Title: Tough going.
Product review: I bought this book because I'd read Barbara Ehrenreich's "Nickel and Dimed". I found N 'n D very good, so wanted to expand my horizons to other experiences - Barbara Ehrenreich had tried low-paid jobs, in many fields, and 'Toyland' promised something similar.Hard work for us readers!I thought I'd be learning about the working conditions in American toy stores but instead learned all about genderized toys, emphasized feminity and cultural legitimation.The prose is a parody of socio-speak and what I took to be present obsessions in gender studies; everything has to be examined from the point of view of gender. The African-American perspective on interaction rules is examined, many times. Previous studies and articles are quoted extensively. All of this is done repeatedly.The points made may be good, but the prose soon drains the reader's away. I finished the book, but would have happily settled for half the length, and a version culled of its socio-speak.Stick to Barbara Ehrenreich.
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