Hacking the Passive Girl Toy
Over at Instructables site, maker j_l_larson writes, “I have noticed a strange inequity between the poseability of girls and boys dolls. Most of the female dolls have stiff arms and legs, which permit them to do little more than model clothing.” To rectify matters, Larson created a step-by-step tutorial for modifying girls’ dolls so that they can actually do stuff. Lisa Wade of SocImages adds, “scholars have noted that ‘action figures’ and ‘dolls’ tend to be pose-able and non-pose-able, respectively, reflecting the idea that boys are encouraged to be active agents and girls passive objects.” The tutorial is a great way to examine this issue, and the disembodied in-between shots are works of art in their own right.
Wheeeeee! The finished product.
Previously:
January 4th, 2011 at 2:18 pm
What a coincidence—dinosaur-wrangling fairies was MY favorite game to play as a wee one, too!
January 4th, 2011 at 3:23 pm
One hundred percent YES to this! Except I can’t help but notice the ageism in newly mobilized young girls wrangling the old/extinct immobile dinosaurs.
January 4th, 2011 at 4:01 pm
what do you mean? Surely fairies are an old and extinct breed as well. They just look young for their age
January 4th, 2011 at 6:00 pm
Oh, that used to drive me insane as a kid, even though I didn’t quite know the social ramifications of it at the time. I’m glad someone made this.
January 4th, 2011 at 6:33 pm
This is 1000% better than breaking the dolls arms and legs trying to get them to do things (which is what I did as a child, sadly. My Barbies all ended with no neck because they wouldn’t say “no” properly!)
January 5th, 2011 at 4:45 am
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