A Great Symbol of Freedom! (Rubber Ducks)

Member Name: ks.h

Product:	Rubber Ducks
Date:	09/12/03 (947 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fun

Disadvantages: None

All right, hands up who's got one? I've got one, my three kids had a family when they were young but I'm not sure if they've got any at all now. Have you got one?

I think they're brilliant and they're usually one of the first gifts most children receive. "What is she going on about?" I hear you asking. Obviously I'm talking about one of the great symbols of political freedom to be invented during the Twentieth Century - the good old, plain and simple rubber duck.

Until around the late 1940's leisure was decadent, it was a rude gesture of superiority from the upper classes to the working classes. Leisure was a symbol of derision, it said 'look at me, I can afford to do nothing and I'm going to flaunt it.'

Today life is so different and leisure is no longer thought of as wasteful, it has become an important part of everyday life. It is a method of participation, an expression of growth, a way of net working and a symbol of our freedom.

So what's this got to do with a rubber duck? Just hang in there, and all will become clear. You see nothing sums up the growth of the leisure industry and our right to leisure time more than the rubber duck.

Initially we took a bath as a way of fighting of death by keeping clean and therefore free from germs and infection, it was a necessity for healthy living. Today the bathing ritual is all part of our leisure activities - it's 'me time', we light candles, drink wine, read books, listen to music and play with our rubber duck. We close the door on the world and our worries.

We are taught at an early age to love our rubber duck, babies splash around in the water playing with their duck, toddlers love to keep throwing them out of the bath for poor old mum and dad to constantly pick it off the floor and throw it in the bath, older children drift away from their bath-time playmate but rediscover it as an 'executi
ve toy' when they get older.

What exactly is a rubber duck? Well it's made from rubber or PVC, shaped like a duck, comes in all sizes, can cost anything from around one pound upwards, is usually yellow but not always and floats in the bath, so why are we attracted to them so much? That's easy - it's because most small children love toys that resemble things from every day life, cars, dolls, little animals, etc. Who didn't like feeding the ducks in the park when they were little?

In recent years our great symbol of freedom has however been coming under attack. In the past some rubber ducks were made from PVC, which contains chemicals that could be harmful when released into the environment. The PVC helps make toys more flexible but laboratory studies have shown that some of the chemicals could be poisonous and may cause cancer, kidney damage and reproductive disorders in later life.

Spain and Denmark have banned all toy,, including rubber ducks, made from PVC and Greenpeace has urged the British Government to introduce legislation on this problem telling retailers to remove soft PVC toys from their shelves.

Not all rubber ducks are made from PVC, check yours out. Get yourself a safe rubber duck and enjoy bath time with an old favourite, they're not just for the kids. Don't let this great symbol of our heritage die!

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