Mediacy Articles – Volume 14, No. 3
Teachers and students of popular culture know that dolls are among the most fascinating media texts that one can study. Like most pop culture artifacts of substance, the history of dolls can provide a valuable lesson in values and ideology. With the Christmas season almost upon us, this seems like an appropriate time to provide a brief and irreverent overview of some pertinent doll history.
Hasbro's G.I. Joe provides a road map of American ideology for the past three decades. In the early 70's, with the war in Vietnam raging, Joe had evolved from a simple military dogface into a forest fire fighter and emergency medical technician. With the Reagan era, Joe's militaristic trappings re-emerged and after the Gulf War, stores could barely keep the doll in stock. Currently being marketed is the 'classic' G.I. Joe. This Desert Storm version comes in a camouflaged uniform with backpack, Kevlar helmet and an "electric sonic fighter battle weapon."
Joe' most potent criticism came from our own National Film Board's short, Toys, an eight minute film that featured the doll in a battle as gruesome as any to be put in a Hollywood movie. Barbie is equally as fascinating for deconstruction purposes. For over 30 years, she has provided an anorexic role model for little girls and, at one time, the Barbie fan club was the second biggest girls organization in the U.S. after the Girl Scouts. Since 1987, Barbie sales have doubled to $840 million, representing half of the total business of Mattel Inc. Ironically, from a collector's point of view, the most valuable Barbies are rare defective models with various deformities such as a shrunken head or unsightly manufacturing blemishes. Recently, Barbie entered the news again when protests mounted over a talking Barbie that was programmed to say "math is tough".
Dolls that wet have been a fixture for several decades now. Twenty years ago, a toy manufacturer introduced a doll that also defecated. Children fed a special paste into the doll's mouth and waited for the inevitable discharge from down below. The doll was recalled when it was found that some of the paste remained in the doll and provided an excellent breeding ground for maggot colonies. A more successful defecating doll called Baby Alive is currently being marketed by Kenner.
The first male doll with genitalia or, to use the industry euphemism, anatomically correct, was Little Joey a tie-in to Joey Stivic, the infant son of Mike and Gloria from TV's All in the Family.
In 1978, a homosexual doll called Gay Bob was introduced. The doll was shipped in a cardboard closet waiting to be "outed" by his new owner. Naturally, Bob came from a large doll family including parents Heavy Harry and Fat Pat. Bob's brothers and sisters included Marty Macho, Executive Eddie, Straight Steve, Fashionable Fran and Liberated Libby.
By 1986, Christian fundamentalist children and their parents had recovered from the Gay Bob trauma and were thrilled by the introduction of a new line of Biblical dolls including David the Shepherd Boy and talking dolls Faith, Hope and Joy. When Joy was squeezed she said: "Please play with me and you will know that God is love."
Dolls currently positioning their marketing for the upcoming Christmas season include California Roller Baby, Li'l Miss Singing Mermaid (which changes colour and sings when immersed in cold water), Li'l Oopsie Daisy (the perfect gift for neglected children, she crawls, falls down, cries for mommy and then, gets up by herself!), Magic Potty Baby, Baby Uh-Oh (develops a diaper rash), Talk'n Li'l Run Around (doll manufacturers seem to have an aversion to spelling out the word "little"), Baby Rollerblade, Bathtime Baby Shivers (she doesn't stop shaking until mommy dries her off!), Together Forever...The Twins (They start squawking when separated and won't stop until they're put back together), and my personal favourite, Baby All Gone.
Talk'n Li'l Run Around is a perfect role model for over-privileged boomer brats. Li'l scampers about in a designer track suit panting heavily and whines endearing phrases such as "I'm tired" and "I'm thirsty". Presumably if the doll is successful, Irwin will market an older educational version that complains about its mark and disappears from your class for a month during the March break.
So far, a big seasonal winner seems to be Puppy Surprise, a pregnant plush dog with a velcro strip. When the child opens the velcro, he or she gets to count the number of pups delivered.
Media tie-in dolls include Dylan, Brenda and Brandon from Beverly Hills 90210 (they're not anatomically correct, however), an assortment of Batman Return dolls, and both terminators from Terminator 2.
Movie tie-in dolls have been common since the silent era. In the 1930's, Shirley Temple dolls were very popular but, the enormous power of doll merchandising as a significant adjunct to a film's profits were not dramatically demonstrated until 1977's Star Wars. The film's success caught everyone by surprise including doll manufacturers who did not have time to gear up production until after the Christmas season following the film's release. Throughout the 1980's, doll manufacturers were seldom caught up short again. By the 1990's, movie tie-in doll merchandising overkill resulted in warehouses full of unsold Dick Tracy and Rocketeer dolls. Doll manufacturers have recently taken a more cautious approach and doll hype now usually only surrounds films that are almost guaranteed to be a success such as Batman Returns.
My suggestions for some more media tie-in dolls include the Hannibal Lector doll (it comes with a miniature bottle of Chianti and some tiny fava beans), the Robin Hood doll (complete with a model Sherwood Forest, the doll swings from tree to tree mouthing politically correct mediaeval slogans in a California accent), the Basic Instinct doll (it chases a Michael Douglas doll around the house with an ice pick) and the incredibly versatile Whoopi Goldberg doll (which comes with a nun's habit, a Star Trek uniform and a miniature talk show set).