Popular Culture Review Vol. 4, No. 2, June 1993 | Page 33

Toys for Girls

31

JEM: Truly Outrageous, Jerrica Benton is "a fabulously successful
record executive . . . but only a few know of [her] double life as front
wontan for her company's hottest act," Jem and the Holograms. A
nuchine called Synergy, the legacy of her dead inventor father,
accomplishes the deception in identity and, although this is never
acknowledged, casts doubt on the band's actual abilities.
Nevertheless, we are asked to favor Jem and the Holograms over the
rival girls' band. The Misfits—a name designed to connote any number
of anti-social sins. Predictably, this "bad" girls band wears dramatic
stage makeup and performs original songs such as "Outta My Way!"
"Winning Is Everything," and "Designing Women." This last offering
includes these lyrics: Other girls feel hopeless and trapped . . .
Other girls play helpless and coy . . . / make my own breaks . . . . Of
course, we are expected to reject this kind of awareness from these
women who rely on real musical talent rather than computer
generated virtual-reality. The dynamics here are depressingly
femiliar. Jem conceals her identity for no clear reason whatsoever,
and therefore is literally two-faced. Yet the bad girls admit to being
"designing women" and to wanting to win and therefore are "Misfits"
and therefore, in turn, somehow, are "bad." All this takes place in a
saccharine world of "glamorous" international tours, getting mixed up
with jewel smugglers, being mistaken for Princess Adriana of
Morvania, and raising charity money for a child's "$250,000
operation." Often for altruistic concerts such as "The World Hunger
Shindig," Jem cranks out passive dross with titles like "Love Is Doin'
It To Me." It is initially surprising to find one of Jem's songs called
"She's Got The Power"; it is not surprising that the full chorus is—
"She's got the power to create illusion." Power in Jem and the
Holograms involves manipulating one's appearance and comes
ultimately from daddy's machine.
In order to cash in on the commercial success of Jem, Mattel created
a back-up band or two, or three, for their perpetual money-maker.
Barbie (Barbie and the Sensations, Barbie and the Rockers, and
Rappin' and Rockin' Barbie). In the effort to correct the image
(rather than the reality) of their horrifically popular Barbie line,
Mattel, particularly in the mid- and late '80s, cast this plastic mini
teen in various occupations. The corporation obviously has been
aware of the traditional criticism about Barbie's affluent lifestyleone of endlessly acquiring possessions such as "Dream Furniture" for