Wordless Friday: Toy Store Abominations

by Lauredhel on October 30, 2009

toy package marked TREADMILL. A sad, resentful-looking girl in exercise gear, around kindergarten age, stands on the treadmill

a creepy figurine of Edward from Twilight. His hands look poised to strangle someone. He doesn't even sparkle.

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Tagged as: child, edward, fat panic, figurine, toys, treadmill, twilight

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This article was written by lauredhel

Lauredhel is a forty-something woman with a disability. She lives in her Western Australian family home where books, Lego, and soapmaking gear constantly compete for space. She blogs about feminism, reproductive justice, freedom from violence, the use and misuse of language, medical science, being disabled, her vegetable garden, and whatever else pops into her head. Lauredhel also blogs at FWD/Forward (feminists with disabilities), scribbles at her personal dreamwidth journal Selective and Arbitrary, and co-moderates Hollaback Australia. She joined Hoyden About Town in 2007.

lauredhel has written 1318 posts for Hoyden About Town. If you liked this post, you might like to subscribe to the feed via RSS or EMAIL to get instantly updated for more posts like this.

{ 12 comments }

1 Grendel October 30, 2009 at 5:49 pm: That child even looks unhappy at the thought of being pictured on the box containing the treadmill. . .
2 Deborah October 30, 2009 at 6:30 pm: But the man in the plastic box… clearly I’m just not up with popular culture, and I don’t geddit. Can someone explain?
3 Lauredhel October 30, 2009 at 6:35 pm: Deborah: The alt/title tags are handy…
4 Quixotess October 30, 2009 at 6:41 pm: Well, I think the hands are in pretty standard position for dolls. The real abomination is the $29.84 price tag.
5 balneus.wordpress.com/ October 30, 2009 at 7:22 pm: Ummm. Look past girl to nice sized green back yard that would be good to play in. No wonder girl is unhappy!
6 Deborah October 30, 2009 at 7:39 pm: Ahhh…. geddit. And definitely out of touch – I’ve never watched it. Thanks, L.
7 Purrdence October 30, 2009 at 8:19 pm: Y’know, Edward looks kind of pissed to be plastic doll.

I wonder how many girls (and it will be mostly girls, if it’s anything like the fans at my school) will use him to stalk Barbie.

Now I’m going to scrub my eyes out.
8 Rayedish October 30, 2009 at 8:56 pm: Why would anyone think that a treadmill is a good idea for a toy when real ones are so dangerous for small children?
9 Helen October 30, 2009 at 8:59 pm: The backyard is just a trompe-L’Oeil painting. She’s actually in a McMansion built to the boundary such as infest Melbourne these days.
10 OuyangDan October 30, 2009 at 10:09 pm: HE DOESN’T EVEN SPARKLE?!?

Then I ain’t buyin’.

OK, I wasn’t gonna anyway…Or maybe I would and glue sparkles all over him.

The kiddie treadmill makes me *sadface*
11 sanda October 31, 2009 at 8:23 am: Child on treadmill has classic “allergic eyelids”:dark rings, puffy. Just thought as an allergic adult who was an allergic child, undiagnosed, in an allergic family that I’d
point that out. Teachers in NYC used to be told to look for kids with eye lids like that and check if they are allergic kids.
12 Lauredhel November 2, 2009 at 4:41 pm: Turns out there’s a report in today’s Medical Journal of Australia about pediatric treadmill injuries: “Paediatric treadmill injuries: an increasing problem”

A group of Sydney healthcare workers looked at the stats in two hospitals, and child treadmill burn injuries have increased from 3 to 17 to 48 per year in the 2001-2008 period. One friction burn was assessed at covering 7% of body surface area, and 21% of the burns required surgery. The authors say:

The substantial increase in prevalence of treadmill injuries in children during the past 2 years may be related to increased sales of treadmills as the community becomes more conscious of obesity. The data also reflect other Australian studies that show that children younger than 5 years are at greatest risk, accounting for 90% of paediatric treadmill injuries during the period January 2004 to June 2007.2

Despite the risk of injury, particularly for children, there appears to be no current national regulations governing the supply of treadmills or advice that should be given to customers at the point of sale.