Being a guy, I never really paid attention to what the girls were playing with growing up. I mean, my sister had some Barbies, some My Little Ponies and some She-Ra, but I never really took any notice. Now decades later, I have decided to make the toys of my youth my business so now it has become my business if you will. And there’s something I noticed while deep in thought searching for some vintage My Little Ponies for my niece.
The toy companies were sending the boys a very different message then the girls. See, the Transformers, He-Man and Ninja Turtles came with all sorts of weapons and devices of killing and doom. But the girls, they came with little hair brushes, hair clips, combs and tiny little mirrors. So if one were to think by the message being sent by what I was receiving on Christmas Day all those years ago vs. what Little Susie was down the street, I was being sent a message to be an ass kicker. To fight evil. And that the more weapons you have the better… Oh, and then there’s the slime. See, you girls reading this may not remember this but we had TONS of toys involving slime! The Ninja Turtles had a slime pit, He-Man had a slime pit… I am pretty sure some of the less popular toy lines did too in some way.
Now, Little Susie, she was sending a completely different message – one that you can beautiful. You can take care of yourself. Groom… and look just like Jem even, maybe rock some kick ass shoulder pads. Of course these companies like Mattel and Hasbro weren’t doing this intentionally. This was all about making a product directed at the audience. But in the way you are fashioned by how you grow up… So who’s going to be more prepared for the real world – the boy with skills in transforming robots and the use of slime on my various heroes and villains, while the girls have personal grooming, learning to do their hair all nice (and even a little singing and dancing from Jem).
Now, of course there were educational toys I had growing up that weird computer thing that wanted me to spell, or some of the other toys like those little Casio keyboards and what not but those I’d play with for like a minute then go back to bashing Skeletor in the face with Ram-Man. And I loved my childhood – it could be why I’m such a big kid now working with toys, so I’m not complaining about this, just looking at the message I was being sent as a child. How useful was it truly going forward compared to girls? Not very, even if the whole culture of “everyone has to be beautiful, everyone has to look a certain way” wasn’t a good thing to show girls.
Girls had some great role models. She-Ra was a bad ass! She kicked Hordak’s ass and he was way tougher than Skeletor. Skeletor was a stooge compared to Hordak. She-Ra was the precursor to the Spice Girl as far the whole “girl power” thing went. I may have not seen the whole She-Ra show but this girl was clearly about female empowerment. She was seen as an equal to the ultimate man – He-man – at least base don the She-Ra/He-Man crossovers I have seen. The show seemed to go out of its way to show that She-Ra was He-Man’s equal. Even in an age where the heroines were few and far between and never really shown as equals to their male counterparts. Like Wonder Woman for years in the Golden Age was tied up in some sort of way on nearly every cover. I know Wonder Woman also has been shown as Superman’s equal but not as often as She-Ra was to He-Man. More often thea not, Wonder Woman was number 2 after Superman – or even after Martian Manhunter or other male heroes.
Another thing is what our toys were used for… Like the girl toys like My Little Ponies and Barbies even my beloved She-Ra were much less action-based. Sure you could smash She-Ra into Hordak and make her kick Stinkor in the nuts. But she didn’t have a specfic kick action. She was a pretty girl with comparable hair. And speaking of Stinkor, we guys had a toy named STINKOR that actually did SMELL! Yes, we had a toy that pretty much had a selling point that it smelled bad! Now, looking into this, you girls had the opposite. There was a My Little Pony named Sundae Best Coco Berry that smelled NICE – if I remember correctly, it smelled like a sundae. So this seriously puts a big vote in the side of the age old “boys smell, girls rule” argument. We literally had a toy that SMELLED bad and we LOVED it. I remember loving my Stinkor. I could swear I have memories chasing a neighbour girl around with my Stinkor!… I was an odd little boy.
For me, it was fun writing this and looking back at the various toy lines, remembering little crazy things from my childhood, and thinking about the other side; what the ladies had growing up as opposed to what I did. It’s really interesting what image and how people would turn out if they went by the values of these role models. If we became exactly as the messages we were sent. I mean, at least the guys had our “knowing is half the battle” messages from G.I. Joe to keep us from becoming total insane war-mongering hooligans (I know I won’t be hiding in any fridges in junkyards). But I am sure Girls had similar messages on their shows (I think Care Bears did but I could be wrong). Perhaps the girls were just destined to be better people than us guys, just from the standpoint of what our toys were teaching us. It’s just funny, in my head I just think, “they really wanted girls to be better people than boys.” I could be wrong – it won’t be the first or the last time but it is an interesting little thought.
Oh well… at least I had a cool Snake Mountain toy with a megaphone thing that gave my voice a cool echo… so take that!
