As a Latina mother of a little girl, I'm going to join the chorus of parental voices crying over Dora the Explorer's new tweener look. Sign the petition here.
I'm not going to use words like "slutty" because I think slut-shaming is one of the ways that women reinforce the patriarchy against each other, and I do want to wait until after we can see the full image (and not just a silhouette) before my final assessment, but I'm already very disappointed.
I could go into a long rant on each of the specifics (long flowy hair, skinny body, skirt), but really it all boils down to one thing: Dora, who once was a shining example that girls didn't have to conform to gender stereotypes, is now reinforcing them.
Frankly, I was already ticked off at "Princess Dora" and the various other ways in which Dora has been tinkered with to try to capture more of the Disney and Barbie market-share. There are plenty of products and characters already out there convincing girls to be pink, and frilly, and fixated on their looks. Dora was the alternative.
I know I'm a little hardcore on this. I mean, I went and tracked down two of the last remaining mint-in-box Get Real Girls on eBay just so that I could open them up and ruin their collectible value by giving them to my three-year-old (FYI, they were Claire the scuba diver and Nini the backpacker, and she freaking loves them), because I could not bear the thought of her having a Barbie or Bratz or any of the other legion of horrible fashion dolls out there.
The point is, girlhood does not have to look like Barbie. Girlhood does not have to be hair, and nails, and staying indoors playing with your My-Housework-Second-Shift-Cottage-And-Appliances. Girlhood can be active, and creative, and exploratory, and full of discovery and challenges.
Plenty of parents are looking for ways to help our daughters discover and decide who they are without the socially reinforced gender messages that our kids are bombarded with every day.
From a strictly monetary-based bottom-line approach, you're going to make a heck of a lot more money by capitalizing on that and aging Dora in a character-consistent way than in trying to steal away a little of the frilly-girl market share and diluting the brand identity that made her so popular in the first place.
As a side note, the racism inherent in the idea that you can now change Dora's hair and eye color just makes me want to smack someone! Yes, my daughter's media world is just overflowing with positive Latina role models her age, so no need for Dora to actually, you know, look Latina. While we're at it, why not drop Dora's Spanish usage too! My daughter is red haired, and blue-eyed, and I still want Dora to look typically Latina, because I want my daughter to see that as a positive image, and to identify with that side of her family and that aspect of her heritage.
Guess what, marketing folks? We Latin@s are a growing demographic segment, and we're not going away any time soon. Wrap your heads around that one, because I for one am perfectly happy to take my discretionary income to a company that's going to promote diverse and creative play options for my daughter. Right now it's looking like the new Dora isn't going to be it.
I know I'm a little hardcore on this. I mean, I went and tracked down two of the last remaining mint-in-box Get Real Girls on eBay just so that I could open them up and ruin their collectible value by giving them to my three-year-old (FYI, they were Claire the scuba diver and Nini the backpacker, and she freaking loves them), because I could not bear the thought of her having a Barbie or Bratz or any of the other legion of horrible fashion dolls out there.
The point is, girlhood does not have to look like Barbie. Girlhood does not have to be hair, and nails, and staying indoors playing with your My-Housework-Second-Shift-Cottage-And-Appliances. Girlhood can be active, and creative, and exploratory, and full of discovery and challenges.
Plenty of parents are looking for ways to help our daughters discover and decide who they are without the socially reinforced gender messages that our kids are bombarded with every day.
From a strictly monetary-based bottom-line approach, you're going to make a heck of a lot more money by capitalizing on that and aging Dora in a character-consistent way than in trying to steal away a little of the frilly-girl market share and diluting the brand identity that made her so popular in the first place.
As a side note, the racism inherent in the idea that you can now change Dora's hair and eye color just makes me want to smack someone! Yes, my daughter's media world is just overflowing with positive Latina role models her age, so no need for Dora to actually, you know, look Latina. While we're at it, why not drop Dora's Spanish usage too! My daughter is red haired, and blue-eyed, and I still want Dora to look typically Latina, because I want my daughter to see that as a positive image, and to identify with that side of her family and that aspect of her heritage.
Guess what, marketing folks? We Latin@s are a growing demographic segment, and we're not going away any time soon. Wrap your heads around that one, because I for one am perfectly happy to take my discretionary income to a company that's going to promote diverse and creative play options for my daughter. Right now it's looking like the new Dora isn't going to be it.
Hi Elena!
I am SO grossed out about this. Seriously it makes my tummy HURT. WHY??? I mean I know why, but its so unethical and just offensive. You know I was already on the fence about Dora just because she was Mattel, but it was nice to at least have one mainstream female role model for very young girls that had a bit of diversity going for her. Urgh. Gross. Thanks for the post. Found you via Veronica on VivalaFeminista. I miss California. Moved to Colorado last June. Besos a todas mis amigas en su oficina! Camille
Posted by: Brightsong | March 12, 2009 at 03:01 PM
Thanks, Camille! The more I look at what's out there for kids, and how gender-segregated it is, the more it makes me mad! Take a look at the post I did today about a pair of books I saw in the kid's section of my local book store. Grrr!
Posted by: Elena Perez | March 13, 2009 at 09:54 AM
Hello! I'm a 15 year old girl and I stumbled across this whole "tween Dora" issue while researching for a paper I'm writing for my honors marketing class. I've made several comments on multiple postings that used the phrase "What next? Dora the cheerleader?" because I actually am a cheerleader and that statement was very shocking coming from parents that said they didn't want to show their kids they supported stereotypes, while the "cheerleader" stereotype is one of the worst stereotypes teenage girls these days face because cheerleaders can actually be very smart (I'm tied for first in my class and am very, very active in after-school activities like clubs, student council, and sports teams). But that issue isn't why I wanted to comment on your post. I noticed that many people see the new Dora and think that she is very much like what TV companies like Disney and Nick advertise as your "average american teenage girl" and I really don't see what is wrong with that. At first glance, I, and most of my friends, are exactly like that average teen. I brush my hair every morning and make sure my outfit matches. As I child, I went through the princess phase, just like most young girls do, and I, every once in a while (and still do), wanted to put on a pretty dress. But like all the parents are pointing out, it's not how someone dresses that matters, it's who they are as a person. So yes, at age nine, I spent some of my free time with my girlfriends dressed up as a princess in frilly pink costumes and playing with dolls, but I also played football in a league that other than me, was all boys and enjoyed being outdoors. Even as a teen, my hobbies range from things like cheerleading and gymnastics to other "male-dominated" sports, camping, and even school work. So while parents are saying that they want to avoid teen gender stereotypes in dolls like Dora, they're really just promoting them by saying that a teen who cares about looking presentable is going to be more focused on things like fashion and make-up than things like being outside and the environment.
Posted by: openid.aol.com/slsgymnastics | September 07, 2009 at 06:29 PM