Zac Efron brushing Barbie's hair? Probably.

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A few days ago, I was walking through Target and I so happened to walk into the kid section where they have wall after wall of toys. What I came across, was not simply a giant Darth LEGO, but I noticed signs that I never have before. Or at least, not payed attention to. I stopped dead in my tracks and just stood facing the rows of toys... and I started to be able to read these isles. There was a DISTINCT divide between what were obviously (or maybe not so obviously to he/she NOT in CSCL 1001) the "boy isles" and the "girl isles". car tracks swirled across the boys floor while the girl isles had bouquets of flowers stamped on their floor. I also notices that the walls behind where all the toys were hanging, in the boys isles were blue, and behind the girls' toys, the walls were pink. LEGO's were only found in the boys, while Barbie could only be found in the girls. It became entirely clear to me why there is such a distinct line between boys and girls when they are children. The kids, or "subjects" if you will, are taught at a young age that in their culture THIS is what it means to be a little boy, and if you want to be the RIGHT kind of little girl, you play with THESE toys in the pink isles. However, of course it's not that obvious...because of the culture we are surrounded by, and grow up in, as young girl and her friend walk through the isles of Target, they are automatically drawn into the pink isles because it is what they are programmed to be drawn to. Even down to the objects themselves, you won't see two little girls boxing each other on the packaging of the giant Hulk hands, nor will you see little boys happily brushing through Barbie's hair on another packaging. Once you open your eyes to it, it becomes SO obvious how media and our culture influence who we are. How creepy is that? Almost as creepy as when I Googled "brushing Barbie's hair" and a picture of Zac Efron showed up. yikes.