear distinctions between the use of the term ‘romans’ as wcitizens of the ancient roman empirew, and its use as winhabitants of the modern city of rome’, but we don’t have a matching distinction for native americans.
“However, the initial sets and imagery are reinforcing societal stereotypes.” Only if kids *see* the original imagery or see the toys in sets–and they don’t have to. My kid never did, because the bin was handed down from friends’ kids. The toys themselves have way more potential (the clothes/hair/accessories are all interchangeable, for example; and all the people have flat feet, unlike Barbies, allowing more positioning options).
Happens I just cleaned up the room where most of the playmobil stuff lands… there weren’t many obvious “family” groupings, but the purple magician’s costume was on a pale blond person with curves, who was near a darker-skinned person with light grey hair wearing some kind of forest costume with a Star Trek phaser in hand… and the biker dude (long red hair and beard, plaid shirt) was with them, using a crutch. There was also a random non-playmobil vampire and alligator in the mix–and some kinda ballerina, too. And lots of legos. Now they’re back in the bin jumbled with heaven knows what, awaiting the next exciting installment. Not a dominant paradigm in sight.
Also, one of the black kids has a basketball.
Though I never liked playmobil i feel like having to defend them.
The Native American family, as you could have guessed, belongs to a Wild-west-Scenario (There’s also a wild west family counterpart http://www.playmobil.de/on/demandware.store/Sites-DE-Site/de_DE/Product-Show?pid=3365-A&cgid= )
Did you ever ever see toys of Native Americans with nikes on?
I am black and I grew up in Germany. Therefore I had many opportunities to see how some people here think about race. I think it’s not unlikely that, by including these racially marked families, playmobil thinks that they are being open minded and politically correct. So to show how open minded they are they do not only include “white” families, but also families of different races. They just fail to see how stupid their stereotypes are.
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