Growing Up Skipper
When I was a little girl, most girl toys were relegated to child rearing, play cooking or dolls of some kind or another. Not surprisingly, being a weirdo who liked bugs and ghosts, of course I didn't play with that sort of stuff. But it was still there. Despite my family being pretty psychologically abusive, I have to give some credit where credit is due; they didn't force any sort of role or stereotype on me. They knew I was weird and they let me revel in it, buying me Beast War action figures and sticky insects that clung to your window. Still, every now and then, I'd feel just a smidge bad for not buying into what the other girls were playing, yet in hindsight, I'm proud of myself and now ashamed of that shame, so.
This brings us to the first toy I'll be covering for this blog. Now technically, this toy is from 1975, so while Barbie was indeed a popular toy amongst my peer group, this one was not because, well, I didn't grow up in 1975, so. And I admit, I'm far from the first person to cover this topic, as feminist blogs far more worthy of praise have done it better than I will, but I still feel obligated to weigh in on it in some capacity. Also I'm a toy blog, not a feminist blog, so there's also that.
So, I'll admit it and say I get what they were going for here. Growing up for girls is weird, and a lot of it has to do with not the changes we go through physically but more so the reactions to those changes, not just from ourselves but from everyone else around us. See, girls are installation art, something to be looked at and discussed by anyone who ever sees them no matter the time or place. So I can understand where they'd think that tapping into the literal growing market would be a good idea because it theoretically should appeal to every little girl, but somewhere along the line something went horribly, horribly wrong.
First of all, let's just examine the wording of this image, shall we? For starters, we've got the very iffy wording choices that define both versions of the doll you get. They refer to the younger one as "cute little girl!" which is totally fine, but they then refer to the older adolescent as "tall, curvy teenager" and that's...questionable. The words "curvy" and "teenager" should never ever go together anywhere outside of adult websites search results, and even then it's pretty skeevy. But then, on the white instructional part of the image, where they show you have to make this magical transformation from innocent tyke to budding young beauty, they say "for little girl Skipper, turn her arm all the way around clockwise and she's cute and young again!" The problem with this sentence is that it inherently defines teenager as "not young". Again, skeevy. A teenager is still goddamned young, alright, and I sincerely hope that I don't have to be the one to explain to you all that, despite what Mattel might say, no, we do not magically become women simply by twisting our arms. We become abused girlfriends, but not curvy teenagers. Puberty is a lot more complicated than that.
And frankly, you shouldn't even have to be a feminist to think this is creepy as all hell.
There's just so much wrong about this, and what really stinks about it is that its creepiness taints an otherwise fairly decent concept. Lots of kids can't wait to be teenagers, and a doll that taps into that mindset is a surefire hit. This was long before Bratz or any of that garbage hit the market, and frankly a hell of a lot more tasteful even with the yuck factor attached to it. I'm assuming that this Barbie sibling has been put in the Vault of Shame right next to Cock Ring Ken, never to be seen again until the earth itself is scorched. The funny thing is, despite the controversy surrounding the doll and its rather plastic bustline, Mattel didn't learn their lesson because in 2007 they did the same damn thing with a whole new line called My Scene which, surprise to nobody, was also controversial for the same exact thing.
And let's not even get into the creepiness that this isn't a full grown woman like Barbie. See, Barbie gets away with having *ahem* assets because she's a full grown woman, and it'd be weird otherwise. But Skipper is actually technically Barbie's younger sister. So that just puts a whole other level of stink on top of all the other stink that was already there. Still, despite all that, I do think this is a lot more appealing than Bratz dolls, which always came off as sketchy and sort of gross, at least to me. The difference is, at least as far as I'm willing to say, this is just a doll that does wind up portraying a very normal part of an adolescent girls life, albeit perhaps not in the best way possible, while Bratz dolls just reeked of skank through and through.
I'd also like to state that there was a lot of other Skippers released, including one titled "Hot Stuff Skipper", which is a pretty daring thing to name a doll after this one, but after a quick bit of research she really just seems to be a normal doll in what appears to be gym clothes, so, I guess that's gonna slide.
All in all, Growing Up Skipper is a sad, unfortunate tale of a fairly good concept done in a fairly bad manner. Not that this set Mattel back by any means, as they are still going strong to this day, but I think it's fair to say this was a rather goofy misstep. Though, a part of me wonders what exactly was so controversial about it really. I mean, sure, the wording is questionable, there's no doubt there, but really...girls going through puberty? That's controversial? Did these parents know that their own daughters were one day going to go through puberty themselves? I'm kind of confused on this one. First they remove any sort of sex education from the schools so kids can learn safely and properly about what's coming to affect them and then they won't even let a doll show a girl growing up. I don't know man, America is fucking weird and puritanical and scared of sex while one of our countries largest media success is in the pornography business, so who the hell knows.
I get wanting to protect your children, hell I wish more people had protected me, but I don't think a doll with breasts is really going to make your daughters into the next MTV reality teen star.
So here's to Growing Up Skipper, and all her awkward controversial glory.
This brings us to the first toy I'll be covering for this blog. Now technically, this toy is from 1975, so while Barbie was indeed a popular toy amongst my peer group, this one was not because, well, I didn't grow up in 1975, so. And I admit, I'm far from the first person to cover this topic, as feminist blogs far more worthy of praise have done it better than I will, but I still feel obligated to weigh in on it in some capacity. Also I'm a toy blog, not a feminist blog, so there's also that.
First of all, let's just examine the wording of this image, shall we? For starters, we've got the very iffy wording choices that define both versions of the doll you get. They refer to the younger one as "cute little girl!" which is totally fine, but they then refer to the older adolescent as "tall, curvy teenager" and that's...questionable. The words "curvy" and "teenager" should never ever go together anywhere outside of adult websites search results, and even then it's pretty skeevy. But then, on the white instructional part of the image, where they show you have to make this magical transformation from innocent tyke to budding young beauty, they say "for little girl Skipper, turn her arm all the way around clockwise and she's cute and young again!" The problem with this sentence is that it inherently defines teenager as "not young". Again, skeevy. A teenager is still goddamned young, alright, and I sincerely hope that I don't have to be the one to explain to you all that, despite what Mattel might say, no, we do not magically become women simply by twisting our arms. We become abused girlfriends, but not curvy teenagers. Puberty is a lot more complicated than that.
And frankly, you shouldn't even have to be a feminist to think this is creepy as all hell.
There's just so much wrong about this, and what really stinks about it is that its creepiness taints an otherwise fairly decent concept. Lots of kids can't wait to be teenagers, and a doll that taps into that mindset is a surefire hit. This was long before Bratz or any of that garbage hit the market, and frankly a hell of a lot more tasteful even with the yuck factor attached to it. I'm assuming that this Barbie sibling has been put in the Vault of Shame right next to Cock Ring Ken, never to be seen again until the earth itself is scorched. The funny thing is, despite the controversy surrounding the doll and its rather plastic bustline, Mattel didn't learn their lesson because in 2007 they did the same damn thing with a whole new line called My Scene which, surprise to nobody, was also controversial for the same exact thing.
And let's not even get into the creepiness that this isn't a full grown woman like Barbie. See, Barbie gets away with having *ahem* assets because she's a full grown woman, and it'd be weird otherwise. But Skipper is actually technically Barbie's younger sister. So that just puts a whole other level of stink on top of all the other stink that was already there. Still, despite all that, I do think this is a lot more appealing than Bratz dolls, which always came off as sketchy and sort of gross, at least to me. The difference is, at least as far as I'm willing to say, this is just a doll that does wind up portraying a very normal part of an adolescent girls life, albeit perhaps not in the best way possible, while Bratz dolls just reeked of skank through and through.
All in all, Growing Up Skipper is a sad, unfortunate tale of a fairly good concept done in a fairly bad manner. Not that this set Mattel back by any means, as they are still going strong to this day, but I think it's fair to say this was a rather goofy misstep. Though, a part of me wonders what exactly was so controversial about it really. I mean, sure, the wording is questionable, there's no doubt there, but really...girls going through puberty? That's controversial? Did these parents know that their own daughters were one day going to go through puberty themselves? I'm kind of confused on this one. First they remove any sort of sex education from the schools so kids can learn safely and properly about what's coming to affect them and then they won't even let a doll show a girl growing up. I don't know man, America is fucking weird and puritanical and scared of sex while one of our countries largest media success is in the pornography business, so who the hell knows.
I get wanting to protect your children, hell I wish more people had protected me, but I don't think a doll with breasts is really going to make your daughters into the next MTV reality teen star.
So here's to Growing Up Skipper, and all her awkward controversial glory.
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