the last picture gave me a real good chuckle :-D

I think I love you. :D

I see the reasoning behind the critique as written, but my first (split-second) impression was completely different. Take away the head-palming boy and the bells, and you have a girl who likes to play with not only barbie, but also transformers and legos. Small things make all the difference!

That's funny. Although I hardly think a marriage to a humanoid-semi truck robot could be considered heteronormative... :)

This is fabulous.

Maybe there is another scenario at play here:

Barbie is marrying raggedy ann ( she is standing under the bells). The girl is using Optimums to stop this unholy matrimony. The boy is angry because he doesn’t think the marriage should be stop.

In conclusion, a) the girl does not support same sex marriage, b) the boy does, c) only optimums could/would have enough courage to defend the sanctity of marriage.
( I think I just wrote the screen play for Transformers 3: Revenge of the Gays)

I'm with Jason, on seeing this my initial reaction was that it was demonstrative of a progressive ad, showing a girl playing with "boys" toys. I remember when I was little (as a female) I had barbies and batman action figures and played with them together, though I never staged a wedding or had them dating.

Upon inspection though I agree that the angry boy in the background changes the message, as it indicates that HE is the owner of the optimus prime toy and the girl is usurping his boy toys with her girliness. I would have felt better about the ad if they had no problem showing a girl playing with a robot toy that was hers. And geez, the tiara and the tutu? A bit much.

Love the images with speech bubbles, made me laugh.

How do you know the Barbie isn't the boys, and the transformer the girl's?

My boyfriend tells me that his He-Man went on dates with his sisters' Barbies, and he didn't have a problem with it as far as I know. Ken is such a yuppie tool; it makes sense that Barbie would prefer He-Man, who was always very caring towards his sister She-Ra when they had crossover episodes. Who knows what Ken's family background was like?

I also saw the girl playing happily with the Transformer and the Barbie at first, before I noticed the appalled boy in the background.

Maybe the boy is shouting, "Mom! Dad! How come sis gets to play with both female- and male-coded toys, clothes, and accessories, whereas if I were to venture outside of exclusionary masculine norms, your parenting would be criticized and my friends would call my sexual preferences into question before I'm even old enough to have seriously considered or explored them?"

And the girl is saying, "Chill, bro; work for gender equality when you grow up so boys won't have to put up with that stuff as much. Now go get your camo on and beat up Jimmy so he won't make fun of you when I let you wear my tiara later."

Hard to tell from a still photo, though.

I want to add to the chorus. My immediate thought was how awesome it was to see the girl playing with both kinds of toys. Honestly, I didn't even notice the boy in the background at first - when I did see the second child I thought it was another girl!

No, no, no. Barbie belongs to the boy and he is having her marry Raggedy Ann. He went off to get his Weebles, because they're the ones who know that actual Handfasting ceremony. Meanwhile, little sister stomps in with Optimus, who is a giant killer robot and just wants to smash Lego sculpture. Boy is sad that Barbie's big day is ruined.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAA.... *chokes on self... dies laughing*

Maybe Optimus is Barbies daddy 'giving her away' to Raggedy Ann?

This makes my day. Thank you, Lisa.

To be fair, who WOULDN'T want to marry Optimus Prime? <3 <3 <3

;)

LOL.

Maybe the little girl just got home from a ballet recital which her parents made her perform in, and was too excited to play with her toys to change out of her costume. Here, when we catch up to her, she had donned a crown to show that she is the ruler of the toy gods, and dictates all that goes on in Toyland. Barbie is attending a wedding between Lego Raggedy Ann and Lego Raggedy Andy, but OH WAIT -- this tiny township has been invaded by evil, killer car-robots who have come to wreak havoc on this ceremony and destroy everything in their paths. Churches will crumble, the sky will rain blood, and the streets will be lined with the separated bodies of little Lego people.

And the boy is upset because he spent all morning setting up that Lego church.

Not that this scenario reflects my family history or anything...

U are all ridiculous it is just an ad why r u reading so much into everything it is so stupid there r a million more things in the world to worry about damn!

AAAAAH!

I was just thinking, "No, he's upset because Optimus' heart belongs to Bumblebee!" Then I scrolled down and there, you thought the same thing, with the exact same gay couple!

If this is all you have to do with you time, complaining when an advertisement is "normal", then you have too much time on your hands.

It is an advertisers job to create an ad that the MAJORITY of people wish to look at so they notice the items the ad is trying to sell. I don't think they are spending any time thinking of creating gender socialization propaganda.

So..

White girl on the cover? Check. White fits the demographic of MOST Americans.
Is she wearing pink? Check. MOST girls of her age like pink.
Is she wearing a tiara? Check. MANY little girls like to wear tiaras
Is she wearing a tutu? Check. MOST little girls like to play dress up.
Is the tutu pink? Check. Again MANY little girls like pink.
Is she smiling? Check. People like to see ads where the subject smiles. (It helps to sell the product if the subject seems to enjoy it.)
Is she playing with Barbie? Check. Once again little girls like Barbies.
Is there a little boy in the image? Check. Fact: little boys exist. Many families have them. He wont try to take over the world for make war on someone for a number of years.
Is he doing one of the following: making a mess, eating something or expressing anger? Check. We all do these, even you.
Together they make the ad unique and interesting...All to sell more of their products.

I am sorry if such a concept, of how advertising works, does not play into your ideas of what civilization should look like. Maybe if we spent less time teaching our college students "ethnic" studies, and diversity, we would get back to producing students that take courses that impart actual knowledge and who graduate with skills that can benefit society.

Meh. The first one had me dying of laughter.

The second and third...well, christianity is far from being the only oppressive, misogynist religion out there. Many other groups can fit that description quite well.

That's a transgirl and a little cisgendered feminist boy who's flipping out that the transgirl is playing into heteronormative gender stereotypes and the transgirl is like all laughing at him and "yo, whatevs--privilege much? Go educate yourself" Or something.

Loved it! and enjoyed the comments too :D

I loved this post! Well done, Monica. Thanks for writing this, and thanks to Lisa for sharing it.

Anytime there are white people in an ad does that mean they are being racist? Also if the girl was blurred in the background it may be argued that the girl is not seen as a person by blurring her. Not everything has a hidden social agenda behind it

Jesus taught radical views on marriage for the time period! He spoke against the extremely slanted male/ female roles in marriage by saying that a husband should actually *gasp* LOVE his wife (enough to give his life for her), and that a wife should respect her husband. What is so wrong with that?   Nowhere does is say anything about slavery!