Comments on: Socializing Girls Into Domestic Martyrdom

By: Starcher

Starcher — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 05:50:33 +0000

In the craze, I got a preemie, but only because the regular Cabbage Patch Kids were sold out. Forty bucks in 1980s dollars, and I had to convince my mom to buy one for me. I didn’t even want a CPK, with their over-dimpled bodies and fat plastic heads, but it was a status symbol, and I’d rather get one than to be rejected by my peers, whose status was ranked in CPK dolls. The Preemies back then had a small circle of short yarn hair on their heads. Other CPK ads showed the dolls in a hospital nursery, so the “extra special care” was referring to the special beds that real preemies had to stay in to survive. I knew this as a 7 year old. This was back in the day before the Internet and parents answered their children’s questions about the differences between people. It was not about slavery to a child for life. No, that was for the Cabbage Patch Kids in wheelchairs, okay?

By: australian souvenirs

australian souvenirs — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 05:31:39 +0000

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By: Silver Mooney

Silver Mooney — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:54:10 +0000

Yes, how disturbing, the very idea of caring for others more than you care for self. HORRIBLE. Evil, even. Thankfully, young women and men today are much too narcissistic to ever be fooled into caring very much for others.

By: karinova

karinova — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 08:22:22 +0000

Wow. Yikes. I’d totally forgotten about the CPK Preemie dolls.
I was in the appropriate age group, but I was very much not into the CPK phenomenon. In fact, one xmas I made a point to tell my mom that I didn’t want one— I didn’t want her going through all manner of hassle and expense to get me something I’d hate. Something about them grossed me out. To me they weren’t cute. Like, at all. *shudder*

Anyway. My comment:
My memory on this is foggy, but I seem to recall that around this time— late 80s?— premature babies were getting a huge amount of press, because 1) medical tech had gotten to the point of being able to save their lives; and 2) a whole lot of them were suddenly being born. And why were there suddenly so many premature births?* I think partly #1, but wasn’t that also right about when modern infertility treatment really began to take off? Surrogacy and what we then called “test-tube babies” had begun to be science fact, and those babies were often premature (and briefly famous à la “Inside Edition”). I wonder if any of that contributed to the creation of the CPK Preemies?

In fact, now that I think of it: considering the explosion in IVF and whatnot, and the attendant spike in multiple/premature births, I’m surprised there aren’t more (a lot more) premature-baby dolls on the market.

____
*That is: premature births among white/well-off Americans (as depicted in much of the marketing for CPK merch). Cuz the more obvious reason we were suddenly seeing preemies all the time back then was the crack epidemic. But those were largely brown preemies, so… yeah.

By: b

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 04:20:01 +0000

Some deep and disturbing socialization indeed.

The only way I could possibly see this as disturbing is if it is implied that only girls should feel/respond like this, and boys absolutely should not. Otherwise, what is so disturbing about sending a message that parents should care deeply for, and even be willing to sacrifice for the good of, their children? Do we want people to become parents who don’t understand that? I think that this is actually an excellent message for all children to receive.

This particular commercial did feature only females, but remember that Cabbage Patch Kids were actually marketed to boys AND girls, and were quite famous for being one of the first big-name baby dolls that were popular with both genders. Perhaps you expect them to feature both boys and girls in every single commercial just to make sure nobody ever gets the wrong idea, but overall I think you could have found many toys with much more deeply gendered messages than a Cabbage Patch Kid.

The one thing I do find disturbing is exactly what Cracked pointed out – they are romanticizing the idea of a premature baby. Even when I was a kid I was kinda creeped out by that.

By: hypatia

hypatia — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 01:47:23 +0000

I’m a little weirded out by this whole idea that children who are born preemie somehow need to have a doll who represents that. Most preemies go on to have perfectly healthy childhoods, so why exactly is it being impressed on these children that they are “different” from other kids?

By: Rachel

Rachel — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 19:34:11 +0000

Holy he**, they’re $199.00 each??? No wonder the only Cabbage Patch Kid I ever had was a generic handmade one!

By: Tlönista

Tlönista — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 19:18:54 +0000

blue, green, brown, and Asian

Sometimes, there is nothing to say but WHAT IS THIS I DON’T EVEN

By: Rachel

Rachel — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 16:36:01 +0000

I remember the “preemies” and I remember actually thinking being a “preemie” or a small/early baby was cool. I was mildly jealous of my friends who were light at birth or born early, while I was a 9 pound baby born 3 weeks past due. So I find these dolls disturbing because of the implication that prematurity is “cute” or somehow “special.” I mean, it seems kind of good for kids who were actually premature to have a toy to relate to–but it’s not good at all for kids to relate prematurity to being “better” than other babies, which is what I got from it. Kind of a newborn version of being the skinniest girl in your class.

By: Mary

Mary — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 05:59:23 +0000

Did the Cabbage Patch Preemie retail for the same price as the other Cabbage Patch Kids? If so, that would have been a pretty crafty way to get the same money for a toy that required less material.

By: Mint

Mint — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 04:31:20 +0000

I had a preemie doll when I was little. I had BEEN a preemie, so I related the doll being small and maybe needing a little extra help.. to the way I was small and perhaps in need of a little extra help. I thought it was cute and diaper-able. I have no real desire to have any kiddos (I’m almost 30), so I don’t think it brainwashed me *too* much. :)

By: Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:48:16 +0000

I’m very convinced by Penny and Haldorable’s points here…children very often use play to construct and revise narratives about events in their lives, including difficult ones such as having a preemie sibling or being smaller/more delicate than the other kids.

I was recently watching a 3-year-old girl using a toy medical kit and some plush toys to re-enact a very sad day at the vet’s office, as a way of coping with the family dog’s sickness and death. I’ve never seen so much nurturing with a plastic scalpel – all the gender-neutral motor-skillsy toys in the world couldn’t do much to change that. It would be a horrible scene to put into a cheerful TV commercial, but I’d expect parents to have their own insight into how their kids might use toys that simulate real-life scenarios.

As for Asian being an eye color, that’s news to me!

By: Maria

Maria — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 23:40:10 +0000

sorry, i meant KNOW plenty of, not now. my K sticks :)

By: Maria

Maria — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 23:38:42 +0000

and i now plenty of “ceo” moms who have wildly successful children in all walks of life who worked while they raised their now-wildly-successful children. it isn’t about demonizing moms or housewives, it’s about the assumption that we are incapable of doing both at the same time.

By: Fangirl

Fangirl — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 23:14:59 +0000

Next time you see “Little Tykes Boardroom Set, complete with (p)leather chair at the head of the table” marketed to girls, let me know.