Beanie Baby

Toys have been and always will be a part of cultures all over the world. Because of their significance many experts have researched and written about toys. In Robin Bernstein’s book, Racial Innocence, she focuses on the distinct difference between things and objects in relation to toys. Scriptive things are: “an item of material culture that prompts meaningful bodily behaviors” (Bernstein 71). Essentially, she uses this term as a way to identify objects that greatly influence a child’s behavior when using it. While objects are: “a chunk of matter that one looks through or beyond to understand something human” (Bernstein 72). Bernstein is right when she distinguishes a definite difference between and a thing and an object, but seems on more dubious ground when she neglects to address the idea that a toy can be both. Specifically, I will be using my childhood toy, a Beanie Baby, to prove the problematic contradiction between it being an object or a thing.

The toy, a unicorn, is soft and white, that has dirtied with use and age. Her mane and tail are made of white yarn. Her beady blue eyes are plastic, raised on the sides of her head. Her horn is tightly packed with cotton and covered with pink, shiny, translucent plastic. Her head is filled with cotton while the rest of her is filled with the typical beanie baby beads. According to Bernstein, “Most children understand with precision the behaviors that children’s things script” (Bernstein 28). Basically she is saying that children automatically understand how to play with toys because of the way the toys are constructed. This soft toy, that is not stiff, would seem to invite children to cuddle it because of children’s knowledge of previous toys. Beanie Babies are an ideal example of...

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... with it wrong. Similarly, my parents would tell me not to throw my unicorn around because I could ruin the toy. They would also play along with my fantasy and say that I certainly would not want to hurt the baby.

The script of Mystic suggests that she should be played with and cuddled but the explicit directions tell its owner that it is simply part of a collection to admire from afar. Ty most likely physically creates these toys to have the ability to be played with so children can enjoy them but also markets them as collectable objects in order to sell more product. This company, and other companies, want to create a toy that serves both as an object and a thing, using Bernstein’s terminology. Essentially Beanie Babies send contradicting messages because they are made with material that is meant to be played with but they come with instructions to collect them.