Dora the Whora?!

Ok so that’s not really fair, but it rhymes.

It seems Dora, my favorite bilingual four year-old explorer, is getting a makeover. And it’s much more than a new pair of shorts (or a shirt that actually fits over her belly). It’s a whole new look. This fall, Dora’s going from preschooler to tween. Mattel hasn’t released all the details yet, but there’s a silhouette version of the new Dora that’s taking the media by storm. It seems Dora will be spending the summer growing out her sporty bob (is that a weave?) she’ll be trading her orange shorts for a tennis length skirt. It also looks as if this is the summer Dora’s finally going to shake that baby fat and emerge a little longer, a little leaner, even a little sexier! Oh yeah, and she’s leaving the jungle for the big city. No more map, no more trips to Abuela’s house, this fall tween Dora will be using her garmin to head to the mall, or maybe to Javier’s house because his mami and papi won’t be home after school…

The first I heard of Dora’s big change was this morning on a Babble blog that linked to this celebitchy post. Clearly the post says it way better than I can. Take a moment and read it. Get all fired up and then come back to my post.

Ok, there are a lot of moms who are really angry about Dora’s new look. And rightly so. I’m not quite sure why (ok that’s a lie, I totally know why, it confounds me that when given the chance to remake Dora, the only thing Mattel could think to do was go slutty rather than the obvious choice which was shrink that girl’s head). And I’m completely on-board with their reasoning, if I wanted my toddler to watch a tween idol for her Spanish lessons I’d let her watch Hannah Montana on Telemundo.

Even though I already can tell from that racy shadow Dora that I don’t approve of her new look, I do feel just a little hypocritical criticizing it. After all, didn’t I just support Barbie (who in many ways is the ultimate doll slut) in all her varied sexy incarnations just last week? Didn’t I just applaud as I watched other mommy-bloggers and feminists unleash their wit and unassailable logic all over anybody who dared to call Barbie a bad influence?

So what’s the difference? Why is it ok, even empowering, for girls to play with Barbie at the same time that its obviously detrimental to let our daughters play with the new Dora? I’m not sure, but as I’ve tried to talk myself through it I’ve come up with a few reasons that the two aren’t quite the same.

First, we weren’t introduced to Barbie until after she was a fully developed adult. I don’t know what Barbie’s age is supposed to be, but I’m sure it isn’t four (or anything under 16). We didn’t even catch a glimpse of preteen Barbie until way after we met Barbie and even Skipper was in middle school at the very least. So although Barbie’s outfits may have morphed from comparatively conservative to downright inappropriate and back again, she always been an adult taking adult fashion risks. There was never any implication that Barbie’s mami was helping her to get dressed every morning.

Second, Barbie has never been overtly marketed to the preschool set. Sure nobody at Mattel ever lost a night’s sleep over a preschooler pining for a Barbie, but the doll’s popularity was never dependent on the napping demographic. The fact that Dora appears on pull-ups and disposable bibs should be enough evidence of this difference.

Finally, the littlest of girls are attracted to Barbie because she reminds them of their babysitters or like at our house, of their mother. But those same girls identify with Dora because she is their peer, a small screen version of their current selves, not who they might like to be when they grow up. This is how Dora has always been presented to her fans, if she suddenly ages eight or ten years she will shift roles. I see this as dangerous for Dora for two reasons. First, Dora won’t be the only tween out there, she’ll have to compete with all the Bratz and even the High School Musical and Hanna Montana dolls. And frankly, those guys already have the market covered. But more important as Dora leaves behind the preschool set, she’ll leave a big void. The reason Dora’s makeover is so scandalous is because she’s so popular with both parents and kids. When she ditches her roots for something a little more risque, she’ll leave behind a world filled with adult freaks (the wiggles, the imagination movers, yo gabba gabba), puppets (most of children’s programming from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.) and various animals. And an amazing opportunity for one little Chinese preschooler - Kai-Lan.