The scene is Christmas morning, 1993. Hasbro Toys has released a limited edition Hall of Fame series 12-inch G.I. Joe action figure, platoon leader Duke. Press his chest once and a gruff voice shouts out a series of commands or threats. The G.I. Joe action figure had been introduced in 1964 - Hasbro's marketing department consistently claimed that G.I. Joe was not a "doll" (actually, he was), because "boys did not play with dolls." Instead, the toy was marketed as a moveable action figure. I can remember playing with G.I. Joe growing up as a child - all my friends had one (most, including me, had more than one). But we never would have said that we were playing with dolls.
Several versions of G.I. Joe were released over the years (do you remember the G.I. Joe with the "Kung Fu grip" or "Atomic Man", the one that had the bionic arm and leg?). The 1982 version was completely different. Instead of a 12-inch "doll", G.I. Joe became a 3.75 inch plastic figure that fought against Cobra Command (the release of this version coincided with a cartoon show). The 1993 release harkened back to G.I. Joe's early days.
In those days, girls played with Barbie dolls and boys played with G.I. Joe action figures. So, imagine, if you will, your child's surprise when he or she opened up their G.I. Joe or Barbie toy on Christmas morning, 1993. Your son presses the chest of his brand-new G.I. Joe doll only to hear it say, "Let's go shopping!" in the traditional female's voice. Your daughter, on the other hand, presses a button on her brand new Teen Talk Barbie only to hear a gruff voice say, "Eat lead, Cobra!"
Apparently, a group of activists in an organization called the Barbie Liberation Organization had hacked several of the toys and switched the voice chips in the two toys. They hacked about 300 toys in total, all of which were sold in either California or New York. The stunt was a protest response directed against a controversy surrounding the 1992 release of the Teen Talk Barbie.
The 1992 Teen Talk Barbie's voice chip said things like, "Want to go shopping?", "Will we ever have enough clothes?", and "Math class is tough!" The backlash was swift. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics vehemently objected, as did the American Association of University Women, claiming that the phrase was detrimental to their efforts to encourage young
girls to enter STEM fields. Mattel eventually removed the quote from subsequent Teen Talk Barbies and even offered to exchange these for the "Math is tough" version, but the damage had already been done. The television show, The Simpsons, even aired their own version of this controversy with the 1994 episode, Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy (Lisa objected to the sexist phrases, "Thinking too much gives you wrinkles").
Igor Vamos, one of the organizers of the Barbie/G.I. Joe switch said afterwards, "We are trying to make a statement about the way toys can encourage negative behavior in children, particularly given rising acts of violence and sexism." Message delivered, but unfortunately the message was not widely understood. These kinds of gender stereotypes were certainly not new back then, and they haven't changed all that much now (see, for example, previous posts from me on this issue: "A life of privilege - part III", "Word choice matters", "What's in a name?", and "It's your world and you can cry if you want to").
I will explore this topic further in my next post. For now, the important "take-home message" here is that we all have these implicit biases in regards to race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation. They are deeply ingrained - recognizing that fact is the first step on the journey to equity, equality, and justice.
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