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The Ridiculously Adorable, Feminist History of Kewpie Dolls · Ridiculous History

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Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
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Speaker 1: the show, fellow Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so
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Speaker 1: much for tuning in. Let's hear it for the Man,
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Speaker 1: the myth, the legendary super producer, Max the Cutest q P.
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Speaker 2: Williams. Guys, remember Muppet Babies? Did you ever watch Muppet Babies?
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Speaker 1: I am aware of the social phenomena of Muffet babies,
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Speaker 1: but not to sound like Egon Spangler here, Noel, you're
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Speaker 1: Noel Brown, I'm Ben Bollinster.
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Speaker 3: I have not.
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Speaker 1: I missed that part.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, it was child That was the exact right age
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Speaker 3: for it, for whatever it may have been on originally,
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Speaker 3: or it may have been reruns on Nickelodeon. But it's
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Speaker 3: all of your favorite Muppets. But they're babies, and they
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Speaker 3: are overseen or watched over by a faceless character just
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Speaker 3: named Nanny, and you only ever see your legs.
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Speaker 1: Oh, old school cartoon style.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's pretty great. It's pretty great.
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Speaker 3: The opening theme song lives rent free in my head
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Speaker 3: much of the time.
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Speaker 2: I'm not kidding you. Can you help it, I'll do
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Speaker 2: a little bit of it.
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Speaker 3: It's like when your room looks kind of weird and
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Speaker 3: you wish that you weren't. Theyre just close your eyes
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Speaker 3: and make believe and you can be anyway. And there
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Speaker 3: were a lot of I think it was owned by
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Speaker 3: Steven Spielberg's company. Maybe because it was, there are a
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Speaker 3: lot of references to like, you know, they live in
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Speaker 3: this fantasy world and sometimes they're like Indiana Jones kind
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Speaker 3: of adventures, stuff like that. We're not talking about Muppet
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Speaker 3: babies today though.
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Speaker 1: No, we're talking about CuPy babies with some help from
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Speaker 1: our research associate Red. You might not know these by name,
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Speaker 1: but these these little dolls, these little collectibles have been
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Speaker 1: around for over a century. Guys, I gotta tell you
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Speaker 1: I've been I think Noel, you might know a little
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Speaker 1: bit about this. Max, you and I definitely talked about it. Uh.
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Speaker 1: My girlfriend has this fascination with a thing called the
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Speaker 1: Boo Boo and it's very much now it's very much
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Speaker 1: a conspiratorial thing, like La Booboo. People recognize each other
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Speaker 1: and they know each other. And Max is not in here.
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Speaker 1: You saw it too, Huh.
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Speaker 3: I thought the the Booboo way if it kind of
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Speaker 3: crested a little bit, but maybe all the better for
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Speaker 3: true Lubuoboo enthusiasts, because there was a time when at
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Speaker 3: the height of its popularity where you couldn't get one,
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Speaker 3: and South Park made an episode where people were like
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Speaker 3: literally using them to do satanic rituals and it was,
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Speaker 3: you know, quite the Elmo phenomenon for a minute. But
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Speaker 3: they're really cute and they're part of that whole world
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Speaker 3: of little plastic or and or furry toys from a
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Speaker 3: place called PopMart. There's a ton of other types, often
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Speaker 3: to come in these blind boxes where you know it's
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Speaker 3: a series you don't know which one you're gonna get.
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Speaker 3: And one that's super popular now and I think even
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Speaker 3: a little hard to get in some places, are a
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Speaker 3: series called Sonny Angels. Oh yeah, little naked babies that
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Speaker 3: very much resemble the iconic early nineteen hundred's Qupie dolls.
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Speaker 1: And shout out to the troll dolls as well. We're
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Speaker 1: not going to forget about those. Yeah, you're bringing up
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Speaker 1: the best comparison possible. The Qupie dolls originate in the
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Speaker 1: early nineteen hundreds as a cartoon feature in a magazine,
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Speaker 1: but then they become this mascot in a very interesting way.
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Speaker 1: Like today, you know we can we can see qpie
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Speaker 1: dolls in mayonnaise right in Japanese mayo.
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Speaker 3: Well, we did just do that episode, and it's a
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Speaker 3: sort of a coincidence that we ended up doing these
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Speaker 3: back to back. There was a little bit of parallel
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Speaker 3: thinking going on. But we will have a little ref
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Speaker 3: to the QP mayo and that, you know how they
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Speaker 3: were inspired by this toy phenomenon. Can I do a
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Speaker 3: really quick inscription, Ben? I don't typically quote Google AI results,
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Speaker 3: but this one was just so silly that I have
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Speaker 3: to do it. The physical features of the QP dolls
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Speaker 3: are described as nude, chubby, sexless baby bodies with small,
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Speaker 3: distinct wings on their back and a cow lick tuft
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Speaker 3: of hair.
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Speaker 1: It's the toft of hair. Well, dud uh. No matter
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Speaker 1: how you have encountered these things, the qpies or qupie
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Speaker 1: dolls are inherently adorable. They're they're inherently endearing and lovable.
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Speaker 1: They are also, as we're going to learn today, a
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Speaker 1: symbol of counterculture and a top notch example of how
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Speaker 1: kindness can inspire social change. We've got to introduce the
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Speaker 1: one and only rose Cecil O'Neil.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, when you look at the design of these qupie dolls.
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Speaker 3: It does have a bit of a cartoonish illustrator ly,
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Speaker 3: if that's a word at all, quality, sort of an
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Speaker 3: uncanny valley like this idea of what maybe a little
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Speaker 3: cartoon stylized baby. The proportions are a little off in
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Speaker 3: a delightful way, much like the troll dolls, and I
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Speaker 3: would argue I think it's not that far of a
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Speaker 3: walk that the sexless bodies of the troll dolls are
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Speaker 3: also inspired by the qupie doll phenomenon. Created by Rose
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Speaker 3: Cecil O'Neil, who was an illustrator. She was born in
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Speaker 3: Pennsylvania in eighteen seventy four. Her family took a literal
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Speaker 3: covered wagon to Old Nebraski to make a life for
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Speaker 3: themselves on the homestead. They raised a family outside of Omaha.
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Speaker 3: O'Neil's father, who was a bookseller and an aspiring actor,
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Speaker 3: along with their mother, who was a musician, they nurtured
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Speaker 3: her early artistic leanings. Beautiful and folks, if you heard
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Speaker 3: me quietly giggling in the background there as Nola you
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Speaker 3: were doing that excellent introduction, it's because, dude, I could
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Speaker 3: one hundred percent tell that you were having fun saying
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Speaker 3: sexless bodies. It's a fun thing to say. I'm sorry,
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Speaker 3: I'll probably be beautiful again. Beautiful. I can't lean into
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Speaker 3: the covered wagon part of it, of it all, because
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Speaker 3: the next part is like something out of literally Jack
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Speaker 3: and the bean Stuff.
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Speaker 1: Oh that's so cool this folklore, right, So okay. So
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Speaker 1: Rose is thirteen years old and she wins a drawing
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Speaker 1: contest in the Omaha World Herald. By nineteen she becomes
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Speaker 1: an aspiring novelist.
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Speaker 3: We've all been there. It's an interesting place to be,
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Speaker 3: very very results.
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Speaker 2: Definitely.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, but you're more than aspiring. Oh that's too kind, man,
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Speaker 1: thank you. But so Ros's parents, this is why we're
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Speaker 1: saying this kind of Jack and the Beanstalk esque. Ros's
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Speaker 1: parents are so supportive of their daughter that they sell
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Speaker 1: their cow to send her to New York City, and
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Speaker 1: this is where she gets a job as a cartoonist.
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Speaker 1: By the time she's twenty three years old, pretty young.
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Speaker 1: She is the first female artist on staff at a
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Speaker 1: magazine called Puck, which was a very big deal.
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Speaker 2: At the time.
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Speaker 3: Haven't heard of that? One awesome name for a magazine
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Speaker 3: And I just can't get over They sold the family cow.
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Speaker 3: They sold the cow because they believed in her that much,
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Speaker 3: and they knew that what a cow in the hand,
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Speaker 3: you know, is not necessarily better than an artist in
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Speaker 3: the bush.
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Speaker 2: And that's what she became. And she made the cow
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Speaker 2: for you guys. Oh thanks man to. But it really does.
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Speaker 3: I mean, it's such a show of support and utter
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Speaker 3: belief in their in their child. And she made good
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Speaker 3: on the arrangement in a big way.
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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, she became one of the highest paid
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Speaker 1: illustrators in all of New York. And if we fast
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Speaker 1: forward nineteen oh nine, our hero Rose is thirty five
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Speaker 1: years old. This is where she debuts the first QP
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Speaker 1: cartoon in the December issue of something called Ladies Home Journal.
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Speaker 1: That's QP spelled k e W pie.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, And they were an instant hit, at least, you know,
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Speaker 3: in the printed form. And when she was interviewed by
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Speaker 3: the press about what inspired her to create this character,
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Speaker 3: she claimed that she just dreamed them up in bed
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Speaker 3: fertile imagination that she has. Suddenly, she said, they were
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Speaker 3: bouncing about over the cover, chirping. The little new born
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Speaker 3: name Coopy. I guess it's she made the name up
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Speaker 3: from whole cloth. I don't know an etymological connection for
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Speaker 3: cupie dream logic. I think that's right. One perch, she
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Speaker 3: said in my hand like a bird. It wasn't warm
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Speaker 3: like a human baby like. It was oddly cool, so
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Speaker 3: I knew, Wait a minute, they were elves.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, you say your cupies short for cupids, and they
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Speaker 1: nodded their little heads. This is coming to us from,
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Speaker 1: by the way, folks, the International Rose O'Neill Club Foundation. However,
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Speaker 1: Rose makes a very important folkloric distinction. She says, unlike
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Speaker 1: fairies or elves, the qupies are not tricksters. Instead, they
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Speaker 1: are kind characters. They show up to help people who
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Speaker 1: need help, or they show up to cheer up children.
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Speaker 2: That's what they do.
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Speaker 3: A bit of a care bear's kind of thing, Yeah,
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Speaker 3: very much proto care bears for sure. A lot of
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Speaker 3: those positive cartoons in the eighties. And according to O'Neil,
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Speaker 3: this is another coming back to a quote. Qps are
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Speaker 3: always searching out ways to make the world better and funnier.
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Speaker 3: They in real sense of humor.
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Speaker 2: I like that.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, the cupids, of course, they do have little wings.
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Speaker 3: That makes sense. There's that etymological connection. I was looking for.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, we also know that this becomes a viral hit.
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Speaker 1: Ladies Hold Journal is not prepared for the popularity of
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Speaker 1: the QP cartoons. There are multiple instances of children and
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Speaker 1: parents alike sending fan mail to Rose O'Neil and they say,
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Speaker 1: we love your QP cartoons, please make more of these. Eventually,
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Speaker 1: O'Neil says, why don't we take it off the page,
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Speaker 1: Why don't we make an actual doll that kids can
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Speaker 1: have and play with?
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Speaker 3: Mm hmm one hundred percent. So she commissions a German
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Speaker 3: manufacturer to make the first prototypes of the QP doll
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Speaker 3: out of a material called porcelain bisk.
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Speaker 2: I'm not familiar with, not a soup.
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Speaker 3: I don't think it is some sort of, you know,
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Speaker 3: plaster cast kind of situation. I imagine porcelain dolls, which were,
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Speaker 3: you know, finer dolls. I guess at the time they
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Speaker 3: were just the material that was most commonly used. But
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Speaker 3: now maybe when we think of porcelain dolls, we think
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Speaker 3: of things that are highly collectible and sought after. But
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Speaker 3: that's probably just the vintageness of the whole deal. The
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Speaker 3: original dolls came in nine distinct sizes, with the largest
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Speaker 3: selling for five bucks.
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Speaker 2: Or let's do it.
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Speaker 1: Let's do a beat inflation calculator.
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Speaker 3: If we could back and a boob and a dude boop.
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Speaker 1: So five dollars in nineteen twelve is the equivalent of
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Speaker 1: one hundred and seventy eight dollars in twenty twenty six.
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Speaker 1: These are pricey dolls.
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Speaker 3: As for the Big Boy, and the smallest was only
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Speaker 3: ten sands or about free fitting.
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Speaker 2: About three fill amount.
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Speaker 3: The dolls were, as you can imagine, man Elf on
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Speaker 3: the shelf level popular, hugely sought after. It was the
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Speaker 3: hottest toy item around by the nineteen twenties. She created
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Speaker 3: another line of plushy versions called the Cuttle Cupies.
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Speaker 1: Also with a K. Right, and fast forward to the
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Speaker 1: nineteen forties, the Qpie dolls are mass produced using plastic materials.
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Speaker 1: The Qpie becomes this international phenomenon. I love your comparison
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Speaker 1: to Elf on the Shelf. I think also of like
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Speaker 1: cabbage patch dolls, right, or of course the trolls or
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Speaker 1: maybe Elmo every so often the Qpie or Tickle Me Elmo, or.
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Speaker 2: Even the touch of the beanie babies.
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Speaker 1: There it is, yeah, feeling it, Yeah, this global appeal,
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Speaker 1: this brand grows beyond cartoons and physical dolls. Now you
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Speaker 1: see the QP image stamped on China for nurseries. You
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Speaker 1: see it turned into hood ornaments for vehicles and then
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Speaker 1: weirdly on ashtrays, weirdly.
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Speaker 3: On ashtrays, And as Ren pointed out, I don't think
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Speaker 3: we mentioned this, they have kind of made a comeback.
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Speaker 2: In the form of tattoos.
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Speaker 3: There's like a kind of a style of tattoos that
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Speaker 3: folks are getting a shout out, she says, to hot
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Speaker 3: Stuff tattoo in Ashville, North Carolina. It's so interesting. QP
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Speaker 3: has almost become like xerox or you know, there's a
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Speaker 3: name for that thing, like our a coke, you know,
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Speaker 3: for a stand in for soda epymous there you go. Yeah,
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Speaker 3: QP now has just thought of as almost like just
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Speaker 3: the stand in for a little little cute bobble kind
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Speaker 3: of toy. Okay, I could get with that, Yeah, quiet,
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Speaker 3: but you know what I'm saying. Yeah, it's taken on
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Speaker 3: a life of its own in terms of what people
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Speaker 3: think of. It's not necessarily associated with O'Neil or a
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Speaker 3: specific brand. It's just so universal now.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, and also O'Neil does well with this. To be clear,
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Speaker 1: she's not an inventor who got ripped off like the
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Speaker 1: person who figured out the landlord's game and then had
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Speaker 1: that stolen and transformed into monopoly. Rose becomes a millionaire
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Speaker 1: due to her QP innovation, her QP empire, and this
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Speaker 1: occurs at a time when most women could not achieve
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Speaker 1: economic independence. Check out our earlier episode on credit cards
14:41
Speaker 1: by the way for some really disturbing history about gender
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Speaker 1: disparity in the US. Dude, she had a mansion in Connecticut,
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Speaker 1: a QP mansion.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, I wonder if it was stylized anyway. Have you
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Speaker 3: ever been to Babyland General. Yes, here in Georgia, at
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Speaker 3: the home of the abage Patch kids. It's it's a
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Speaker 3: it's an interesting place to go. They have this whole
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Speaker 3: area where you can like see your cabbage patch doll
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Speaker 3: be birthed from a hole in a giant sort of
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Speaker 3: paper mache or plaster kind of looking true. Yeah, it's
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Speaker 3: an odd place actually early birthday party location from my
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Speaker 3: from my kid back up.
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Speaker 2: Oh that's awesome, man.
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Speaker 1: They also have a heck of a bluegrass festival, so
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Speaker 1: check that out if you get type. It is a
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Speaker 1: palatial estate the cabbage Patch thing, like the yard is
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Speaker 1: so big.
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Speaker 3: Well, I think it's worth that comparisoner. It's an apt
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Speaker 3: one because another thing that you'll see in that baby
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Speaker 3: Land general is a lot of these Andy Warhol images.
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Speaker 3: He was a huge fan of, just like Iconic Americana,
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Speaker 3: you know, pop cultural phenomenons, and the QUB doll would
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Speaker 3: have been a kind of proto version of that to
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Speaker 3: what the Cabbage Patch kids became, maybe even more so
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Speaker 3: because we also have to remember, and Wren points this out,
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Speaker 3: this is pre Mickey Mouse.
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Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, so before the advent of the Big Mouse,
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Speaker 1: qps were probably the best known and most well loved
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Speaker 1: cartoon characters in US pop culture. Through her QP empire,
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Speaker 1: Rose purchases Carabes Castle, that's the mansion we're talking about
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Speaker 1: in Westport, Connecticut, and then she buys a via a
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Speaker 1: villa in Capri. This is where she holds salons, right
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Speaker 1: intellectual hangouts. She invites other artists to kick it, talk
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Speaker 1: about art, talk about history, talk about literature. She also
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Speaker 1: gets back to her earlier love, which is writing very
16:41
Speaker 1: like bodice ripping Gothic romance novels Oo.
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Speaker 3: La La Okay, And this is a little sad, but
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Speaker 3: it's got kind of a silver lining. The great depression
16:51
Speaker 3: hits not such a great depression as they can out
16:55
Speaker 3: off and then and photography really starts to take over
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Speaker 3: or the pictures that are featured in magazines, so illustrators
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Speaker 3: are having a harder time getting gigs. And I wouldn't
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Speaker 3: necessarily think that she would have relied on that kind
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Speaker 3: of employment since she had, you know, made such a
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Speaker 3: mint with the QP doll phenomenon. But apparently after spending
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Speaker 3: you know, a chunk of that change on her properties,
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Speaker 3: her mansion and her villa, she did in fact pass
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Speaker 3: away in nineteen forty four without a whole lot of
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Speaker 3: money left to her name. But that's because she spent
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Speaker 3: such a huge part of her fortune on family and friends, right.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, she was trying to help everybody, you know, and
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Speaker 1: sometimes that can be an unrewarding thing. But she definitely
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Speaker 1: changed the world. And you might be asking yourself here, folks,
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Speaker 1: why are we calling this the feminist history of the
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Speaker 1: QP doll.
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Speaker 2: Here's part of why.
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Speaker 1: When Rose O'Neil was born, some US states still had
17:57
Speaker 1: laws about something called hoo.
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Speaker 3: For sure, I didn't know this term ben, but I
18:02
Speaker 3: definitely know the concept, the idea that a woman's entire financial,
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Speaker 3: legal personhood was linked to either their father or more commonly,
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Speaker 3: their husband, because it was also like a big no
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Speaker 3: no to be an unwed woman in this time, and
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Speaker 3: this essentially deprived them of any kind of individual liberty
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Speaker 3: when it came to representing themselves, owning or inheriting property,
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Speaker 3: having control of financial affairs, and entering into legal contracts
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Speaker 3: or filing lawsuits.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, this was never officially abolished at the federal level,
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Speaker 1: but women could own property in all US states by
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Speaker 1: nineteen hundred. Still, the journey toward equality continued. Women were
18:52
Speaker 1: at this time prohibited from voting, from running for office,
18:57
Speaker 1: getting a divorce, keeping their maid name, going on a jury,
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Speaker 1: even having their own passports. It was a very nasty time.
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Speaker 3: I mean, it reminds me of the kind of hellish
19:08
Speaker 3: situation we heard about with Britney Spears, the idea of
19:11
Speaker 3: being in a conservatorship where all of your affairs and
19:17
Speaker 3: you know, individual rights and liberties are at the behest
19:20
Speaker 3: of someone kind of lording over you.
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Speaker 2: Yeah.
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Speaker 1: It wasn't until nineteen twenty that the US Congress would
19:28
Speaker 1: pass the Nineteenth Amendment. The nineteenth Amendment allowed white women
19:34
Speaker 1: in the United States to vote in elections. However, this
19:41
Speaker 1: right didn't come about all of a sudden. There wasn't
19:44
Speaker 1: a huge burst of conscientiousness on the part of Uncle Sam.
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Speaker 1: It's because of people like Rose O'Neill, a.
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Speaker 3: Lot of arm twisting, a lot of uh putting on
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Speaker 3: the pressure required. And we certainly have talked about women
20:00
Speaker 3: suffrage movement and various interesting and maybe a little off
20:05
Speaker 3: the beaten path aspects of it, like the hat pin
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Speaker 3: will yea all that stuff. Do check out some of
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Speaker 3: those episodes in the Ridiculous Archive. So at the height
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Speaker 3: of let's call it the QP Craze, because that's what
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Speaker 3: a research associate Ran calls it. Capitalize it, love it,
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Speaker 3: O'Neill leveraged the trademark and copyright that she possessed to
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Speaker 3: make an estimated one point four million dollars or a
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Speaker 3: boop and a dude boom.
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Speaker 1: The boom inflation calculator you have taught us one point
20:42
Speaker 1: four million dollars back then is equal to more than
20:46
Speaker 1: thirty five million dollars today, and that's thanks to Smithsonian Magazine.
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Speaker 2: And the inflation calculator of course.
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Speaker 3: So you know, despite a lot of these societal limitations
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Speaker 3: that were placed on women, you know, money talks, O'Neil
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Speaker 3: had that. She certainly was able to overcome a lot
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Speaker 3: of these things essentially as a product of how rich
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Speaker 3: she was.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, she got divorced twice at a time when a
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Speaker 1: lot of people did not have the legal wherewithal to
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Speaker 1: get divorced. Once she overcame so many barriers, and when
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Speaker 1: she reached these upper heights of the economic pyramid, she
21:32
Speaker 1: didn't forget about the rest of the people on the planet.
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Speaker 1: She used her platform as this celebrity illustrator to advocate
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Speaker 1: for suffrage, for the female right to vote. O'Neil is
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Speaker 1: not just a cartoonist, She is not just a gothic novelist.
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Speaker 1: She is an activist. She is in the women's marches
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Speaker 1: in New York City. She carries a banner to represent
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Speaker 1: for female illustrators.
21:58
Speaker 3: For sure, and she essentially donated her iconic qupie doll
22:05
Speaker 3: imagery to the cause. It was something that was so recognizable,
22:10
Speaker 3: and you know, just that kind of familiarity can be
22:16
Speaker 3: such a powerful tool to spread an important message. One
22:20
Speaker 3: of the versions of which was give mother the vote
22:24
Speaker 3: we need it on an image or a poster featuring
22:28
Speaker 3: these qupie dolls marching in lockstep as though they were
22:31
Speaker 3: there at the Women's March themselves, with the lead QP
22:34
Speaker 3: holding a sign, a flag reading votes for our mothers,
22:37
Speaker 3: our food, our health, our play, our homes, our schools,
22:41
Speaker 3: our work are ruled by men's votes. Isn't it a
22:44
Speaker 3: funny thing that father cannot see why mother ought to
22:48
Speaker 3: have a vote on how these things should be.
22:51
Speaker 1: Think, think, think it over. Yes, we cannot commend Rose enough.
22:58
Speaker 1: She also purchased a billboard to feature suffragette qpies in
23:03
Speaker 1: New York City. She made postcards. She made posters raising
23:07
Speaker 1: money for the National American Women's Suffrage Association. She once proclaimed,
23:13
Speaker 1: and this is coming to us a courtesy of the
23:15
Speaker 1: National Women's Hall of Fame, the following. I have a
23:18
Speaker 1: thrilling hope that women are going to do something glorious
23:21
Speaker 1: in the arts. It is my passionate conviction. I am
23:25
Speaker 1: always indignant when women are denied creative power and art.
23:29
Speaker 1: That it has not been widely shown it self proofs nothing.
23:32
Speaker 1: It is stupid to expect free things from a race
23:36
Speaker 1: of slaves. Okay, she's not saving anything for the swim
23:40
Speaker 1: back on that mountain.
23:41
Speaker 2: You know she's leaving it all on the dance floor.
23:43
Speaker 1: Then we know that she also would arrange for dolls
23:48
Speaker 1: in you could call it propaganda, really arranged for QP
23:52
Speaker 1: dolls in suffragette sashes to like fall down on a
23:59
Speaker 1: bunch of suffragette. So imagine you are protesting for a
24:03
Speaker 1: righteous cause and you happen to love La boo boo
24:07
Speaker 1: at all. Of a sudden, part way through your march,
24:10
Speaker 1: lea boo boo rains down.
24:12
Speaker 3: That sounds terrifying, man, it's a rain of la boo boos. No,
24:17
Speaker 3: thank you.
24:18
Speaker 1: It sounds like a weird curse, right, a rain of
24:21
Speaker 1: lea boo boo upon your house.
24:22
Speaker 3: It is a bit of a plague, but a delightful plague,
24:25
Speaker 3: depending on you know how into la boo boos you are.
24:35
Speaker 1: So here we have it, man. The QP doll history
24:38
Speaker 1: is oddly forgotten nowadays, especially given the huge role it
24:44
Speaker 1: played in women's suffrage and the push for gender equality.
24:48
Speaker 1: We also have to shout out, of course QP mayo
24:52
Speaker 1: once again, as we know our boy Nakashima figured it out.
24:56
Speaker 1: Please check out our mayonnaise episode for that story, and
24:59
Speaker 1: I love the way, by the way, I love the
25:01
Speaker 1: way you described QP mayonnaise. I was re listening to that.
25:06
Speaker 3: Uh, well, geez, what do I say?
25:08
Speaker 1: You said? Okay, you spent some time talking about the container, right,
25:14
Speaker 1: it's two containers. It's a plastic bag, and then it's
25:16
Speaker 1: a thing that looks like a baby action figure basically,
25:20
Speaker 1: And then you talked about the taste, and we started
25:23
Speaker 1: talking about like Duke spyannaise and other versions of mayonnaise.
25:28
Speaker 1: I just thought it was really well done, and I
25:30
Speaker 1: have to confess to you, my friend, it changed my mind.
25:33
Speaker 1: I think I'm gonna I think I'm gonna hold off
25:36
Speaker 1: on the QP mayo.
25:37
Speaker 3: Okay, fair enough, but I thought it'd be worth before
25:42
Speaker 3: we wrap up. Just I'm doubling back on something really quickly.
25:44
Speaker 3: We've we've often talked about how powerful satirical cartoons can
25:49
Speaker 3: be and how some of the earliest examples of political cartoons, Uh,
25:55
Speaker 3: they just communicate so much with so little, and it's
25:59
Speaker 3: such as a way of just kind of laying in
26:02
Speaker 3: stark contrasts like how things really are versus maybe how
26:06
Speaker 3: politicians or people in power may tell you things are.
26:11
Speaker 3: And while the original versions of the QP dolls and
26:15
Speaker 3: the cartoons were not necessarily that, they did start to
26:18
Speaker 3: take on a little bit more of like a mocking
26:22
Speaker 3: satirical quality, kind of making fun of elitist middle class reformers.
26:28
Speaker 3: This is from Smithsonian Magazine as well, and further beyond
26:33
Speaker 3: just the women's rights aspect of it, supporting racial equality
26:37
Speaker 3: and also advocating for the poor. So O'Neil really kind
26:42
Speaker 3: of put her money where her mouth was, because this
26:44
Speaker 3: could certainly have been seen as a way of maybe
26:47
Speaker 3: torpedoing the brand. We know that, like big brands do
26:50
Speaker 3: not like to get in the mix with politics, and
26:54
Speaker 3: she did something that I would say is historically pretty
26:57
Speaker 3: unique in being willing to do that.
27:00
Speaker 1: Very brave as well. I would say there's a brilliant
27:05
Speaker 1: propagandistic value in having a friendly baby appear to tell
27:10
Speaker 1: the truth, right just saying, oh, I'm a cute baby,
27:14
Speaker 1: I'm a muppet, for instance, That's basically what a QP is, Right,
27:18
Speaker 1: I'm a muppet, and even I know that there are
27:23
Speaker 1: things that we can do to improve society. I thought
27:26
Speaker 1: that was a really smart way to get the message across.
27:29
Speaker 1: We also have to give a shout out to QB
27:33
Speaker 1: in tattoo culture. In the nineteen fifties, the legendary tattoo
27:38
Speaker 1: artist Mike Rollo Malone started putting QP images in his
27:42
Speaker 1: flash design, and excuse me, that's the nineteen seventies when
27:46
Speaker 1: Mike starts doing this. Now it's become solidified as part
27:50
Speaker 1: of tattoo culture. So if you have a friend who
27:52
Speaker 1: is a tattoo artist, they can probably hook you up
27:55
Speaker 1: with a QP.
27:56
Speaker 3: I may have misstated early on in the episode when
27:59
Speaker 3: I'm mentioned the whole tattoo angle of it all, that
28:02
Speaker 3: it was sort of a newer phenomenon. It is maybe
28:05
Speaker 3: a little more compared to how there are like vintage
28:07
Speaker 3: styles of tattoos that sort of come and go in popularity,
28:11
Speaker 3: like sailor tattoos or certain kind of like old school
28:15
Speaker 3: art styles that seem to have a little bursts of popularity.
28:19
Speaker 3: And it would seem per Wren in that Incredible Tattoo
28:23
Speaker 3: Shop in Ashville that she mentioned that it's kind of
28:25
Speaker 3: having a bit of a comeback. I did want to
28:28
Speaker 3: maybe wrap with just one quote from a person that
28:30
Speaker 3: we haven't named, that Smithsonian magazine leans on really heavily
28:34
Speaker 3: and their wonderful piece. The prolific illustrator behind qpi's used
28:38
Speaker 3: her cartoon for women's rights. Susan Scott, who is the
28:42
Speaker 3: president of the board at the bonnie Brook Historical Society,
28:45
Speaker 3: which is a nonprofit that's mission is to educate the
28:49
Speaker 3: public about O'Neill's life, had this to say about that
28:53
Speaker 3: kind of very brave, like you said, Ben move taking
28:57
Speaker 3: an iconic and lucrative piece of intellectual property into the
29:02
Speaker 3: political sphere. And she said this of kind of the
29:05
Speaker 3: perspective of the time. What was neat was that she
29:08
Speaker 3: was able to use this popular character for suffrage and
29:11
Speaker 3: it got people's attention.
29:13
Speaker 2: Some people would go, how.
29:14
Speaker 3: Could she use the QB for suffrage? Why is she
29:17
Speaker 3: getting them involved in politics? And then other people just
29:20
Speaker 3: really didn't even notice. They thought, Oh, isn't that cute?
29:23
Speaker 3: Votes for women? Oh?
29:25
Speaker 1: Okay, that's the brilliant propaganda we're talking about. You know
29:29
Speaker 1: this is is it propaganda? If it's for a good cause.
29:32
Speaker 1: I'm not questioning you.
29:33
Speaker 3: I just think it's something like it's an interesting line
29:36
Speaker 3: because we think of propaganda as maybe the government trying
29:40
Speaker 3: to pull.
29:41
Speaker 2: The wool over people's eyes.
29:43
Speaker 3: But at its best, advertising can be seen as propaganda
29:48
Speaker 3: one hundred percent. Edward brene Is check out one of
29:50
Speaker 3: the early episodes. I think maybe the first of Stuff
29:53
Speaker 3: they Don't Want Should Know as an audio podcast. But yeah,
29:56
Speaker 3: it's interesting. It depends on what side of the issue
29:58
Speaker 3: you fall, whether something is just spread a good message
30:00
Speaker 3: or whether it's propaganda.
30:02
Speaker 1: A PSA can be propaganda. You know, dare to keep
30:05
Speaker 1: a kid off drugs? That was propaganda. And by the way,
30:08
Speaker 1: thanks for the shirt everybody. We've got a good one
30:10
Speaker 1: to ben it finally fits. We've also got a We've
30:15
Speaker 1: also got a deep dive on propaganda. And before we
30:19
Speaker 1: before we wrap here, I am going to say it
30:22
Speaker 1: on air, history of tattoos.
30:24
Speaker 2: We should do it.
30:25
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, yeah, the earliest. You know. It's funny, Ben,
30:28
Speaker 3: I'm forty two years old and I only have just
30:31
Speaker 3: started getting tattoos in the last couple of years as
30:34
Speaker 3: a way of helping my kid learn how to tattoo.
30:37
Speaker 3: I was just like, yeah, whatever, give me a stick
30:39
Speaker 3: and poke, let's do it. But the early days of
30:43
Speaker 3: tattoos and the tribal aspects of it are fascinating and
30:46
Speaker 3: some of the methods that are used and how closely
30:50
Speaker 3: tied to various indigenous cultures tattooing is.
30:53
Speaker 2: So do highly.
30:56
Speaker 3: Recommend to us, me and Max that we do this
31:00
Speaker 3: episode in the very near future.
31:02
Speaker 1: We absolutely will. We can't thank you enough for joining
31:05
Speaker 1: us for that episode on tattoos as well as this
31:08
Speaker 1: episode the feminist history of QP Dolls.
31:11
Speaker 3: Oh last thing, I just want to say sexless bodies
31:14
Speaker 3: one more time? Do you forging to do that? Had? Well,
31:17
Speaker 3: only because one of the last bits of trivia that
31:19
Speaker 3: ran included was that QP Dolls are referenced in a
31:23
Speaker 3: song by the incredible Minnesota rock band The Replacements in
31:27
Speaker 3: nineteen eighty four called Androgynists, and that is because of
31:31
Speaker 3: the QP dolls lack of genitalia. The song's lyrics are
31:35
Speaker 3: often cited as being ahead of their time as they
31:37
Speaker 3: address more non traditional gender norms with tolerance and acceptance.
31:42
Speaker 1: Okay, do you want to say sexless body?
31:44
Speaker 2: Well more?
31:45
Speaker 3: I think I've had my film. You're good?
31:48
Speaker 1: All right, folks? Well, that is actually our show now,
31:52
Speaker 1: thank you again for joining us. We can't wait to
31:56
Speaker 1: hear your thoughts as we explore the history of tattoos.
31:58
Speaker 1: Big big thanks to our recent search associate Wren, Big
32:02
Speaker 1: thanks to our super producer, the Cutest Man and the
32:04
Speaker 1: Biz Max Williams, also downright cherubic very much so a
32:10
Speaker 1: kind angel as well. Big thanks to Alex Williams who
32:14
Speaker 1: composed this track and NOL. I gotta ask you, do
32:19
Speaker 1: you think Jonathan Strickland aka the Quizzer collects QP dolls?
32:23
Speaker 3: I don't know what he kind of looks like one.
32:25
Speaker 3: I mean we'll bring a little dippity do on the top,
32:28
Speaker 3: though it's as smooth as eggs up.
32:30
Speaker 1: We'll have to bring it up when we have him
32:32
Speaker 1: back on the show, perhaps sooner than we think.
32:35
Speaker 2: We never really know, you don't.
32:36
Speaker 3: He just sometimes materializes. And spoiler alert, I think he
32:41
Speaker 3: may be materializing in the very near future, although I
32:43
Speaker 3: know we've teased that in the past and it has.
32:46
Speaker 2: Not come to be.
32:47
Speaker 3: But knock on wood or cross yourself, you know, dealer's choice.
32:51
Speaker 3: I think we might be seeing him pretty soon. And
32:53
Speaker 3: I just wanted to last thing. My kid actually has
32:56
Speaker 3: had fun little collection of QP dolls, certainly old school
33:01
Speaker 3: vintage ones like the certainly the Basque or the porcelain
33:05
Speaker 3: bisk porcelain ones would be worth a pretty penny, but
33:08
Speaker 3: there are lots of more modernized versions of them. I
33:12
Speaker 3: mean again, the Sonny Angels and a lot of these
33:15
Speaker 3: you know, kawhii little blind box toys. Oh something, man.
33:19
Speaker 3: They owe a debta gratitude to O'Neill and her nude, chubby,
33:24
Speaker 3: sexless baby bodies.
33:26
Speaker 2: I knew you were gonna do it big.
33:27
Speaker 1: Thanks to Big, Thanks too, of course, A J. Bahamas Jacobs,
33:31
Speaker 1: Doctor Rachel Big Spinach, Lance the Brew Dude's a ridiculous crime.
33:36
Speaker 1: If you dig us, you'll love them. Christopher Hasio deceives,
33:39
Speaker 1: Jeff go here in spirit, and Noel thank you.
33:43
Speaker 2: And also with you, my friend. We'll see you next time, folks.
33:53
Speaker 3: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
33:57
Speaker 3: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.