I have spent considerable time and effort sheltering Four from becoming a victim of gender stereotyping.
I’m not denying her her femininity, we have plenty of fairy and princess crap around here, let me tell you, but I have gone out of my way to make sure that none of the big media corporations got their mitts on my girl and started telling her what to think, at least directly. That’s one of the reasons we don’t have a TV in the house and also why I banned those vacuous Disney princesses and their conspicuous lack of common sense or sisterhood from our midst. I wouldn’t even let her choose a Cinderella sticker at the dentist the other day for enduring a tooth cleaning. I made her get the boring ‘Mr.Toothy’ one.
Poor child.
It was so clearly inferior. Even One knew it.
I’m aware that I’m a big fat killjoy. I know she’ll hate me when she’s older, just like I hated my parents because they never let me watch ITV. I thought it was because they were snobs and considered it common. Now I know they didn’t want me watching ads. but in my head it got confused with people that had egg and chips for ‘tea’ and called the cinema ‘the pictures’.
(Note: I do not share my parents’ views on egg and chips or nomenclature so please invite me round, I’ll accept most gratefully.)
So I had selected one character I considered slightly less ghastly than the rest and allowed her to pledge allegiance to Dora the Explorer, the world’s most adventurous preschooler.She’s seen a couple of episodes at the neighbour’s house. She had a copy of Dora in German (back when we had the telly)
“Guten Tag! Ich bien Dora!! Ich liebe die Karte!” She even has one or two of the little Spanish bilingual books.
I sort of liked her. Or at least I didn’t hate her. She was curious, brave, she actually DID stuff, not just sat around painting her fingernails and matching her puppies to her cushions. Plus she looked, in as much as a cartoon can, like a small child rather than a tiny, improbable woman. For all intents and purposes she was a good role model.
Until now.
Today I read a press release that chilled me to the marrow.
DORA GROWS UP!
Ok. I get it. Elmo has been a toddler for 10 years, but no matter, Dora needs to move with her core audience. She’s going to go to middle school and become a tweenager. I don’t know quite what happened to grades K-4 but apparently she’s so smart that she was able to skip them. Anyway:
Q. Is she becoming an honour student, the valedictorian of her class who is going to lead a group of 7 year olds up the Amazon to save the rainforest from unscrupulous logging?
A. No
Q. Is she going to climb Everest with the help of her trusty Map, accompanied by Boots, now less naughty and latterly invested with the wisdom of the Great Apes, to rid the famous summit of trash and give us all a lecture on pollution and global warming?
A. No
Q. Is she going to sail across the ocean preventing the bottom trawling and use of poisons in coral reefs which are permanently destroying our oceans and marine life?
A. No. She is not.
She is getting a weave, a miniskirt and internet access.
Yes that’s right. In the autumn, you will be able to buy the all-new, Dora the Whorer doll marketed at 5-9 year olds, who comes complete with her very own USB connection so she can hook up (geddit?) with your computer. They don’t mention exactly where the port is but I have some suggestions.
Oh, and she’s getting fashion too so you can change her outfit and her jewelry
(Wait. Jewelry? WTF?! I’m guessing Scott of the Antarctic didn’t wear earrings and matching bangle) and log it on her website. Now that she’s older, all that bilingual learning and map reading is going to come in really handy for navigating the world wide web and the corridors of her middle school so she can find Diego’s friends and give them a blow job.
Isn’t that what 35% of middle schoolers are doing these days? I’m so excited for her! And for all the five year olds that are going to be getting her for Christmas.
That will be Four’s peers, entering Kindergarten this year.
That is who this toy is for. Oh goody! Another fuck-me training doll.
But seriously, folks. Don’t we have enough of these?
Barbie, Bratz, Hannah Montana effigies..
Dora was the last, the only hope, and now they’ve ruined her.
Will those bastard companies ruin my girl too? Will they ruin yours?
(Don’t get me started on the thongs for 7 year olds and the suggestive t-shirts)
And what will our boys think? Come to think of it, I wonder what will happen to Diego? My guess is he’ll be alienated and confused, start playing Dungeons and Dragons and stop being able to relate to women for the rest of his life. Who can blame him?
I look around me and I see sensible, clever parents who ought to know better buying into this crap.
“It’s only a toy, just a game” they say.
But I don’t think that it is.
I think that Dora is not a game, not a toy to our girls. I think she’s real and life-sized.
And come fall she’ll be busy selling herself on the corner for $60 a time.
.
{ 21 comments }
A weave and a miniskirt? Sounds like when I came back from seeing you in London.
This is a travesty. We have Ben 10 and Power Rangers and so on but no army guys or guns. My brother wasnt allowed those and I wasnt allowed Barbie, etc.
I go to one of those groovy good but not too crunchy toy stores here and they have great girl things like Groovy Girls and the Only Hearts club and proper baby dolls and vet kits and I think why buy the Bratz, the Barbies, etc.
And the Disney Princesses – simpering twits who are just waiting for a man to show up to make their life right. Please.
My mother banned television, junk food , toy guns, Barbies, as well as candy except on Easter, Christmas, and the week of Halloween. As a result my brother and I had our babysitters sneak televisions into the house, bartered our fancy European stuffed animals for pellet guns, and stole and hoarded all the sugar we could get out sticky little hands on.
The upside is that we learned some good things about the underground market economy. Never again will I trade dozens of Mad Magazines for 40 live newts.
The sneaking and hiding skills came in super handy when we were older and had magazines and M80s and joints to hide.
The downside is that I still have a hard to curb hankering for good old fashioned sexist, violent, sugary sweet pop culture that can only be mildly tempered by an entire bag of Rollos and a James Bond movie.
The middle side is that I had a bit of a sense of humor when my own children somehow magically seemed to be breeding Barbies in the back of the closet, or when they insisted that they want to be strippers when they grew up ( thanks to a certain Rod Stewart video). I did not buy plastic toys and I turned off the cable, forcing them to live on a diet of classic films, pretaped Pee Wee Herman, and Devo Videos.
My kids grew up to be serious readers, environmentalist, feminists, and all around decent human beings. They also have a thing for candy. Maybe that part is genetic.
The unreliable historian’s last blog post..Arranged Marriage
What will happen to Toto l’Ecureuil (never seen it in English)? I can imagine him getting totally out of his tree (boom boom) on incredibly powerful skunk weed and ending up in the grip of paranoid delusions. Swiper? Don’t go there; sad story, too much too young. The map is being used to snort fat lines of coke. The twins have been sold into sex slavery.
Jaywalker’s last blog post..A load of weird crap and some bad photos.
Honestly, I’ve never even liked the little Dora…she was too obsessed with candy and food for me. Seems like every Dora book we have is a hunt for lollipops or chocolate or ice cream. I think I’ll be passing on the Dora the Whorer version, too!
Jessica, you can be forgiven your weave and miniskirt because you were 19, not 9. And you still went on archeological digs in your thigh high boots, I know it for a fact.
Unreliable Historian. I’m taking heart from your story. I can cope with sugar jonesing as long as she comes out alive on the other end of the porn star aspirational lifestyle for tweenies
Jaywalker. I think Mattel and Nickelodeon will be calling you soon. I want to know what Mami and Papi make of all of this?
Domestic Engineer, Agreed, Dora was never exactly Laura Ingalls, but compared to other characters she was less noxious. And her older version simply nauseating. Makes candy and lollipop hunts seem quite sweet. BTW, responded to your Bambino Goodies comment over there.
Mothership, I hope you take my Bambino comments in stride…Make no mistake: I am a fan of you, and your writing. Just inserting a little perspective over there.
Or should that be, I’m a fan of “yours, and your writing?” Even I get my grammar mixed up…Must sleep now.
Domestic, I am unfluttered, just wanted to assure you that I am not one to bitch behind the teacher’s back. I only do that to Husband (and then, not really because it turns out he does read this and subsequently tells me off).
BTW I believe that ‘have gotten to the point’ is standard American English and ‘have got to the point’ would be more commonly found across the pond.
So you are absolutely right about conventions and these are always changing. Indeed there are some rules of grammar that are so far stretched that they are hardly observed any more such as the split infinitive “To boldly go” or the ubiquitous “10 items or less” which drives me slightly mad, but I am on a losing streak there. You will have read that post by the Gimp 😉
Sigh. This is depressing.
Noble Savage’s last blog post..A woman and her money are always parted
Shit. This is bad news indeed. Queenie’s got my Clothkits Kitty doll from the 1980s, PLUS all the vacuous Disney princesses, so I a two-faced, conflicted, double-standard bearing pop tart who worships jewels and cosmetics. I agree with your every word, however. Cx
Cassandra’s last blog post..Far from the maddening crowd
Just too funny. I too was brought up with the idea that ITV was unbelievably common. How I longed to watch Magpie and the Tomorrow People. But no, it was Screen Test, Newsround and Blue Peter. I still maintain that Crackerjack was the work of the devil and I have cold sweats thinking of the Crankies.
I’m pretty sure it was an anti-advertising stance rather than typical Trefusis snobbery, but I can’t be sure, because Grange Hill (on BBC1) was also banned.
I think Dora the Explorer has always been a latently meretricious little girl….
x
Mrs T’s last blog post..KILLING THE ANGEL IN THE HOUSE (2)
Clearly I was raised in a proleterian household then.
My parents would occasionally watch the BBC but my mother considered it “snooty” so ITV was the first choice. Magpie and the Tomorrow People, Children of the Stones and The Owl Service and their ilk were staples in my early TV diet along with all the ITC action stuff.
This whole tawdry lets turn dolls into brats/miniature whores is deeply depressing, along with your complaints last year about the inappropriate Hallowe’en costumes for small girls. I hate the idea that “sexy” dressing and make-up are now aimed at preschoolers. Is nothing “age appropriate” any more? I can remember wanting to wear make up and “fancy” clothes, and being told “when you’re older”. I guess the traditional stages of life have been abandoned, milestones like your first pair of heels, first lipstick, your first “grown up” outing in a restaurant with tablecloths and silverware have been truly abandoned. If it’s all happened to you before you hit first grade doesn’t it take the special out of growing up, and being able to look forward to doing things you aren’t old enough to do.
Sad. Very.
Noble Savage. Yes. Very
Cassandra. What?! Double standards?! Pop tart?! You traitor to the sisterhood, you! I, myself would NEVER do anything that was at odds with my diehard feminist stance like, say, use my appearance and sexuality to sell product (Jessica, Caroline, large cheque in the mail each…)
Mrs. T. I was also not allowed to watch Grange Hill! This is particularly strange as when I reached secondary school age my parents abdicated all responsibility for my safety and education and sent me to a terrifying inner London school that made Grange Hill look like Eton.
Caroline. Very jealous of your telly household. I used to lie about having seen Magpie so I could fit in at school.
It’s grotesque the way they are sexualising kids so young. It seems to be a way of making lifelong brand loyalty with tiny consumers which is not only disgusting because of its manipulative quality, but also how are we going save the planet and its dwindling resources if we are training a generation of unquestioning consumers from the cradle?
I remember putting on a flapper dress and fur coat as a Halloween costume at 13 and my dad forbidding me to leave the house in that outfit to go out with the neighborhood boys (who were like brothers). And I certainly wasnt going to dress as a hooker to ride the 96 bus, even if my high school didnt have a terrifyingly strict dress code.
I certainly wore my share of slutty outfits (Mothership, if you are holding any photos we will call it even) but as an adult. And only to very dark nightclubs. I earned the right to wear those outfits by, you know, growing up.
Mothership, this is random and unrelated, but when are we to get the photo of new cat? Did I miss it? I’m also waiting for the story about when you made a grown man cry…
Jessica, I’m skint so I’m going to look for the pics right now. I remember ALL the outfits. Especially the leather band-aid miniskirt. I really thought we’d be wearing them still..
Domestic. I haven’t put up the photo of the cat because I haven’t figured out my camera yet. I’m so embarrassed. It turns out my lofty ambitions as a photographer were a bit above my station in life. I need to get around to the crying man post. I actually saw him in a restaurant the other day and he pretended he hadn’t seen me.
I will try to do that for a post later in the week, a bit pushed right now!
Aha! I call dinner tea and manage to confuse all my Southern friends…maybe it’s a Northern thing: lunch is dinner, dinner is tea and a cup of tea is a brew….hmmm I should have really put myself forward for a part on the Royle Family. I do go to the cinema (well I don’t now because I’m a feeding machine but I did). Egg and chips? Bleurrgghhh… but I do like chippy tea on a Friday. Hope you don’t mind but I wrote a response to your blog post on mine; I didn’t want to take up loads of comment space and had been pondering the “tweenager” thing myself. You have it bang on though! When children aspire to be reality TV celebs something is going a bit wrong I reckon.
katherine’s last blog post..Kids will be kids…?
As a child, I was only denied television past the hour when it got moderately interesting. Now, thanks to DVD, I have my revenge. I can stay up and watch Hawaii Five-O and Columbo as late as I want. (Sadly, the practical reality is that this usually does not extend more than a few minutes past my 1972 bedtime, whilst Mom and Dad are now routinely up past 11.)
I have a vehement objection to the doling out of adult privileges (including wardrobe, dining, et cetera) until one is chronologically there. At 5 I wanted to be grown up so that I could have a suit, dine past 7, buy groceries and have my own phone. Without these aspirations, what is there to look forward to? I’d go on, but it’s 8.05 already, almost my bedtime.
Rodney’s last blog post..We might be up til 11 tonight!
Oh dear. I love Dora and Diego. I particularly like the interactiveness and the languge-learning elements. R gets up and moves around and answers questions and solves puzzles and shouts out words in Spanish – understanding many of them now (Ayuda-me! Ayuda-me! is her most recent favourite). She could count to ten in Spanish almost at the same time as she could do so in English. While I do talk some Spanish to her, much of this is down to Dora and Diego and I really like it (and feel less guilty about shoving her in front of the TV!).
But I am not impressed by this development. I will wait to see the actual shows they come out with, in the hopes that it will not be as bad as it sounds, though I think I will probably be disappointed. A developing and growing Dora could have benefits, of course, and they could use it to further the good work they have done, but it doesn’t sound like they will.
BTW, hubby read this post while we were preparing dinner last night and thought that you were a tad cynical (coming from Mr Cynical, himself, that’s a bit rich, of course) and I said ‘Yes, that’s her thing! She is Cynical Mum.’ which he thought was a bit amusing. (Sorry, I know there is much, much more to you, but I thought you might be interested that you were part of our dinner-table conversation!)
Coding Mamma (Tasha)’s last blog post..The bumpy road that is early pregnancy
Oh how very sad. I can see it now… Dora explores the adult entertainment industry on the streets of Las Vegas. Diego can be her pimp while boots lies in the gutter strung out on heroin. Her backpack contains all her worldly possessions including her last shred of decency.
However disturbing this is, it is comforting to know that there are other parents out there that would like to allow their children to retain their innocence as long as possible. Frankly the thought of sending our little girl to kindergarten scares me. Daycare was bad enough but her teacher was quite down to earth and did not allow ‘name brand’ toys to be played with in the classroom. I’ve watched her take toys away from kids until the end of the day because they were inappropriate (Thank you!). The commercial world targets boys just as well. It shocks me to see 3 and 4 year olds running around playing star wars and pretending to lop of limbs with tree branch light sabers. Who lets a 3 year old watch star wars?? One boy is even having a star wars themed birthday party.
I worry that all of this sheltering will make her a social pariah in school. “I have 12 Barbies how many do you have?” “None” she’ll have to answer. My only hope is that she’ll find other children of parents with a similar mindset to play with. In the meantime I’ll stick with the Berenstain Bears books for our little one. We used to watch the Berenstain Bears animated show on PBS until the last wild fire burned up the transmitter. Off now to sing “My Favorite Things” with my girl, which she knows by heart and sings like a tiny Julie Andrews (albeit slightly off key).
Katherine, I loved your post, wrote back over there
Rodney, I relate to the bedtime thing. It’s only recently that I have dared to stay up past when the children have fallen asleep. I think it’s my second adolescent rebellion coming – watch out..
Coding Mama, I am very sad that this is happening to Dora. I think the preschool Dora will remain in some of the shows, but big girl Dora is going to be a doll for older girls with her online fashion world. It’s not that little Dora is destroyed totally, it’s that she’s undermined by her older counterpart and the message that sends to children – like Barbie and Bratz.
I’m flattered and amused by your husband’s take on me. I think I might categorise myself more as Caustic Mum than Cynical Mum, but I do agree the humour is dark ; )
Daddy Daycare. I am also terrified of what Kindergarten is going to do to our precious little girls. I think there is a strong possibility that they are going to come home drinking, smoking and asking to go out with boys who have motorbikes during recess. Wahhh! Homeschool?
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