Inside Toyland - 1266 Words

Inside Toyland, written by Christine L. Williams, is a look into toy stores and the race, class, and gender issues. Williams worked about six weeks at two toy stores, Diamond Toys and Toy Warehouse, long enough to be able to detect patterns in store operations and the interactions between the workers and the costumers. She wanted to attempt to describe and analyze the rules that govern giant toy stores. Her main goal was to understand how shopping was socially organized and how it might be transformed to enhance the lives of workers. During the twentieth century, toy stores became bigger and helped suburbanization and deregulation. Specialty toy stores existed but sold mainly to adults, not to children. Men used to be the workers at toy†¦show more content†¦In line at Toy Warehouse, White women will often display there impatience at having to wait in line by rolling their eyes at other White people trying to see a sign of recognition that he service they were receiving was i nferior because most of the cashiers were African-American women. Another example of White privilege was when an African-American manager was training Williams and customers were getting irritated. They elbowed themselves up to the counter and told Williams to call someone else up to the register. When Williams told them that she was the one being trained, the women seemed embarrassed by their presumption. Male privilege was also a problem. At Diamond Toys when men would come into the store to shop, they expected everyone to help them at the drop of a hat. One man got angry because they could not find the upc code for a Barney sippy cup and made Williams call the store director and he told both of them what he thought of store operations. He then threatened to write up a critique and submit it to a business journal for publication unless they sold him the sippy cup. Other men did things that they were told not to, like use the phone and others still would bring in lists and expect t he workers to go get the toys for him like at Toy Warehouse. Inside Toyland tells us about the power in our society by showing us who has the buying power. White middle to upper class White people have the power and that is who shapes what goesShow MoreRelatedInside Toyland by Christine L. Williams Essay1262 Words   |  6 PagesInside Toyland, written by Christine L. Williams, is a look into toy stores and the race, class, and gender issues. 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