Your Trusted Friends Analysis

These two articles, “Your Trusted Friends” by Eric Schlosser and “Complete Freedom of Movement,” by Henry Jenkins, are concerned with a modified approach to an old method of doing something, the former of which occurs in mass marketing and the latter of which in the psychological and social development of children. “Your Trusted Friends” expounds and contrasts the endeavors of sales tycoons Ray Kroc and Walt Disney, both of whom harnessed the potential of children as consumers with staggering success. Before these men, children were largely ignored by consumerists—afterwards, dozens of other corporations followed suit and advertising aimed towards children became a prevalent and controversial matter.
Schlosser acknowledges their charisma, and brilliance in marketing, but practically makes them out to be sordid, power- and money-hungry individuals. He inserts
The article gradually leads into the role genders have in the play that normal children need to experience in order to mature socially. Girls were always watched closely, encouraged to learn how to carry out household chores, whereas boys’ outdoorsy and mischievous nature was generally given a blind eye. Now that our concrete world is restricting much of both genders simply by default, the need to explore, vent natural aggression and solve conflicts is being supplemented within virtual realms. But we’ve changed societally. Discrimination seems to have languished substantially; women are competing with men in careers and pursuits that were once dominated by men, and I agree with the author in that that’s the way it should be. Video games producers should do their best to create gender-neutral environments without creating pink and blue “border