Gallery: 13 Toys from the Era of Casual Racism
01racist-sexist-retro-toys-08
In-between shooting assignments for clients like Hilton and Google, Photographer David Murphey has managed to assemble a collection of toys that track social progress and our society's changing norms regarding race and gender in a way that raw statistics can't. And even though, as readers have pointed out, Junkyard Dog was a pro wrestler who wore his chain by choice, ask yourself this: Could you imagine a Junkyard Dog persona passing muster today? *Photo: David Murphey*
02racist-sexist-retro-toys-03
A gun stamped with the word "Dick" seems loaded with Freudian innuendo to the contemporary eye, but when it was sold in the 1950s, the term was more readily associated with detectives like *Dick Tracy*. *Photo: David Murphey*
David Murphey03racist-sexist-retro-toys-13
Manufactured in the 1960s by the Gay Toy Company of Walled Lake, Michigan, the self-promotional plastic toy would likely be a lightning rod for controversy in 2013. "Can you imagine if this were made today? We've become so polarized as a nation that it would be criticized by both the left and the right," says Murphey. "Liberals would complain that it's demeaning, and conservatives would complain it promotes a gay lifestyle, but both are silly arguments—it's a toy with the company's name on the side." *Photo: David Murphey*
04racist-sexist-retro-toys-10
In the 1950s, 10-cent makeup kits let kiddos stage their own minstrel shows or look "Chinese." In the 1980s, it was possible to buy an action figure of an African-American wearing a chain around his neck. Today, billion dollar successes like Bratz have made multi-cultural characters the norm. *Photo: David Murphey*
05racist-sexist-retro-toys-11
Murphey is half Chinese, but he sees the products as more humorous than hate-filled. "I think the Chinese makeup kit is hilarious," he says. "I believe that the reason some people get upset with these toys is because our current society revolves around the idea that 'it's all about me.' If a point of view, or a toy, makes fun of 'me,' then it's bad." *Photo: David Murphey*
06racist-sexist-retro-toys-01
Few would challenge the *Beetle Bailey* gun as the undisputed leader of the Island of Misogynist Toys. A group of soldiers firing a rubber band gun at a hyper-sexualized secretary was in bad taste in 1981, but seems positively grotesque in an age of integrated forces—especially in light of an estimated 19,000 sexual assaults occurring in the military ever year. *Photo: David Murphey*
David Murphey07racist-sexist-retro-toys-12
Murphey remembers playing with plastic figures as a kid—army men were green, cowboys were blue, and Native Americans were always red. *Photo: David Murphey*
David Murphey08racist-sexist-retro-toys-06
Some of the toys didn't take decades to cause an uproar. *E.T.'s* fleshy appendage, which didn't immediately read as an alien finger so much as an alien...mmm...probe?--created a buzz upon its release in 1982 and led the company that manufactured it into bankruptcy the following year. *Photo: David Murphey*
09racist-sexist-retro-toys-02
"Anything explosive is not allowed nowadays," says Murhpey. "Most toys like this are banned in schools, but visually, this is my favorite photograph." *Photo: David Murphey*
10racist-sexist-retro-toys-07
Today, an unironic housewife-themed play set would launch a hundred blog arguments between lean in and opt out feminists. *Photo: David Murphey*
David Murphey11racist-sexist-retro-toys-14
Cartoon characters were regularly conscripted to help push tobacco. *Photo: David Murphey*
12racist-sexist-retro-toys-09
Many would see them as markers of a dark period in our history, but Murphey sees them as ice breakers to help solve the challenges we face going forward. "Wouldn't it be great if we could put aside some of our sensitivities and find humor in our differences?" *Photo: David Murphey*
