Barbies and Monsters

I had no idea two years ago when I wrote here about my lifetime love of Barbie dolls, that something sinister was brewing. Sure I’d seen signs of it all around me as I read what kids were seeing at the movies and buying in bulk at the bookstore.

Not being around kids much, I have to rely on reading the pop culture media and asking moms and grandmoms what the heck is going on.

So, my mouth dropped open yesterday morning when I heard on NPR that Barbie doll sales were continuously dropping while the sale of Monster High Dolls is skyrocketing. In case you don’t have one of the above mentioned female offspring, here it is. These skinnier than Barbie dolls are patterned after the teen kids of such notables as Frankenstein and Dracula. They have punky scary colored hair and clothes and frankly look to me like the scariest prostitute I wouldn’t want to encounter on a well-lit street.

My knee jerk reaction was boomer-typical I think. “What is to become of these youngsters who dress like a zombied Madonna and play with creepy toys and video games?!”

An article in the News-Press tell me that Barbie’s audience is getting younger (3-6), while the market for the ghoulish dolls is a bit older. According to this article, Monster High dolls have a punk rock look that's intended to send the message that being different is OK. And they're aimed at slightly older children — adding to their appeal — while Barbie's increasingly young audience is hurting sales. After all, no child wants to play with anything seen as a baby toy.

Barbie a baby toy? I can so recall my mother’s reluctance in buying my 10-year-old self this highly advertised icon. “What happened to Tiny Tears and baby dolls?” my mother bemoaned. This doll is more developed than Elaine will be in ten years!

There was to be no negotiation. I wanted Barbie and all the fashions that went with her. Some day I would have a similar body and wardrobe and I was going to be prepared.

Now, I’m wondering if Monster High Dolls had been available back then if I would have wanted them as badly. I think so. Why? Because I was crazy for monster movies. I still can remember every scene from I was a Teenage Werewolf starring Michael Landon in his varsity jacket. Reluctantly, my parents let me stay up late on Saturday nights to watch Christopher Coffin and The Ghoul who hosted local scary monster movies. These came on after the Dick Clark teen specials with Beechnut gum as I recall.

Are monster dolls going to mark the ruin of the wholesome playthings we wish for our little girls? To gain more insight, I knew I had to go right to the source. I called up my 8-year-old grand niece in Clio, Michigan to get her take on all of this. Her parents are very hands-on, but that includes giving their kids hands-on to most every toy that they put on their wish list.

Olivia counted her Barbies, and she has 20 or so that are mostly on display. She has 2 Monster High Dracularas. One was a gift and one she bought with her allowance. She also has 2 Monster High tee shirts that she bought herself. While she doesn’t say that Barbie is passe’ with her friends, she is interested in all the new accessories that accompany the Monster High dolls. Is this great marketing or what?

Yes, it surprised even Mattel who had no idea that this new twist would take off as it did. According to BMO Capital Markets analyst Gerrick Johnson, the brand is worth more than $500 million in annual sales.

So, if my Olivia asked me for a certain Monster High Doll for her birthday in October, could I do it? Gosh, she’s 8. What if she wanted long fingerless gloves or a leather mini skirt? I know this is images they see in so many places. How long can she stay a little girl? And what does that even mean anymore?

Geek Chic in Glasses

In my first job, working at my hometown weekly newspaper, one of my tasks was to write “Back Through The Years.” It was a look at what was newsworthy in our town 5, 10, 15 & 20 years ago. I would open the big musty bound books and search for something I thought was not boring. It wasn’t easy. But, that aside, I never ceased to be shocked by the eyeglasses that people wore in these old pictures. My 16-year-old self would crack up at the rimless spectacles, nerdy horn rims and crazy cat eyes set on peoples’ faces.

I bring this up now because I’m stunned by the most recent trend in frames – huge, dark bug-like spectacles – bigger than even Buddy Holly wore. Boomers, I’m giving you a heads-up here. Before you know it, you will be wearing them too. How do I know this? Because just days after realizing it was a trend, a salesperson at TJ Maxx convinced me that I should buy a pair. Okay, I haven’t worn them in public yet, but I’m practicing at home.

I first saw this trend when Oprah reached for hers during an interview, and I thought she had borrowed them from one of the men on her crew. Then a few days later, my friend Kim hooked me into watching the finals of “The Voice.” Unless you’ve been out of the country, you must have heard about the three finalists: The Swon Brothers, Danielle Bradbery and Michelle Chamuel. Well, Michelle was her authentic self in her mode of dress which included big black glasses. Next thing you knew, judges Shakira and Usher were sporting them too. It was starting to grow on me.

As I usually do, I polled the twenty-somethings who I work with about this phenomenon. Co-worker Kelly immediately cited Nicole Richie and said she wasn’t quite ready for the look. Others were sort of lukewarm on the subject.

So, I dug a little deeper and found some 17 year-olds to get their take. Mason and Brandon immediately mentioned rapper 2 Chainz. (real name Tauheed Epps.) I looked him up on the Internet, and sure enough he sports a multitude of big glasses and sunglasses in the photos I found of him. Brandon and Mason said that the big glasses are indeed coming into vogue among their peers. They were quick to add that for now, it’s mostly the girls who are showing up in them.

So folks geek chic is the thing. When I googled celebrities in big glasses, I found Jennifer Aniston, Tina Fey, Justin Timerlake, Johnny Depp……it just goes on and on. So far, the only boomers I can name are the above mentioned Oprah and Katie Couric. Can Piers Morgan and Scott Pelley be far behind? Gosh, Larry King and Phil Donahue left the airwaves too soon.

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Precious Female Friendships

It’s a small book, and one that I would never have picked up had a female friend not told me that it was a ‘must read.’ “Just trust me on this, you will love it,” my boomer buddy Kim promised. Well, boomers, I apologize for being so sensitive to the title, but I think you will identify with me here. The title is Two Old Women. The author is Velma Wallis, a native Alaskan Athabascan Indian from an isolated place above the Arctic Circle called Fort Yukon.

If I may digress for just a moment, I’ve been to Fort Yukon. It was an optional trip offered when I was tour directing in Alaska. Accessible only by air or off-road vehicle, it is nothing like one would imagine. I was there in the summer, and it was a muddy, rather depressing place with lots of skinny dogs and kids four-wheeling as I recall. The folks there were very friendly, and I do have a fond memory: standing by the Yukon River as this huge waterway carried icebergs rushing by so fast it was hard to even take a picture.

But back to the two old women. It is a story set generations ago as nomadic natives struggled to survive an unbearably cold, sparse winter. This particular band feels compelled to abandon two women aged 75 and 80, as they struggled to find food in an unforgiving frigid land. If you’ve watched some old movies about these peoples, you probably already knew that this was not an uncommon practice. In this novel, the two women decide to try to survive rather than succumb to the cold or the predators.

Calling on all the skills learned from birth, these women embark on an adventure we can barely imagine while forging a bond of friendship they had not previously known. In the long, dark hours they spend in the shelters they build, they tell one another stories and share intimacies from their long lives.

I found myself thinking about what it would be like to spend a year in such close confines with another woman. I’ve discovered that no matter how different another person may seem from me, that if I take the time to have meaningful conversation with them, that we are more alike than different. The human experience often meets in unexpected places.

Here, I’m thinking about conversations I had with women when I volunteered at a shelter for the abused. No matter where we are from, or what our backgrounds may be, women share a bond that goes down to our chromosomes. I believe that I could have a real conversation (one in which both parties actually listen) with most any woman I could encounter. I see this as one of the benefits of getting older and learning from the mixed bag of lifetime experiences I’ve lived through.

One thing I regret is that our generation of females couldn’t have the kind of adventures the boys had in the 1986 movie “Stand By Me.” I watch it every time I see it as I’m channel surfing. I love seeing the bond the boys have as they strike out into the wilderness and encounter numerous obstacles in their quest to find a dead body. Could you imagine doing this with girlfriends? No, slumber parties, watching scary movies, and scavenger hunts was about it for us.

After seeing the 1991 movie “Thelma and Louise,” my friend Sue called me up from Michigan and said that we should take a road trip. She flew down, and we hopped in my little convertible and headed for Key West. Happily, this was long before the cruise ships docked there, and it still had that aura of an isolated tropical small town. We had a few adventures along the way. Nothing too daring. Neither of us owned a handgun, and we didn’t run into anyone quite like Brad Pitt. But for we two boomers, just going where the road and our whims took us, and taking our time, it was exciting.

For me, the best part was the conversation we had on the drive to and from – just letting streams of thought flow with a trusted friend. As the quote goes, “…having to neither weigh thoughts nor measure words.”

I suppose one of the greatest gifts I could imagine is having a friendship such as that -  such as the ‘two old women’ had.

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