Ashley Edman's Post

When I was younger, my idea of playtime was much different than many other girls. While most of the girls my age, including myself, begged their mothers to buy them the new Barbie doll in stores or a new make up kit, I requested some other type of toy as well. I loved playing with my dolls and brushing their hair and I loved experimenting with all the different colored eyeshadows. However, I was always one who would get the most excited when I saw a new shipment of 1:18 toy car models, which were sold as collectibles. I sought to collect them and would always use my free time tracing streets in my room’s carpet and pushing my fancy cars along the floor. When my friends would come over to play, they always went straight to my bucket of dolls and beanie baby toys, but never wanted to take part in my game of pushing the cars around my imaginary streets. My friends told me that cars were for boys; that only boys enjoyed that type of thing and wondered why I took so much interest in these cars. I gradually stopped playing with those cars and they are now hiding away in a box. Although now that I am older and the cars could and probably should be displayed as collectibles someone in the house, I see that as something I was never supposed to like. Social implications such as these can really shape someone’s view on things. For instance, I was thrilled with my toy cars until I realized that, as a girl, I wasn’t supposed to like things like that so I soon transitioned myself to playing with things socially considered to be “girly.”