McDonald’s Happy Meal Toys Causing Unhappiness

Surely nobody has noticed my absence on this blog as nobody actually follows it. That's cool. I'm more disappointed in myself more than anything. 
But! I'm back in action folks! (sound of crickets)
I'm taking a class in my final semester of university where I'm writing cultural criticism pieces throughout most of the class. I'm going to make a point of posting them on here in an attempt to keep some sort of routine for myself! This is my second entry, I don't want to introduce it cause I think it stands on it's own. Thanks for stopping by!!
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McDonald’s Happy Meal Toys Causing Unhappiness 

The newest line of McDonald’s Happy Meal toys has caused widespread unhappiness. Gendered toys are nothing new for McDonald’s, so why is this new line causing such buzz online? Adventure Time toys are being offered just for boys.

On January 17th, McDonald's Happy Meals started to serve toys themed after the popular kids’ television show on Cartoon Network, Adventure Time. However, this option is only available for the boys. The girls are offered items themed to the Paul Frank brand. Adventure Time is known for being a show that both boys and girls can enjoy. Additionally, the Adventure Time toys only feature the male characters from the beloved kids’ show. Major female characters from the show are missing including, Princess Bubblegum, Marceline the Vampire Queen, Lumpy Space Princess and Tree Trunks. Only Jake the dog, Finn the human, the Ice King and BMO are offered up as toys. Taking it further, McDonald’s offers two versions of the toys featuring Jake and Finn. There was no reason to leave out the female characters or exclude girls from being able to receive them. From blogs on Tumblr to articles on Huffington Post, people are talking and they’re not happy. We want L-S-P (Lump Space Princess)!

One particular episode from Adventure Time swaps the gender of all the characters seamlessly. Jake the dog becomes Cake the cat, Finn the human becomes Fionna the human and all the other characters swap genders as well.  The adventures that the gender swapped characters went on were just as exciting as those of Finn and Jake. One of the recurring characters, BMO, is frequently referred to using both gender pronouns leaving his/her gender ambiguous. And in the gender swap episode, BMO shows no difference in appearance, implying that there was no opposite gender to switch to.

In an age where the issue of gay rights is discussed on a daily basis world wide, questioning how it affects young children around us becomes more and more important. Gendering toys reinforces gender binaries that are naturalized while growing up. McDonald’s has reinforced these gender norms for as long as Happy Meals have been giving out toys. Because of how popular Happy Meals are, the effects have more impact. Partnering up with Adventure Time could have been the perfect opportunity to shed light on how gender-centric toys are problematic. It only takes one walk past the children’s toy department at your local department store to see all the colour-coded and gender-fixed toys.

We can’t control what McDonald’s does, but what we can do is use it as a teaching opportunity. When ordering a Happy Meal at McDonald’s, kids can choose the “boy” toy or the “girl” toy if they want. However, the issue doesn’t stop at letting the kid choose, because in the end, the toys are still reinforcing a binary in gender. Providing a gender-neutral toy would present the idea that any child of any gender can play with any toy. Turning this idea into a movement would be ideal, but let’s just start by bringing attention to the error in McDonald’s marketing strategies.