Winnipeg collector has a kung fu grip on female action figures
What started with a childhood fascination grew into a small army of female action figures
Jennifer Iverach-Brereton has a collection that would make even the most macho Superman toy shake in his tiny plastic boots.
It's an army of female action figures. There's about a hundred of them — like an original SheRa, three separate Princess Leias, and even a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.
"They're bold, they're interesting, they're powerful," Iverach-Brereton said.
"And a turtle with breasts was just really weird, because she's not a mammal, so I had to have it in my collection."
Like mother like daughter, sort of
Iverach-Brereton's proclivity for collecting action figures with two X chromosomes began as a child — and is somewhat hereditary.
Her mom, a doll collector herself, got her a few male action figures, so she could play with her brothers.
"But I never felt like I could play with the boy action figures, for some reason," she said.
Then one day, when she was with her mom at a doll show, she entered a draw and won an obscure, scantily-clad plastic warrior woman named Angela, which opened her mind to the small but wonderful world of female action figures.
"I was usually the only girl down those aisles with the action figures, which as a teenager made me feel rebellious and cool in a very nerdy way," she said.
Toying with representation
That rebellious love for female action figures grew into a larger fascination with how women are represented in pop culture. And as she her collection grew over the years, she noticed them changing.
At the beginning, she noticed they were were made more for men's eyes than women's — thin, muscular and not well dressed.
But now she's seeing women who look just as powerful, but have more realistic bodies and are dressed much better, particularly her Marvel and Star Wars characters.
And as a teacher she's taken what she's learned to her classroom, where she uses her knowledge of action figures to teach girls — and boys — about body image and gender identity.
"I think we've done a lot around girls and realizing that, okay, that's not a realistic body image," she said.
"But I think there's still a long way to go."
Gender pressure
One example she's shown her students is Luke Skywalker, whose toy was first released as an average looking guy, but at the turn of the century, he became more bulky and muscular, which can put a lot of pressure on boys to look a certain way.
On the other end of the spectrum, her new Princess Leias are much more dignified than the older ones.
She hopes a day will come when companies and parents alike see toys — no matter their gender — as something anyone can play with and look up to.
"Toys are toys, and we should be able to play with whatever we want and whatever draws our attention, instead of being told by marketers what we need to be."
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