Comments Lounge
Flea, which magazine are you submitting this essay to? I love it!
Well, I'm 45 now, and just for the record, I didn't really become enchanted with Brooke until 'Suddenly Susan'.
As a minor, she never looked that attractive to me...but then again, I grew up in the Playboy era, where my tastes were shaped by busty women in lingerie.
My daughter (age 11) has a number of Bratz things, but she seems smart enough to understand that girls don't and shouldn't look like that. My fingers are crossed, anyway.
Great piece, Flea. One issue however - the links seem to be broken.
Fixed it Naomi, thanks!
How's this for a twist? One of my nieces has some Bratz dolls. She also has some Barbies. Her play with the Bratz has a decidedly silly edge to it: "Let's change her feet because she's got to go to the store and get another bucket of lipstick".
Her play with the Barbies is different, more serious. Barbie has to get her purse, because her money and car keys are in it. She has to drive to work, and stop at the store and buy some cat food on her way home. She also has to put some gas in the car.
Granted, there's a lot of valid criticism of Barbie. Still, who says kids can't distinguish asinine crap (Bratz) from better toys?
Brooke Shields really impressed me with her intelligent no-nonsense comeback for Tom Cruise.
And I believe Barbie is due for her own coming-of-age thing. Are you listening Mattel? How about AARP Barbie? We can see how she's dealing with the gray hair and crow's feet. I'm also curious to see how that whole thing worked out when she left Ken and ran off with G I Joe.
Great essay, but I have to say that imputing some sort of sexualization to My Little Pony dolls strikes me as a stretch. I suppose it's like seeing Jesus in a tortilla or, perhaps more apropos, like thinking the purple Teletubby is gay. People see what they want or expect to see. Both of my kids -- girl, 6; boy, 4 -- love playing with My Little Pony dolls, and while there is plenty of neighing and pony-flying in our house, there have been no pony orgies. (Of course, I might change my mind about Ms. Rutherford's point if Mattel starts selling a My Little Rampant Stallion doll.)
Dan, i don't think the point is that your children will use the ponies to act out sex (though i have to say i did that with virtually every to that depicted an animate creature, and sometimes with toy cars, too).
the point is that the toys are creepily sexualized. which, after checking out that Brunching Shuttlecocks thing, i have to agree. i still think they're pretty cool, but yes, they are sorta creepily pr0n-ish.
Roxy is right. We all made Barbie and Ken have sex, and if Barbie wasn't available, watch out Raggedy Ann and Andy!
I just completely tanked on the My Little Pony quiz. Apparently I don't know much about ponies or porn.
Roxy, the ponies are only "creepily sexualized" from the perspective of an adult, and really only if the particular adult is looking for it. Believe me, my house is full of the things, and until this post, I would never have viewed them as sexualized.
Oh, my God, they are SO sexual! My best friend and I have had several conversations about this--she collects them *because* they're sexy, actually--and I can't see them in the toy aisle of the grocery store without blushing and thinking, "Seriously?"
The friend has one on her dashboard that's porcelain white with peach hair; the pony's ass is in the air and she's LOOKING OVER HER SHOULDER AT YOU with this sultry but almost sad look, like she's just been fucked into exhaustion. I can't believe anyone can see them without thinking dirty thoughts. They're freaking awesome.
Dan, that's the point. They model a behavior for little girls that adults realize is sexual, but the little girls just think of as "pretty".
I can guarantee that my 6-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son do NOT see them as sexual. Sometimes a cigar really is just a cigar.
Amanda, what's your point? Is it that adults are more likely to buy them for their kids because they (the adults) are attracted to Teh Sexy? Or is it that women are more likely to stick their asses in the air when they become sexually aware because they played with pony dolls who looked like that when they were six?
It's that girls are trained to think of postures of sexual display as "pretty" or "feminine" or "what girls should act like/look like".
(And boys are too, I should say. But I think little girls are especially attentive to these messages.)
Dan, I can guarantee you that what those figures now look like has nothing to do with actual, you know, ponies.
But this requires a couple of assumptions. First, you have to assume that the posture of a My Little Pony doll is, in fact, a sexual posture. In a dog, the "play bow" is similar, and indicates a desire to play; it's not at all sexual. (For the record, I don't think My Little Pony dolls are in a play bow posture; but the forelegs are not that much shorter than the rear legs either, so I have some trouble see ing it as a sexual presenting posture too. Of course, I also don't believe Bert and Ernie are gay, so maybe I'm just out of touch.)
Having made your first assumption, then you have to assume that a little girl (or boy) is somehow going to associate the posture with the "prettiness" of the doll. My kids are far more interested in the manes, tails and "cutie marks" on these ponies than in their posture. In fact, given the "cutie marks," it seems possible that little girls will associate tattoos with "prettiness," moreso than the posture of the ponies.
I'm not saying that My Little Pony dolls haven't changed over time the way Ms. Rutherford says they have. But in the absence of anything resembling data, I am fairly skeptical of the suggestion that this change is, either intentionally or unintentionally, training little girls to associate a particular sexual display with beauty and attractiveness.
There are plenty of messages out there that clearly *are* intended to manipulate girls' and boys' attitudes about what is and is not attractive. As I've noted before, people who go looking for particular messages are pretty likely to find them, but I'm not sure it's at all helpful to go looking for them everywhere. For my part, I'm far more concerned about the effects on my daughter of kiddie makeup kits, Bratz dolls and the Princess mentality than I am about the ponies.
Fortunately, my kids are fairly fixated these days on a children's show about anthropomorphic monster trucks. I defy anybody to find an unacceptable message about sexuality and gender roles in that.
Sheena, of course they're not like real ponies. Real ponies also don't live in shining white palaces and set rainbows in the sky every spring. But teddy bears aren't much like real bears either. Children's toys are often made childlike themselves -- big eyes, rounded shapes, etc. I'm not sure how that's relevant.
Poor Brooke. Kicked aside in favor of a Pony War.
Sorry to hijack your post, Flea. I do agree with you that Brooke Shields's story is heartening: If she can recover from being the direct victim of the hypersexualization that her family and business associates forced on her, then there's hope for all the little girls out there being unduly and inappropriately influenced (whether it's by ponies or Bratz dolls).
It is damned hard to find clothing for even toddlers which does not have licensing on it and doesn't look like slut wear e.g. skimpy sleeveless "babydoll" tops that stretch tight across the chest and loose below cut too short many times to reach the too short skirt, scoop-necked shirts with sassy saying from cute chick to others more explicitly sexual, any writing across the bottom of shorts or pants, etc. Some of the slut wear could be just little girls dressing like their young mother, other bits are less explicable. But then, I go to the pet section and see many of the same kinds of slut wear for dogs, so I am assuming that people don't really intend to mark either their child or their poodle as sexually available.
I agree that my little ponies are very sexualized and could give little girls the wrong impression of what is appropriate. Children mimic what they see. I watched two little girls, about 4 and 5, dressed in skimpy halter tops and short shorts and body glitter like their their caretaker who seemed to be an older teen one day in line at Walgreen's. They were both practicing tossing their hair over their shoulder and other primping, flirting gestures while pretending to gossip to each other on their invisible cell phones and put on invisible make up.
It makes me think back to that horrid case of the 5 year old who was raped in Georgia and the sub-human judge ruling that she encouraged her attackers by acting sexy. Well, now I have seen five year olds try to act sexy.
That is a damn fine essay, flea.
(Though I must say I miss the strings of asteriks--what, your writing is all grown up now?) I really want to circulate this to my department at work, though then they would all know I was reading blogs instead of working.
Delurking to commend you on this piece. I've been visiting your site for a while and am continually amazed at all you are doing, including this week's announcement about Offsprung. As a married 29 year old who often worries about establishing "work/life" balance in the future (i.e. once we have children), your blog is a pleasure to read. Thank you.
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this is the picture that will end your discussion about "my little pony"
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