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DOI :10.26650/B/SS07SS49.2023.009.02   IUP :10.26650/B/SS07SS49.2023.009.02    Full Text (PDF)

Toy Activism: A Serious Matter of Adult Play

Katriina Heljakka

This chapter focuses on a particular type of adult play, namely toy activism. Toy activism refers to harnessing various character toys, such as Barbie, Ken, and Blythe dolls as well as common teddy bears, to highlight and promote a societal, political, or ethical goal. For example, even though dolls have so far been used to ironically comment on the hipster lifestyle and selfie culture, adult toy activism has also addressed societal issues such as gender diversity, animal rights, and racism. The most prominent form of toy play during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Western world has been the teddy challenge of 2020, a hybrid form of toy play that connects physical playthings with online social sharing. This was a collective statement that used teddy bears to spread a message of communality and solidarity and to fight the negative effects of physical social distancing. By describing and analyzing the examples of adult toy activism regarding Ken of Finland (gender diversity), a Blythe doll (animal rights), Ellie of Finland (racism), and teddy bears (pandemic toy play), this chapter illuminates how character toys have been employed in toy activism and informs how toy media has materialized as a new resource and extension of serious play around which human social relations and social movements are established, strengthened, and supported. By leaning on the findings of the study, the author envisions that (character) toy media will become a more valuable and tangible resource in future communications regarding serious human matters, aligning the idea of the toyification of society. This newly discovered resource for adult activism, the serious matter of adult play, will continue to evolve as an expressive media for creativity, communication, and communal play.


Keywords: Adult toy play, Playful era, Serious toys, Toy media, Toy activism

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