I was just reading this article over on NPR by Neda Ulaby: Girls' Legos Are A Hit, But Why Do Girls Need Special Legos? (http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2013/06/29/196605763/girls-legos-are-a-hit-but-why-do-girls-need-special-legos0 (http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2013/06/29/196605763/girls-legos-are-a-hit-but-why-do-girls-need-special-legos0)) that discusses how Lego's created the "Legos Friends" line to attract more girls to their products. The Legos Friends differ from the traditional "minifigs" by being more detailed in clothing, hair, faces, etc. but also has less joint movements. The Legos Friends are more in-door centered while the traditional legos are more out-door centered. Legos said they came up with this after doing studies on how boys and girls play with toys -- girls like more details and they like having their toys play indoors settings.
Anyway, this article (and the comments) got me thinking about childhood toys. Being raised female with an older sister, I had only female toys around, and I am trying to remember if I played more "indoor" or "outdoor" and if details mattered to me. From what I recall, I think I played more in the described "boys style" while playing Barbie with my older sister; I did tend to be the male Barbie, which had far less clothing options, and this dinosaur we had (which was Barbie's child in our on-going storyline), and I think I was more interested in driving the Barbie car than playing in the mansions we'd set up. [Though, I did used to make elaborate dollhouses out of shoe boxes, complete with little cardboard furniture and people, I guess that's "indoor" oriented]
So, ladies here, did you grow up with mainly "male" toys and did the lack of details, etc. bother you? Did you make up for the lack of details in other ways, like drawing on faces, etc.? Guys, chime in too. What was your favorite toy? What toy did you really want but your parents wouldn't let you have being it didn't match the gender they thought you were? (I think my favorite toy was either the dinosaur toy or the "skip-it" , though I really wanted a nerf gun but my parents wouldn't let me have one because it was "violent")
I was never allowed to have Nerf guns, probably because they were too violent.; Lucky enough for me, I was often invited to nerf battles by friends! (although I wasn't always the best...)
I actually didn't play with toys much. i was a bit too hyperactive as a child, so I had to play outside. So, I ended up playing on swings and all that nonsense. But, I had a lot of plushies.
I don't know if bikes count, but I desperately wanted a bike. For some reason, my parents thought that the bikes I wanted were too old for me, or not feminine enough. And because I was so stubborn about the bikes I wanted, I just never got one.
EDIT: Oh, Joanna Dark just mentioned GI Joe dolls/action figures. At my elementary school, I used to goof around with the ones they had: I remember we had those little green army men. Me, a male friend, and a destructive female friend would spend our indoor recess times setting them up, and destroying them one way or another.
I played with GI Joe dolls which is pretty much the exact same thing as Barbie. Other then setting, dolls are dolls. I don't know about toys but I really wanted to play the violin and I was never allowed as only girls played in my school and it was considered a girls instrument.
Mainly as a kid though I played video games, specifically Zelda. With my friends I played guns a lot. So I guess I was pretty male that way. Of course, when I was 13 I converted to Wicca with my friend so there is that lol
I hope you don't mind me posting here(since I am unsure about all this). But this is another interesting topic :)
I for some reason don't remember much about this. Anyways, I guess at home I mostly played with my brothers, so that means mostly did boy things, like pretending to be soldiers. Though I did create a game with my younger brother, that I somehow turned into a girl and lived life as one, but of course there ended up being some action in it.
I remember that whenever I would go to my friend's house, I would play with her barbies and stuff. I don't remember much about house, but I used to love playing with her oven toy thing.
I did play with legos, toy guns, and other stuff like that though. But, I have always enjoyed having more details, so I would make up details about whatever I was playing. When I was around 6 or so, my uncle introduced me and my family to Halo, and I have been gaming since then, only recently stopping because I just lost interest, but I mostly played as a female character and created stories for my characters.
Now that I am older, I love to cook, love to make music, pay attention to details, etc. Also cool that I remember my mom always talking about how she wanted a daughter to help her in the kitchen and things, and now I get to learn to play the violin even though my friends and brothers, maybe my dad, think that it is a girl instrument.
Anyways, think I kind of had a mix, but of course preferred girl toys(though I didn't really know there was a difference).
My siblings and I used to play with dolls (my favourite was a one armed Jafar) and make houses for them out of cardboard and other toys. We used to play with hot wheels and lego. I used to play with playmobile to act out the stories in my head. In the summer, we played outside a lot climbing trees, playing war, and stuff. I played a lot of imagination games (think Bridge to Terabithia) where me and whoever I was with would be fighting invisible enemies with "swords" (sticks).
To be honest, I have no clue which of our toys/games were considered for girls or boys. We just played.
Well let's see I played with barbies at my dad's aunt's house, and at my mom's aunt's house I played with my cousins polly pocket toys and had no problem doing so. At my house I had a barbie, a scuba GI Joe and a hockey player. Lot's of action figures from batman and some spiderman ones but I always liked Poison Ivy the most. I guess I had the male equivalent of a doll house. It was this castle thing that had knights made by Hasbro. Other wise I played with Lincoln logs and Legos. Oh and I had lots of stuffed animals. I used to have tons of Beanie Babies because my mom would get me one every time she went away on business.
Over in the pretend play category I tended to do lots of role playing type stuff and I was generally female.
So I had mostly "boy" toys and I had enough fun but I think I would have liked more dolls and stuff. However I remember my aunt making me fun of me for playing with the barbies so I kind of got the message as a kid that I wasn't supposed to play with them. Same thing sort of happened with cousins, as they got older they started questioning me on why I liked playing with "girl" toys.
IDK really? my mom was a home daycare teacher in Cuba so i guess i just played with toys like everyone else did?
Lots of legos and video games for me. Getting me to go outside was a struggle for my parents. I never liked playing catch with my dad, but that has my parents amazed that I turned out to be a juggler.
Quote from: Anna! on June 30, 2013, 10:01:33 AM
Lots of legos and video games for me. Getting me to go outside was a struggle for my parents. I never liked playing catch with my dad, but that has my parents amazed that I turned out to be a juggler.
I did nothing but Lego, Video Games and of course racing around the block with my best friend.
Toy soldiers were by far my favourite. I would line up armies and shoot them down with toy cannons. I could just never understand why girls played with dolls. Boring!!!! but I always wanted a dolls house strangely enough (and still do). Eventually a football took over. I played for hours every night till darkness declared it was full time. What, even transsexuals can be tomboys!
Played with Lego and Knex growing up all the time! Now I'm a Mechanical Engineering major so I can play with big kid Lego and Knex :p
I really don't feel Lego is really "male" because I don't think creativity has a gender. Therefore, I also think "Lego for Girls" seems to be unnecessary.
Playing outside I guess I was more "male" since I did the typical thing where I would pretend a stick is a sword and engage in imaginary sword fights, but hey, that's super fun so whatever.
Reading the other posts reminded me of stuff. I did get a stuffed animal when I was like 10 or so, but acted like I hated it, I guess. And I did play outside a lot, until I was about 12, then I got really into gaming(think that was when I got my laptop).
I suppose I really wasn't much of an "inside" player, because my main playthings were "gadgets." Things like marble-works, and K'Nex, and other things that let you build and create and then watch the cool things that happened. One of my favorite things to do was build big towers of blocks and see how high I could make them, or using the blocks from Jenga like dominoes.
I know what you mean by "details," and by "inside" play, though... that would be like when you're playing, the important parts are what the individual characters are doing, and how they feel, and acting out little life scenarios. And I did do that also... but pretty much only with my female friends.
I guess you could say that I've always been more androgynous... I hated both the uber-masculine "war" play where all they could talk about was tough manly things, and battles, and conflict. My response to that was "what's the point? It's just dumb pointless action." I'd want some more character in it, and I'd always add little character-based storylines to it to make it more interesting. (And I did the same thing when I was building things... I always imagined things like what news stories would be run about it, and I'd give the marbles names as they rolled down the course and root for certain ones.) But I also hated uber-girly play where they'd obsess so damned much over what the characters were wearing, and their hair, and all of that. Because I'd always be asking "what's the point? What are these people DOING?" And I'd want these little details to be relevant to some larger plot where something actually happens to them.
So whatever. I didn't really fit any gender stereotypes when it came to how I played with things. :P
GI JOE, Transformes, Lego, Matchbox/HotWheels... that was most of it. I was not remotely attracted to Barbie or any girl toys for that matter. I think it was more due to the lack of variety in the girls stuff than anything else though. Barbie and similar girl toys, seemed boring and uninteresting.
Quote from: JennX on June 30, 2013, 12:48:20 PM
GI JOE, Transformes, Lego, Matchbox/HotWheels... that was most of it. I was not remotely attracted to Barbie or any girl toys for that matter. I think it was more due to the lack of variety in the girls stuff than anything else though. Barbie and similar girl toys, seemed boring and uninteresting.
I sort of feel the same. There's just so much things to you can do with Lego and HotWheels tracks :D Playing with those totally inspired me! I'm pretty sure I feel this way because I'm a STEM major :P
I played with everything I had. I was very lucky, because in that time and place there were no video games yet, and we had cartoons on TV during specific time only :P. I had a lot of stuffed animals and dolls - I actually remember my mother buying me dolls which I asked for (and she claims now I did not show any feminine traits back in those days). The first scenarios were very indoors based - I replayed fairytales with my stuffed animals and dolls, and I was always the main heroine there - like Snowwhite or Little Red Riding Hood - by the way, I remember being extremely dysphoric at those times, except back in those days when I was 4 or 5 years old I had no idea what were those feelings, which were basically tearing me from inside. Later, I got a lot of different constructors - like nowadays Lego, but much simplier, house building kits, scale cars, toy dishes and accessories (!), toy soldiers and weapons... I enjoyed them all - I could play kitchen with my stuffed animals and later under the influence of some movie I could replay a pirate battle with them, using plastic swords and fighting the biggest bear... It is all kinda confusing and I can see why my parents thought that I overgrew that gender non-conformity phase, which I never did - I only learned to hide it inside.
Yes, later I was playing "war" with boys outside and I have to admit, I enjoyed those games too... Not much running around and making stupid sounds at other boys with my "weapons", but rather infiltrating, scouting and ambushing from the most unimaginable places and positions :). Oh, that was truly a challenge and child-adrenaline... Amd then we engaged each other with plastic swords and rapiers and I turned out to be the best fencer in the whole neighborhood... Even those bigger brutes, who were always bullying me with their physical strength could not hit me with their swords - I was too fast, agile and nimble for them :P
Go figure :)
I always hated sports. The few times i tried playing football i got completely lost. Was always too afraid of getting hit by the ball.
Quote from: Calm/RageMusic on June 30, 2013, 02:16:47 PM
I always hated sports. The few times i tried playing football i got completely lost. Was always too afraid of getting hit by the ball.
Oh...I know that feeling!
I hated 9and still hate) sports. One of the reasons is because americans say "Soccer," and everyone else says football. Something like that just irks me to no end.
I was also never good in sports. If it didn't involve balance and stealth, count me out.
I always wanted to play sports. Basketball, baseball, soccer, football. When I joined the football team in seventh grade, they said something about I should join the cheer squad. When I did play in scrimmage, no one passed the ball to me and they made me the kicker. I never played one down. I did play sports with my friends and that was fun. By HS I internalized this and never attended gym class. But by HS I was punk rock and into the occult and I was into wicca, not a very male religion lol
I'm still a big baseball fan and I want to try and start running marathons. I also do yoga.
The main thing I did when I was younger was write. I skipped two grades in elementary school in vocabulary and reading and always kept a journal, created magazines, wrote mini-novels, and generally lived in the library. And now I write and edit for a living. My favorite books as a kid were Beverly Cleary books: ralph mouse and ramona. I also won a poetry contest.
Here is a good link: http://www.parentingscience.com/girl-toys-and-parenting.html (http://www.parentingscience.com/girl-toys-and-parenting.html)
"That idea is consistent with a recent study of testosterone (T) levels in toddlers. Researchers in Finland tracked T levels in 48 newborns for 6 months, and then tested the children's toy preferences when they were 14 months old. Girls were more likely to play with toy trains if they had exhibited higher T levels as infants. Boys with lower T levels were more likely to play with dolls (Lamminmäki et al 2012). "
I did want to play sports, but I wasn't allowed to when I was little. I did eventually join the track team in high school though. I was on the wrestling team until my dad made me quit. :(
I always wanted to play hockey though, it just always looked so fun, especially all the punching/hitting. :D Now, I want to do kickboxing, maybe one day when I can afford classes. Roller derby looks like fun too.
I played mostly with action figures when I was little (mostly ninja turtles and power rangers). My favorite toy being a Sub Zero action figure from Mortal Kombat. But I also loved my stuffed animals. I would play videogames and do boyish outdoor activities, but I also remember being drawn to playing "house" with other children. I even at one point played with a doll (one of those where you could style its hair). So I kind of had a mix of playing in boyish and girlish ways.
It seemed that my big family of children were frequently building houses and forts from toy blocks, cardboard boxes, snow or dirt. My older sister, who named me Tessa, tells me that she and I played tea party. We were poor and "made do" with close pin soldiers and playing in the vacant lot. People had back yard skating rinks--just ad water in Minnesota where I was a kid. I loved the freedom of skating. The gliding speed and sense of flying over the ice is thrilling still. Wealthy kids had Barbies, while I had real babies (young siblings) to care for. Wealthier kids played with miniature metal cars and "Tonka Trucks. We dug forts and made dirt balls for ammo. We made our own "spooky houses, circuses and a bunch of tag games Like a stereotypical sissy I couldn't care less about organized sports as a kid or now. Grown men running into each other as fast as they can run or skate seems silly at best.
I like to think we were more creative and independent back in the 50-60s. Parents would admonish us to play outside all day long but don't get dirty ha ha ha and, we would play tag games under the summer night street lights. I learned how to bake and cook--especially cookies. My sisters and I would also make "hotpads" on a loom and sell them to neighbors. We knew every kid in the neighborhood and were a bit territorial about "our block." Back in those wonderfully innocent years I still secretly thought I would grow up to be a mom or at least a tom boy and liked playing with other "real" tom boys too. School "play" was most often a game of avoiding the bullies and waiting to be called last for the sports nonsense. I still think it's smarter to duck if someone is throwing a ball or something at me
Ahhh, nostalgia can be such fun.
Tessa
I was only allowed "boys toys". I had no interest in them and preferred to play with the neighbourhood girls - tea parties, playing with dolls, hopscotch, skipping, etc. I did like track and field in high school - I was tall and skinny so I did well - but never played team sports. I started figure skating at 14 and just LOVED it! I asked for a doll each birthday and Christmas from about age 3 until I gave up as a teenager. I never did get one.
I was pretty much only allowed the typical toys for boys like trucks and erector sets, but my parents must have considered stuffed animals to be neutral territory because I had about 20 of them. When I wasn't showing my parents how much of a boy I was by riding my bike all day every day, building forts, and playing stickball, I was playing with those stuffed animals, each with their own name and personality.
Quote from: VenomGaia on June 30, 2013, 02:22:58 PM
Oh...I know that feeling!
I hated 9and still hate) sports. One of the reasons is because americans say "Soccer," and everyone else says football. Something like that just irks me to no end.
I was also never good in sports. If it didn't involve balance and stealth, count me out.
Same here, I still hate sports, the only sports I can kind of play are airsoft, and paintball, but I am mostly in the back away from the battles, and striking from areas people can't see me.
Anyways, my friend who I rarely talk to anymore, is always playing baseball and basketball, I am still afraid of getting hit by the ball even though I can throw good. My brother actually yells at me for jumping out of the way. My other guy friend just joined football(the one with tackling and all that), and I am shocked that someone would actually want to play that.
Another thing that makes it kind of weird, is that I am actually like 5'10 or so, and am pretty big, but I can not play any sports or even think of hurting someone, so one of my nicknames, is "The Gentle Giant". I actually wish I was like 5'4 instead :)
I had 'boy' Lego, as you call it. It was all pits full of skeletons and booby traps and Harry Potter. I also had a Playmobil castle filled with knights and horses, and some native americans with whom they were constantly at war.
But we much preferred making dens in the woods and burning stuff to playing with toys. I guess my parents didn't know much about gender stereotypes.
Oh, yeah, I remember that "being called last to various sports nonsense" :P. I was pretty good at dogdeball btw - very agile and nimble - it was sad when later when I was in the higher classes, dodgeball was out of option. We got pretty much separated on gender basis - girls were doing aerobics, whereas boys had the option for basketball or football (the soccer-one). I had no idea how to play basketball nor any desire to learn, so I was called last :P. At some times, however, I became underestimated asset, because I could actually score :P. So I was often left unattended - nobody seemed to worry about me, so if I got a sudden pass I could simply run a couple of steps and score :P. I always got confused if somebody was interfering while I was dribbling :P.
The same with soccer - if somebody was just running into me, my instinctive response was to turn my back on him and try to get away :P But I was very good as goalkeeper, though I was always a bit afraid that I would miss and the ball will hit me :(.
I have a sister who is close to me in age and parents who didn't like the idea of boy toys and girl toys. So, aside from educational toys (which my parents loved), I played with barbies and my little ponies :) We also had a toy kitchen set I loved - I still love playing in the kitchen, though now I have one that works :)
School was horrible. I like some sports (tennis and skiing mostly), but I always hated soccer, football and other sports like that.
I got Legos and Duplos for my kids (and let's face it, for me too). I bought the bucket-sized packs.
We built the most imaginative worlds and structures. We often tried building towers that would reach the vaulted ceiling, like 12 feet high. And loved it when they came tumbling down!
Two of my kids have studied engineering in college.
I really had A LOT of lego as a kid. I particularly liked Bionicles and technical lego (I liked things that could be remote-controlled in any way, or had some fancy mechanic inside 'doing stuff'), but also 'normal' lego, and sets like Star Wars lego (not too many, 'cause they were more expensive). The lack of detail never bothered me, really. I liked to gather a lot of 'lego accessories' though, like hats, mini guns, lightsabers, swords, shields, or even just household objects, and use those with the figures. I used my lego mostly indoors, except the bionicles, because the parts were so tiny I'd lose them (I have lost tons of lego in our garden, so eventually my parents told me I wasn't allowed to take it outside anymore, or they wouldn't buy me new ones)
When it came to toys, I liked 'building' toys, like meccano, k'nex, lego, building blocks, etc. but also figures. When it came to figures I had only ONE major concern, and that's that they had to have movable joints. (so also knees and elbows!) the rest didn't really matter, as long as it wasn't a pink fairy or something.
I never did such a thing as try to 'touch up' a not-so-detailed face, the face didn't really matter to me. I did, however, make my own 'clothes' for them (usually a slouchy bag of sorts, LOL!). My parents gave me a few barbies with fancy dresses, but I always -no exceptions- threw away the dress and made my own clothes for them. And with these figures (my favourite was a Spiderman figure, I recall, 'cause it was the most 'agile' and 'movable', and heck! That thing didn't even have a normal face!) I made some sort of 'adventurers fellowship', and made them battle enemies together, etc. or 'survive in the wild of our garden' :'D
I also really liked hide-and-seek, climbing trees, and 'playing knight' in the nearby forest with sticks as swords. When I was a kid I was CRAZY of knights and adventures. I was very bad at sports though, and didn't really like any of it. I've been on a THOUSAND sports, including rugby, soccer, chess, fencing, judo, arching, hockey, basketball, rock-climbing and badminton, none of them really stuck. Right now the only sport I practice is skiing (self-taught, non professional or anything. I have pretty good control, but my friend said it looked 'sloppy' :/), and I like that because it's exciting, fast, and has no 'score', you can't win, just have fun (I'm terribly bad at winning, LOL!). I want to pick up indoor mountain climbing again, and try scuba diving as well some day. Ah yeah, and I like lasergaming/paintball as well, but that's not really sport, is it?
Oh and... I always talk too much. As you can see. Lol! Sorry for the ramble! When I start I just cannot stop anymore.
As a kid in the 1970s, I was given a lot of girls' toys, such as Barbie & Cindy dolls, baby dolls, etc. But I almost never played with them. I tried to play with them because I knew I was supposed to like them but I'd soon lose interest because they seemed pretty pointless to me; they didn't do anything. Come to think of it, I used to cut my dolls' hair and dress them up as princes, off to rescue an imaginary princess. Or ruin their faces with extreme 'make-up'.
I was very fortunate to have an elder brother to play with. He was given Scalextric, Top Trumps, guns and Lego to play with... so whenever we would engage in indoor play, it'd generally be in his room, with me trying to beat him at racing those little electric cars around the track. If I built anything out of Lego, it would generally be a house, castle or other building, or perhaps a Formula One car. I simply wasn't interested in the little people that come with the set. We also had an Atari 2600 (the PlayStation of the 1970s, for you young whippersnappers) and we used to challenge each other on that.
However, we grew up in Africa where the weather was hot & sunny for 8 months of the year, so we spent a lot of time playing outdoors. We'd play rugby & tennis together; play imaginative games where we'd pretend to be 'Superman' or 'The Six Million Dollar Man' or 'Star Wars'. Huh, now that I come to think of it, my brother would always presume that I should want to be Lois Lane or Jaime Sommers or Princess Leia... but I wanted to be Superman or Steve Austin or Luke Skywalker! LOL
If I was playing by myself, I'd often be out in the garden digging in the dirt, making dams & rivers using our hosepipe, exploring the open veld across the road from our house, climbing trees, or painting in my room.
My all-time favourite toys, however, were my collection of stuffed Pink Panthers. ;D
We also had an Atari 2600 (the PlayStation of the 1970s, for you young whippersnappers)
Oh my gosh yes! I still have, somewhere in the garage, an original Pong ... but no B&W television to hook it up to.
Growing up the the 1990's, I was in the height of "Girl Power" in the UK. Buffy was on tv, Lara Croft in videogames and the Spice Girls were big in music!
I played with girls toys, like Barbie, the two girl Power Rangers, Little Memraid & other disney princesses. I wasn't alound girls toys when I was wee, except when my gran bought me Ariel after coming home from hospital - which I later cut all her hair off as I was pulling out my own due stress recovering from meningitis. I think this is also when my GID started, I knew I wasn't in the right body, but I couldn't find the words to tell anyone.
I palyed with the girls on the street, they brought their Belle & Sleeping Beauty dolls out and we played on the concrete. I used to get laughed at by the local boys, but being small at the time I didn't really care much. Or I'd go to friends houses to play with Jasmine and Aladdin. I asked for Belle & Jasmine for my Christmas one year but my dad bought me the Beast & Aladdin... I talked with my mum about this recently and she was like : "well yeah you were disappointed cause you didn't want those, but the girl ones..."
I also played hopscotch, Legos & Pokemon when I was younger. I liked all the girly looking Pokemon like Misty's Seadra or Dragonair - the ones with a girly look to them. Alittle later I got into videogames, all I played was Tomb Raider cause I could be a girl! I have fond memories of playing TR at friends houses and stuff, they never could work out why I loved it sooo much - but somewhere inside I knew, he he ;D
In Primary school we had 'toy day' and I brought in my game called Happy Ever After - a disney princess game where the girls had to find their true love or something like that. I hid it away in a bag, not thinking anyone would play with me... but I ended up getting it out and most of the girls in my class had a go - it was fun :) I also brought Kimberly the Power Ranger & John Smith into class... yeah it was so obvious I was a girl - thinking back now like!
I was rubbish at sports at school, I often asked to be on the girls team for everything! In high school the girls and boys were split up and I would ask if I could play with them. Again I was laughed at and always picked last for the teams, it still didn't really dawn on me just why I wanted to be on the girls side - I just hated boys as they were smelly and gross, lol!
I still got dolls up until I was about 11 or so - I loved them! Last few years I went through a regression, going back to my childhood and bought alot of dolls, toys and playsets I didn't have but sooo wanted as a kid! It was magical! I still have the Ariel & polly pockets I had as a kid, they are fab and I look at them all the time :-*
I had a lot of Legos growing up. Some outdoorsy type things - we caught many many lizards - and very few sports-related activities.
I also did a lot of make-believe - I forced my younger brother to play with me, and he got tired of playing female characters long before I did. This was long before I had any conscious sense of gender identity.
Then I started stealing my sisters' Girl's Own Pony-type novels. :/
I grew up during the 90s.
My favorite toys were as follows:
- My Power Rangers figurines. I had a whole set of the original 6 rangers (red, blue, green, black, yellow, pink) and the Megazord. I used to stage elaborate battles in front of the tv every day afterschool.
- My PR morphers. I had two of those Happy Meal morpher toys, or at least I think they were from Happy Meals. I had one for the black ranger (mastodon) and one for the red (t-rex). My childhood from ages 7-12 was pretty much all about PR.
- New Kids on the Block Barbies. We had a lot of Barbies, thanks to my younger sister being the ultimate girly girl. Our mom bought us some NKOTB dolls at a yard sale and we loved those things. I loved them because they could take a beating and could survive crazy stuff like being thrown from a moving bicycle, going "skiing" by being hitched to our german shephard's collar, and pretend sky-diving from the top of our dresser. I even rigged up a harness for Jonathan so he could "repel" down the side of the dresser after "saving" some Treasure Trolls from an evil villain (played by Donnie wearing a cotton beard and construction paper top hat).
- Bikes. Apart from my first bike, I always had boys bikes. I rode GT bikes and did BMX and stunt riding from the ages of 6-13. I was pretty ballsy despite being seen as a fat girl. (well, I did get a girls mountain bike but it was a Christmas gift...)
- 4 Wheelers. I grew up in a rural area and 4 wheelers were definitely a thing. It wasn't a strictly boy thing, but a lot of people thought that I may have loved mine a little too much. I loved off-roading, mudding, and doing stunts on my banged up gray Timberwolf and later on the hideous yellow scrapheap that our neighbors kept at our place.
Even though I was a girl...I can look back now and see that I definitely played more like a boy. That's not to say that I didn't play house, like dolls, or other girl stuff too. But my favorite stuff was the boy stuff.
Quote from: Erik Ezrin on July 01, 2013, 06:37:47 AM
I really had A LOT of lego as a kid. I particularly liked Bionicles and technical lego (I liked things that could be remote-controlled in any way, or had some fancy mechanic inside 'doing stuff'), but also 'normal' lego, and sets like Star Wars lego (not too many, 'cause they were more expensive). The lack of detail never bothered me, really. I liked to gather a lot of 'lego accessories' though, like hats, mini guns, lightsabers, swords, shields, or even just household objects, and use those with the figures. I used my lego mostly indoors, except the bionicles, because the parts were so tiny I'd lose them (I have lost tons of lego in our garden, so eventually my parents told me I wasn't allowed to take it outside anymore, or they wouldn't buy me new ones)
When it came to toys, I liked 'building' toys, like meccano, k'nex, lego, building blocks, etc. but also figures. When it came to figures I had only ONE major concern, and that's that they had to have movable joints. (so also knees and elbows!) the rest didn't really matter, as long as it wasn't a pink fairy or something.
I never did such a thing as try to 'touch up' a not-so-detailed face, the face didn't really matter to me. I did, however, make my own 'clothes' for them (usually a slouchy bag of sorts, LOL!). My parents gave me a few barbies with fancy dresses, but I always -no exceptions- threw away the dress and made my own clothes for them. And with these figures (my favourite was a Spiderman figure, I recall, 'cause it was the most 'agile' and 'movable', and heck! That thing didn't even have a normal face!) I made some sort of 'adventurers fellowship', and made them battle enemies together, etc. or 'survive in the wild of our garden' :'D
I also really liked hide-and-seek, climbing trees, and 'playing knight' in the nearby forest with sticks as swords. When I was a kid I was CRAZY of knights and adventures. I was very bad at sports though, and didn't really like any of it. I've been on a THOUSAND sports, including rugby, soccer, chess, fencing, judo, arching, hockey, basketball, rock-climbing and badminton, none of them really stuck. Right now the only sport I practice is skiing (self-taught, non professional or anything. I have pretty good control, but my friend said it looked 'sloppy' :/), and I like that because it's exciting, fast, and has no 'score', you can't win, just have fun (I'm terribly bad at winning, LOL!). I want to pick up indoor mountain climbing again, and try scuba diving as well some day. Ah yeah, and I like lasergaming/paintball as well, but that's not really sport, is it?
Oh and... I always talk too much. As you can see. Lol! Sorry for the ramble! When I start I just cannot stop anymore.
This post reminded me of stuff. I did take TaeKwonDo for a while, but ended up quitting mostly because I really don't like hurting people. Though in the future I would like to try surfing.. even though I can't swim and am very afraid of water :)
About 6 months ago I decided to quit riding ATVs, used to go Glamis with my dad and brothers a few times every year, but I really dislike the heat, sand, bathrooms being a mile or so away, and am actually afraid of riding those. Probably since I somehow kept ending up stalling on very steep dunes(very scary when you realize that you are probably going to end up at the bottom with your ATV on top of you).
Bionicles, I played with those a lot as well, but ended up playing as the peace keeper type of character while my brother was trying to cause a war. Also about the movable part things, I hated toys that couldn't move.
Also used to play with sticks a lot, I guess like the Narnia books. But I wonder how I ended up as a slave to my younger brother and his friends... Guess that ended with me just walking away as they were throwing rocks and sticks at me.
Would continue, but don't want to end up writing a book.
It is not too late to play with the toys you might have wanted as a kid. To paraphrase "Miss Bungle," I am doing what I can to recover some of my lost girlhood.
Quote from: FTMDiaries on July 01, 2013, 10:45:06 AM
However, we grew up in Africa where the weather was hot & sunny for 8 months of the year, so we spent a lot of time playing outdoors. We'd play rugby & tennis together; play imaginative games where we'd pretend to be 'Superman' or 'The Six Million Dollar Man' or 'Star Wars'. Huh, now that I come to think of it, my brother would always presume that I should want to be Lois Lane or Jaime Sommers or Princess Leia... but I wanted to be Superman or Steve Austin or Luke Skywalker! LOL
If I was playing by myself, I'd often be out in the garden digging in the dirt, making dams & rivers using our hosepipe, exploring the open veld across the road from our house, climbing trees, or painting in my room.
My all-time favourite toys, however, were my collection of stuffed Pink Panthers. ;D
Omg, I love the Pink Panther :)
I also remember spending more time playing with other kids than with toys (besides Barbie with my sister). I'd play a lot of Cops and Robbers or Cowboys and Indians with the kids on the same block as me. I was always a male character in those games. I only really remember pretending to be a girl in games if it was an indoor, chore related game; like I'd pretend to be Cinderella while mopping the floor or a nanny when I was babysitting. But I guess that makes sense because that falls in line with the normative gender roles that I was used to seeing and that Disney portrayed at the time.
I was pretty outdoorsy...I built a tree fort with my neighborhood friends, we rode our bikes all over the place, and I was really into rollerblading (REALLY, REALLY into it).
I also was obsessed with a science kit that I had...standard microscope, slides, Petri dishes... I would collect random things and categorize it based on whatever weird system I made up.
But, I also played a lot of Barbie. I was an only child, so I had a pretty specific manner of playing with my Barbies...there was a storyline, and anyone who played with me would have to adhere to the storyline. Some Barbies would die (get their heads torn off by the dog), and even though some were repairable...they were not to be played with ever again (funerals and everything).
I don't think it has much to do with gender (personally). Later in life, I would obtain various degrees in science and write tons of short stories. I gave up on the rollerblading though...and, I think I'd break myself if I had to build a fort or ride a bike. So, it seems more to me like collecting things was an outlet for what would become a lifetime pursuit in science...my Barbie saga would later turn into a more adult passion of writing.
I didn't get much from my sisters' Barbies. The dangerous toy oven with a light bulb for a heater, some. My mom had me use the real oven and I did cook meals. I had the bikes, chemistry sets, those little green Army men, Lionel trains, Tonka trucks, etc. the other boys had and I enjoyed those. My cousin and I did explosive sadistic chemistry experiments involving other toys available in the sandbox as well. There was an old SNL episode of the actors playing kids in an unattended backyard I cannot seem to Google that matches the description with the fire in the sandbox scene. Yes, I like the Pink Panther cartoon and Peter Sellers' Inspector Jacques Clouseau. Steve Martin's version was a real joke.
Joelene
Hmm, Tonka trucks, of all varieties, green army men, (which my sister cut all their heads off one day), bikes, trikes, mini bikes, etc., ropes, (long stories there) making a circus out of farm equipment after a tornado got through with them, horses, I guess it was outdoor stuff and I did make a fort. The outdoor part may be because I wasn't really allowed indoors as a rule.
My sisters and I each got a Barbie one year. My mom glued their shoes on so they wouldn't get lost. I never saw that Barbie again and my sister has no recollection of me ever playing with it. I know she and my other sister played with them.
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I also played with boys toys too (lego and hot wheels)
When I was at my Mom's house it was the girl toys (I loved to play pretend games and brush/style their hair) and when I was at my Dad's house it was the boy toys. My Dad (or was it my step-mom?) had stricter rules on what boys did and what girls did. Not exactly rules, per se, but encouragement through what toys were purchased for me and having me play with my brother rather than my sister.
Ahhhh! Evil troll demons! Kill them before they lay eggs. Don't you know that whatever looks like a toy troll is a troll? Seriously i think they're kind of creepy.
I always played with Legos and toy cars. But most of the time i played video games on my computer or on my brother's old Nintendo 64 or my cousin's old Super Nintendo or on my brother's PS One.
Quote from: ZootAllures! on September 02, 2013, 05:10:37 AM
Ahhhh! Evil troll demons! Kill them before they lay eggs. Don't you know that whatever looks like a toy troll is a troll? Seriously i think they're kind of creepy.
I always played with Legos and toy cars. But most of the time i played video games on my computer or on my brother's old Nintendo 64 or my cousin's old Super Nintendo or on my brother's PS One.
I loved my trolls, especially the ones with the jeweled bellies. Kinda wish I still had them :icon_redface:
i always made my legos shoot each other and occasionally filmed a few stop-motion scenes later on (man sitting on a park bench, car runs him over and stuff like that, i always played out rather violent scenes with them, even though i am not a violent person)
Outside I liked to explore. We had woods near the house that were always filled with adventure for a little kid.
Inside it was legos and games, plus Lincoln Logs! Loved building houses with them!
I had star wars toys, too, but mostly I explored the universe with the star ships and created weird plot twists with the figurines.
Personally I don't really belive in boy/girl toys I belive it just some part of our genderoles that if more guys are expected or learn how to play soccer than girls then sure more guys are going to like playing soccer. now when we look at it soccer become a kinda unisex thing and alot of girls are also enjoying the sport.
there have also been made some test where usual kindergardens been raisen there kids gender neutral for a week, and sure not all girls wanted to play outside and not all guys wanted to dress up, but alot of guys wanted to and alot of girls also liked playing outside.
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to say what I played I mostly played with my brothers dinosaurs and when I got older I played pokemon. I had a mix of male/female considered toy or hobby I liked soccer but I was also creative which im still am.
I didn't play with a lot of toys really. My parents were anti-popular toys anyway and prefered educational stuff. We had tons of lego and playmobil and built stuff or played stories with them. I also spent a lot of the time in our garden, swinging or climbing on the installation or in trees and playing make believe ( I had really complicated stories and if my brother bored me I'd ditch him and play alone oops). And reading, all the time and everywhere and everything. I loved the stories, fantasy and science fiction. Basically adventure stuff.
In school I had this friend I ran around the playground with playing Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings or Alladin with ( I was totally snape, legolas and the genie!) She played male characters as well so I didn't really care, people always wanted to join is because we were awesome at make believe ( I started doing theatre when I was 8 too, and I wrote stories... make believe is still my hobby). We also had this cool tree where we digged and found 'fossiles' and 'treasures'.
I have never really liked sports but that's meanly because I'm just not competitive, I just don't get wanting to win, in boardgames I lose on purpose if it annoys other people they don't win :p
Me and my brother started playing barbiedolls at a later time, I had guys that were awesome and we cut the dolls hair and made stupid movies were a cow ate the barbie :p
Last year I cleaned out old toys and found all the girlbarbies in guyclothes and vice versa... pretty weird
I had Tonka trucks and my sister had dolls, and the thing is we both spent 80% of our time climbing trees and playing tag.
We actually spent a lot of time in a book too.
I feel sad for today's kids, too many doodads, and not enough playing.
Quote from: Natkat on September 02, 2013, 06:25:52 AMPersonally I don't really belive in boy/girl toys I belive it just some part of our genderoles
Yeah, there are a few books out there (my favorite one is
Delusions of Gender) that pretty neatly debunk a lot of these studies since many, if not most, of them are conducted by dishonest researchers with an agenda.
As for me, personally, I had a pretty "nonbinary" play style I guess you could say, lol. I liked Barbies and model rockets. I played the crap out of Legos, and preferred to not play house, but rather "Ronbinson Crusoe" with my figures. I spent most of the time picking out places to set up base when outside, and building bases when inside. My friend's Jurassic Park dinosaur figures were some of my all-time favorites, alongside Digimon and Beast Wars figures. Human-shaped toys didn't do much for me unless I was playing with someone else who insisted. When we did roleplaying, I was always an animal character, or at least someone that could turn into one. Back then, being non-human was the closest thing I could think of to validate who I felt like I was on the inside. Now I know better. :P
Quote from: Lo on September 02, 2013, 11:15:24 AM
Yeah, there are a few books out there (my favorite one is Delusions of Gender) that pretty neatly debunk a lot of these studies since many, if not most, of them are conducted by dishonest researchers with an agenda.
As for me, personally, I had a pretty "nonbinary" play style I guess you could say, lol. I liked Barbies and model rockets. I played the crap out of Legos, and preferred to not play house, but rather "Ronbinson Crusoe" with my figures. I spent most of the time picking out places to set up base when outside, and building bases when inside. My friend's Jurassic Park dinosaur figures were some of my all-time favorites, alongside Digimon and Beast Wars figures. Human-shaped toys didn't do much for me unless I was playing with someone else who insisted. When we did roleplaying, I was always an animal character, or at least someone that could turn into one. Back then, being non-human was the closest thing I could think of to validate who I felt like I was on the inside. Now I know better. :P
Oh yeah, I totally forgot I was always really into dinosaurs, I had a subscription to a dinosaur magazine and had all of these dinosaur toys from the Paleontology museum and the zoo and I loved going to the dinosaur part of the zoo.
I had a cabbage patch kid, who I loved dearly. There is an infamous family home movie of me, circa age four, explaining and demonstrating how I breastfeed him. I was a mainstay at the house center in Kindergarten.
Quote from: Glitterfly on September 02, 2013, 11:10:11 PM
Hey I was interested in dinos too, for like a week or two xD But I think it was only because of an exhibition we went to :)
The Magazine had a little something to keep you going. Each issue would come with one peice of a "fossil" so to get the whole dinosaur you'd have to get every issue. Tricks that companies use to hook kids....smh
Oh boy, diosaurs. Yeah, for a bit! Like every other kid! The ones in museums are so much cooler.
I remembered something else. There were these stuffed animals I absolutely had to have in bed with me until I was in high school I think. A koala, some cats ...
Oh yeah dinosaurs! We used to go to Drumheller in the summer to see the Tyrrell Museum. We also got those sand things where you can pretend to dig up dinosaurs.
Not a toy, but I was also the kid who got up three hours early, so I could read for three hours before I had to get ready for school.
Oh yeah, I used to 'fight' with sticks a lot. Always when in a forest I had to search the perfect "sword", lol. I was never good at it though, but I liked to dream I was.
I also loved climbing onto things. Trees, roofs (yes, roofs), small walls, everything, lol. I aspired to be the next Ezio! XD
Also fantasy-based roleplays and such, like "a hero's journey" kind 'o thing. And now I'm here LARP-ing... not much has changed, lol! :P
And yeah, dino's are awesome! Now I shifted to dragons, which are basically dino's, but with more fantasy and creativity! :D
I dreamed of having a treehouse too! Me, my dad and a friend worked on making one for hours, but then the next day the bullies destroyed it. (we didn't have a tree in our garden, so had to use a tree in a nearby patch of greenery) I and a friend from the neighbourhood dreamed of making our own 'fort' and then totally own the bullies from over there, lol. We even made plans -like little kids do- but obviously never got through with it.
Quote from: Erik Ezrin on September 03, 2013, 01:18:31 PM
Oh yeah, I used to 'fight' with sticks a lot. Always when in a forest I had to search the perfect "sword", lol. I was never good at it though, but I liked to dream I was.
I also loved climbing onto things. Trees, roofs (yes, roofs), small walls, everything, lol. I aspired to be the next Ezio! XD
Also fantasy-based roleplays and such, like "a hero's journey" kind 'o thing. And now I'm here LARP-ing... not much has changed, lol! :P
And yeah, dino's are awesome! Now I shifted to dragons, which are basically dino's, but with more fantasy and creativity! :D
I dreamed of having a treehouse too! Me, my dad and a friend worked on making one for hours, but then the next day the bullies destroyed it. (we didn't have a tree in our garden, so had to use a tree in a nearby patch of greenery) I and a friend from the neighbourhood dreamed of making our own 'fort' and then totally own the bullies from over there, lol. We even made plans -like little kids do- but obviously never got through with it.
I think we would have played well together as kids.
Lets see, I loooved legos, my cousins barbies and my little ponies. My sister was always having to steal back her she-ra and this one doll, I can't remember what she was called, something like starbright. Then, I discovered video games and became allergic to the sun.
Quote from: Glitterfly on September 03, 2013, 09:43:51 AM
Did you have a caterpillar? ^^ I think everyone had a caterpillar :) I had a few bears but most of my stuffies weren't bears like some people, I had such a versatile collection xD Seals and dolphins and turtles and snakes and bears and dogs and foxes and mouses and hedgehogs and and...
No, no caterpillar. I would have loved a hedgehog! I had Bill the Cat and Opus, though. Garfield was another favorite for cartoons.
Quote from: Glitterfly on September 03, 2013, 09:43:51 AM
Did you have a caterpillar? ^^ I think everyone had a caterpillar :) I had a few bears but most of my stuffies weren't bears like some people, I had such a versatile collection xD Seals and dolphins and turtles and snakes and bears and dogs and foxes and mouses and hedgehogs and and...
I can honestly say I don't know a single person who has or has had a caterpillar that I know of.
I did. A rainbow caterpillar.
Quote from: Miss Bungle on September 03, 2013, 02:55:43 PM
Are you thinking of Rainbow Brite?
Yes! Haha well I was close on remembering her name.
Legos all the way
I even had several of those plastic drawer sets usually used by people to hold small screws and stuff to store them. I would meticulously keep blocks of the same color and size in their specific drawers. Pirate legos - forest legos - race tracks legos - I loved all of it.
My best memories of entertaining myself at home as a kid all involve legos. I was lucky enough to have a playroom growing up, and it was completely filled with stuff I built. I was a bit obsessed, and I would construct elaborate stories as I built each set. Sometimes I would follow directions, but really I would mostly build them out as I wanted. I liked Kinex too.
When I moved out my mother sold all of the drawer sets with dismantled parts to a kid in the neighborhood as I had abandoned them in my teenage years, so I hope he got a fraction of the same enjoyment I did out of them.
I also really liked Pogs (remember those?), and I even participated in Pog competitions. ( I was not very good) Collecting the best slammers and new pogs was a lot of fun.
I used to play with action figure but female ones, nobody ever thought anything of it, I still have a few of the female action figures as momentos, even now thinking about it they were kinda cool, Also played with toy guns of course, ive always been a gun nut, always will. That's why even now I got a few real ones that are pretty cool:) oh and Legos are the ish!
I always played with hyper-masculine GI Joes and Transformers and what not (I'm aging myself I know). I genuinely liked them, plus they added to the illusion I had created to make my parents not suspect I was "gay" or "weird" or "not right in the head". I wanted to play with Barbie and accessorize her so, but you just didn't do that back then, and certainly not in my household.
Quote from: Christine Eryn on September 05, 2013, 10:45:34 AM
I always played with hyper-masculine GI Joes and Transformers and what not (I'm aging myself I know). I genuinely liked them, plus they added to the illusion I had created to make my parents not suspect I was "gay" or "weird" or "not right in the head". I wanted to play with Barbie and accessorize her so, but you just didn't do that back then, and certainly not in my household.
I almost forgot about transformers! My favorites where the ones that changed into jets. But, then, everyone probably wishes they could fly away sometimes.
I think it's all a load of crap tbh.
Quote from: FreshGuy on September 05, 2013, 06:54:06 PM
I think it's all a load of crap tbh.
That's not really an answer to the question, tbh
I loved (and still do love) legos. Back when I was about six or seven, it was lego trains in particular. Also had every single Harry Potter lego set from the first two movies. Up until middle school, I collected Star Wars and Transformers action figures. Collected being the key word here, I stopped playing with my toys so much, and just started having them for display. Loved sewing my whole life. Made all kinds of little dolls, animals, pillows, etc. in fact, that's my job now, I sew tents. I want to finish college and do something that requires more creativity than following tent diagrams though, like being an engineer or an architect.
Like alot of people here, G.I Joes and various other things, and later on Power Rangers.
I did a lot of pretend stuff, and don't recall ever being into girl toys but suppose that is a stereotype anyways. I do remember pretending to have some of my Male G.I Joes turning into the female G.I Joes..I'll admit it I was sort of an odd kid.
But I did like to pretend to be the green ranger....still have the flute dagger some where hehe.