What About Gay Bob? | Natural History Mm

Contents:

• WHAT ABOUT GAY BOB?
• MEET GAY BOB, THE 1977 DOLL THAT URGED PEOPLE TO COME OUT OF THE CLOSET
• THE STORY BEHD GAY BOB, THE WORLD’S FIRST OUT-AND-PROUD DOLL
• GAY BOB
• HOW GAY BOB, THE WORLD’S FIRST OPENLY GAY DOLL, CAME TO BE
• OUT AND PROUD: GAY BOB DOLLS AND THEIR PLACE HISTORY
• THE STORY BEHD GAY BOB, THE WORLD'S FIRST OUT-AND-PROUD DOLL
• GAY BOB ENGLISH DICTNARY
• DEFINITIONS FOR GAY BOBGAY BOB

WHAT ABOUT GAY BOB?

Thirteen ch tall and plastic, Gay Bob was marketed as the first openly gay doll and ma his retail but mail-orr talogs. At face value, Gay Bob’s msage about the mers of g out seems earnt, pog the valu of urage, honty, and livg thentilly; however, the brandg and sign of the Gay Bob doll are brash. We had somethg to learn om the gay movement, jt like we did om the black civil rights movement, and the women’s movement and that is havg the urage to stand up and say, ‘I have a right to be what I am.

Acrdg to Rosenberg, regardls of a person’s sexualy, Gay Bob uld serve as an example for havg the urage to “e out of the closet” and be your te, thentic self. Durg a prs blz for the doll’s release, Rosenberg also dited that Gay Bob was a spoof of other “amorpho, sexls dolls, ” which was undoubtedly a reference to Mattel’s KenTM and BarbieTM.

MEET GAY BOB, THE 1977 DOLL THAT URGED PEOPLE TO COME OUT OF THE CLOSET

He had plans to release addnal dolls that would have ma up the rt of Gay Bob’s fay (a mother, father, and two brothers); however, the other dolls were never produced. Consequently, ten thoand more dolls were produced, and Gay Bob was btowed wh Esquire magaze's "Dub Achievement Award" 1978. A handsome and mascule doll, Gay Bob had a short feathery blon crew cut and was signed to look like a cross between Pl Newman and Robert Redford.

THE STORY BEHD GAY BOB, THE WORLD’S FIRST OUT-AND-PROUD DOLL

He had a preprogrammed voice rerdg that played the earnt msage, “Gay people are no different than straight people… if everyone me ‘out of their closets, ’ there wouldn’t be so many angry, trated, ightened people. ” This reerated msagg om his fashn talog that fed “g out of the closet” as what uld be scribed as Gay Bob’s manifto—be urageo by g out of your closet and livg hontly, like Gay Bob!

GAY BOB

But Gay Bob was more than jt clever packagg; he also promoted the ia that g out of the closet, beg open and hont wh the people your life, was a powerful and urageo act. “It’s a real giggle and kd of fun, ” said Bce Voeller, executive director of the Natnal Gay Task Force said at the time, “I thk we should al wh lightly and enjoy . Many nsir Stonewall, a New York Cy uprisg to prottg police harassment at the Stonewall Inn, as the start of the Gay Rights movement the Uned Stat.

The rtrictive anti-gay Hays Co, which forba and then limed the way LGBTQ+ characters uld be seen on film, was disband the early 1960s.

Gay Rights and Gay Inty had entered more mon areas the cultural nversatn, but LGBTQ+ people were still discrimated agast, stigmatized, and legislated agast on large and small sl. At the same time Gay Bob h the mail-orr adult-centric talogs (and a uple of biastal boutique shelv) sger and anti-gay rights activist Ana Bryant found Save Our Children, Inc, which opposed the gay rights movement. When Da County, Florida, passed a gay-rights ordance protectg gay civil rights passed early 1977, Save Our Children rpond wh a mpaign to repeal the ordance.

HOW GAY BOB, THE WORLD’S FIRST OPENLY GAY DOLL, CAME TO BE

Bryant’s fear-mongerg rhetoric gaed tractn, and June 1977, the Da County gay rights ordance was repealed and would rema until the 1990s. Rowe lled the Gay Bob dolls, “evince of the speratn of the homosexual mpaign has reached s effort to put the homosexual liftyle, which is a athstyle, across to the Amerin people.

I n only hope that the children who are given the Gay Bob dolls will not prehend the meang and tent of the mpaign that is behd their manufacture and distributn. That changed 1997 wh Totem Internatnal’s troductn of the Billy doll who claimed to be the first “Out and Proud Gay Doll”—although that distctn clearly belongs to Gay Bob. While Gay Bob was built for the adult dience, today, we see doll manufacturers bridge the LBGTQ+ muny wh tentnaly for the younger generatn.

While fans celebrated the cln of Mamie and Lyte as reprentatn and clivy, also led to homophobic backlash straight out of Ana Bryant’s book several s after Save the Children began.

OUT AND PROUD: GAY BOB DOLLS AND THEIR PLACE HISTORY

It would be easy to look at the story of Gay Bob and thk was simply a novelty em that got ught up the polics of the time for a brief moment and is now largely fotten.

THE STORY BEHD GAY BOB, THE WORLD'S FIRST OUT-AND-PROUD DOLL

Jun 12, 2020Failed to save articlePlease try agaThis article is more than 3 years 1860s Germany, Karl Herich Ulrichs urged other gay people to publicly reveal their sexual orientatn. And while Milk was urgg his iends and muny to e out of the closet, the “World’s First Gay Doll” was dog the exact same thg. Digned to look like a batn of Pl Newman and Robert Redford and packed to his own rdboard closet, Gay Bob was the brachild of former advertisg executive Harvey Rosenberg.

Rosenberg wanted Gay Bob to normalize the g out procs, while also actg as a fun accsory for those who were already out and proud. In an terview to promote Gay Bob, Rosenberg once said, “Bob’s perfect for an executive’s sk, dash board ornament, the attache se, the bathtub rim, a health club gym bag. Edward Rowe, the executive director of Protect Ameri’s Children, was quoted a 1978 issue of the Ptsburgh Post-Gazette scribg Gay Bob as “another evince of the speratn the homosexual mpaign has reached s effort to put homosexual liftyle, which is a ath style, across to the Amerin people.

Attempts to get the doll to partment stor were largely a failure, so Rosenberg primarily sold Gay Bob via mail orr ads gay magaz. Two thoand people snapped up their own Gay Bobs the first two months of the doll beg available, and Bob was later stocked San Francis and New York boutiqu. In addn to wng Esquire’s “Dub Achievement Award” 1978, Gay Bob got his very own storyle Frank Zappa's 9-mute o to sexual experimentatn, “Sy B.

GAY BOB ENGLISH DICTNARY

“We had somethg to learn om the gay movement, jt like we did om the Black civil rights movement and the women’s movement, ” Harvey Rosenberg once said. “It’s another evince of the speratn the homosexual mpaign has reached s effort to put homosexual liftyle, which is a athstyle, across to the Amerin people.

DEFINITIONS FOR GAY BOBGAY BOB

Enraged nsumers plaed that a toy wh a homosexual backstory would lead to other ”disgtg” dolls like “Priscilla the Prostute” and “Danny the Dope Pher. Gay Bob, who was meant to remble a cross between Robert Redford and Pl Newman, was blond, wh a flannel shirt, tight jeans, and one pierced ear. The doll gave anti-gay anizatns plenty to fear; trsic wh was a celebratn of gay inty, evinced by Gay Bob’s programmed speech.

“Gay people, ” Bob said, “are no different than straight people… if everyone me ‘out of their closets’ there wouldn’t be so many angry, trated, ightened people. In a cheeky move, the box which Gay Bob was packaged me the outle of a closet, so that when he left his box, he was lerally g out of the closet. Gay Bob explaed: “It’s not easy to be hont about what you are — fact tak a great al of urage… But remember if Gay Bob has the urage to e out his closet, so n you.

The doll’s creator, Harvey Rosenberg, a former advertisg executive who veloped marketg mpaigns for var rporatns, wanted Gay Bob to “liberate” men om “tradnal sexual rol. Though Gay Bob was certaly humoro—the doll was signed to be anatomilly rrect, and proment gay activists such as Bce Voeller told reporters that people should “al wh [the doll] lightly and enjoy ”—Rosenberg’s tentns seem to have been scere.