Inside Toyland: Working, Shopping, and Social Inequality

Williams, the editor of the journal Gender & Society and author of Still a Man's World, takes the Nickle and Dimed approach to toy retailing by working as a cashier in a high-end and a big box toy store for six weeks each, turning the scrutinizing eye of a sociologist onto the sandbox. Other than the fact- and statistic-filled chapter on the history of shopping in America, Williams's presentation is a mix of anecdotes and the sort of observations only a sociologist could make: a male co-worker acting flamboyant while selling Barbies is making ""his temporary assignment seem more palatable and less inconsistent with his masculinity""; male Asian-American clerks prefer to work in the electronics section, because ""Asian masculinity is often defined through technical expertise."" However, because her field work provided her with such a small sampling of material, it's a tough sell that the conditions she observed in two stores can prognosticate industry- or culture-wide conditions, but her sympathy for the low-wage retail clerk's plight, rendered in oddly touching clinical prose, is reason enough to pick this up.