xmca@weber.ucsd.edu writes:
>
>
>>- this pokemon thing is pretty much a white kids play, yes?
>>is it as pervasive in low-income schools/families? with
>african-americans,
>>hispanics?
>>
>
>
>There is absolutely no evidence that his is the case, starting with the
>fact
>that it's Japanese in origin.
well yes, but here in the grandiosity of "we are alone in the world"
America,
the predominance of white middle class kids engaged in pokemon indicates
something, to me,
about relations of "markets" that might link japanese & white america,
but again, what about african-american and hispanic kids? poor kids?
>
>On the other hand, unlike lunch boxes, barbie/ken and all the other
>trappings of white middle class childhood, Pokemon represents something
>of a
>tertiary artefact and, in this sense, still quite unique in the complexity
>of the system for the age group it appeals to (primarily pre-teens by all
>evidence I have seen).
and i guess i am still not seeing this, again, as a 'market-based' play,
it appeals to japanese and white american kids...?
>
>Another quality to consider, that differentiates it from such homo-erotic
>fantasying play with barbie and ken, as has been described here in terms
>of
>a subversion of parent's expectations, Pokemon provides a bridge between
>stranger kids on a level that is also quite unexpected but fully within
>the
>design itself. I highly doubt that too many children meeting each other
>with their barbie and ken dolls would say, "Hey you want to play queer
>with
>our dolls?" or "Can my barbie feel up yours?" But who knows, maybe
>Barbie's come out of the closet and soon they will in fact market
>"Bull-Dyke
>Barbie" complete with leather SM trappings. I don't know, maybe they
>already have.
ouch. isn't the very idea that one cannot queer the pokemon identity
something to indicate
the inherent assumptions of what makes "good" "clean" "fun" for kids?
>
>Anything that can be marketed will be marketed in our society but that
>doesn't explain why kids go for it or have much at all to do with the
>special quality of Pokemon artefacts as constitutive of a unique and
>heretofor non-comparable COP as several have called it.
well now let's not confuse the adult interpretation with the children's
access -
it is pure commercialism, marketed amongst kids in the guises of "trade"
and "possession" -
but the uniqueness? i am reminded of ninja turtles, power rangers,
transformers,
and other made-for-tv toys that "swept" the white/market "nation"...
> As Charles Erasmus,
>anthropologist at UCSB for a long while, used to say of all consumer
>culture: "Nothing comes out of that faucet unless you suck on it!" Why
>some things cause people to suck and others don't, that's the question.
on the other hand, sometimes the faucets are already on full
and the problem is not who is sucking what or how much
but more who is hitching up their pantlegs in the flood.
without homoerotic play, what are queer kids to do?
diane
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Jan 11 2000 - 14:04:06 PST