Gran’s Tammy dolls!

My grandmother was mainly a Barbie collector, but she had a relatively small cache (in comparison, that is) of Tammy dolls. I remember asking my great aunt recently before losing her as well, at 101 years young (they can grow ‘em strong out here in corn country but we seem to be attending nothing but funerals, weddings, and baby showers!... that, and people talk about the weather out this way because the weather is dangerous here! We’re not in Cali any more!) anyway, I asked my great aunt if people made as much of a fuss over the Tammy doll as they did Barbie in reference to the theory they contributed to young girls having an unobtainable ideal of the female figure such as being too thin? I had been wondering if perhaps the Ideal company thought by making a doll with a slightly more ‘preteen’ looking body such as a less developed bust line, more baby fat, not as curvaceous hips nor features indicating she was as far along in her ‘womanhood’, they could capture an area of the market ‘Barbie’ might not already be appealing to. Yet, even as I thought on this likely approach and as it was probebly successful to some extent but probably not directly catering to their intended market. I think it more likely, the Ideal doll appealed to a conservative crowd. One, perhaps, less interested in the potential high fashion the Barbie doll gave access to. As, before all else, the Barbie doll represented more than just a window into a world mostly out of reach for the average American woman, especially young girls, at the time it was introduced... it was truly one of the first concepts thought of, designed by, implemented through the prototype process and born into manufacturing all the way to the NYSE by a woman. Then, when the reigns were entrusted to a man, the product quality dropped, the vision was lost, ugliness crept in and the company was nearly lost. It was an important lesson we as women never seem to learn. On the conservative side of the coin, the Tammy doll never had as much controversy, yet as I put her together with her accessories and searched her on line pages hunting for various identification information, I found I could see the appeal. So, back to the question I had posed to my great aunt.
She looked at me for quite a while and said nothing. In fact she sat silent so long, I was uncertain she had heard me. Then when I nearly repeated the question, she said seriously, ‘When we first were introduced to the Barbie dolls and the dolls like them, there was no concern of what people call today, body consciousness because most people were too hungry, too poor, or too grateful to even have a doll if they had gotten one to talk about something as superficial as the way one looks. We, or those of us who were very young as I was at that time, looked at the drawn, sunken war ridden faces of our parents, our grandparents, what was left of friends and relatives after returning from the second of 2 world wars in a single lifetime still unaware as to what still faced them and there became a sort of unspoken vow among people. It was that we would not allow our children to suffer living in a world such as the one we were living in. We did try. Your question is one which makes me wonder if we succeeded or failed.’ I didn’t know what to say as I was both horrified at my own petty disrespect of both a great woman and an era in which I felt she was absolutely right. It wasn’t even far behind us & yet, most of us have no idea what it is to be at the mercy of tyranny. Even more terrifying, to forget is to repeat, and here we are or at least there I was, being reminded of how very precious this life is, the gift we all share by my grandmothers Tammy. Thanks gran. Again.