Cultural context

Stuffed animal play a large part in American society, and have for at least 100 years. Although they came to the field later than dolls, they play a similar role in childrens’ play and the collectibles market. A stuffed animal can be a friend, a learning tool, a squishy pillow, or just an interesting ornament. A stuffed animal is whatever you make it.

Stuffed animals are everywhere and in every size. The can be tiny (like a beanie baby) or they can huge (like the whole menagerie of larger-than-life animals at the entrance to FAO Schwarz). They range from imaginary animals, like Barney and his friends, to the ever popular teddy bear, and of course a rhinoceros. Almost any animal can become a stuffed animal.

Perhaps the most interesting story with stuffed animals is that of the Teddy Bear. This early phenomenon is one of the few times that a stuffed animal entered the political arena. The teddy bear is named after President Theodore Roosevelt, a popular and charismatic politician from around 1900 with a reputation for being an outdoorsman. While

on a hunting trip, he refused to shoot the bear cub that had been provided for him. This led cartoonist Clifford Berryman to create a cartoon about TR refusing to shoot a baby bear. Capitalizing on the interest in the cartoon, the Michtom family began producing the first “Teddy’s Bears” for sale based on the cute cartoon bear. Across the ocean, and unaware of the craze, the Steiff company was also making its first baby bears, and the style wasn’t selling in Europe. Once they heard of the craze, Steiff began naming its bears accordingly. (For more visit this website about the history of teddy bears.)

Today teddy bears are still the most popular stuffed animal. You can even stuff your own at the Build-a-Bear workshop that is in many shopping malls. Even when stuffed animals were expensive, children still played with them, the example I gave last week of A A. Milne is proof enough. The stories for the Winnie-the-Pooh were based on experiences that Christopher Robin Milne had with this handcrafted bears.

I have already touched on the need for imagination in stuffed animal play, and how TV can encourage this. But not only have stuffed animals spawned TV shows and movies, but these programs have also spawned their own lines of stuffed animals. Every Disney movie and TV show has its own collection of stuffed animal.

Stuffed animals remain popular today, as both a toy and a collectible, some series are collected like posters and classic toys, to be displayed, not played with. A good example of this phenomenon was the Beanie Baby craze in the 1990’s. People would rush the stores looking for the latest Beanie Baby and would often just put it on a shelf. Others collect a bunch of different stuffed animals, almost to excess.

Stuffed Animals have a varied life in popular culture, ranging from political props, to toys, to items on a shelf. One thing is clear, they are an integral part of life for people of all ages.