Nazi Pullips Fuck Off

[tikistitch]

Ech. Well, at least she doesn't have a swastika arm band.

Comments

[twotone]

I'm relieved that I'm not the only one who got a Nazi/SS vibe off of her outfit. I was beginning to wonder if I was being oversensitive! I'm still worried about whether or not her armband actually has a swastika or not.

At least she doesn't have Aryan blue eyes, I guess...

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

I'm relieved that I'm not the only one who got a Nazi/SS vibe off of her outfit.

Pretty hard not to, really.

[tikistitch.livejournal.com]

The Magma Heritage email says, "I am more like a lady spy!" Yeah, that's a great way to stay keep a low profile: dress up like a Nazi chick.

[twotone]

The Japanese text on the ad says:

"A beautiful, strong, cool Pullip arrives, looking sweet in her military uniform!"

Her "How I feel" statement is actually "I feel as though I'm a lady spy", not "I am more like a lady spy".

In any case. ARGH. How did this seem like a good idea? There are other military-esque outfits out there!

[angelwolf24.livejournal.com]

That is just wrong. :\

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

Jesus, why do they keep doing that?!? What's next? Comfort Woman Momoko? Internment Camp 'Scientist' Arale? Mini Blythe with adorable little Enola Gay vehicle?

[tikistitch.livejournal.com]

Barbie's new series, "Horrifyingly Tasteless Dolls of the World."

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

I wonder how many times "Barbie as Eva Peron" made it through the preliminary planning stages before someone pointed out that it was probably a bad idea.

[avalonjones.livejournal.com]

In some cases, I like the idea of a doll with a handgun. This is one of the times where I don't.

to play devils advocate....

[tyloncorp.livejournal.com]

while that probibly was the worst way to execute it(alternate colors people! black and red ain't everything!), it does look like a police uniform, dress style. i did a little google digging..

http://www.ashlandpd.org/images/Dress_Uniform_25.jpg

^ features the darker cross sash

http://www.rhydin.org/uniform/mil-uk/wrac86s.jpg

^ features the rank ropes. this is a british women's army uniform

http://www.kimsoft.com/korea/skspy.jpg

^ this is probibly where they are getting the spy angle from. this is a photo of a us CIA agent in north korean military gear. note the baggy sided pants. it also gives me japanese police force vibes but i can't find a danm pic.


nazi unforms tend to feature a more jacket/suit like coat collar, which i don't see here, and a tie, also not seen/shown. also the hats tend to have a buldge in the middle where the insigna lies. there are exceptions to these rules though, i'm going by what i am seeing.

my conclusions:

is it intentionally a nazi uniform: in my opinion, no. all these peices and parts are seen on police uniforms in some form or another. i do not think junplannings intention was to key into a nazi market, but instead to those of us like myself who have a gothic uniform fetish/adoration

is it bad execution?: yes, they could have picked a variety of other colors to do this outfit in that would have avoided controversey. the armband is generlay seen only on MP's and few other dress uniforms, and could have been omitted. the hat symbol, also, was a bad move, and could have been anything. another bad goof. its not the best execution. someone in quality control shoulda cought this, esp if they wanna hit western stores

I have no pullips, and i have a military style outfit fetish/love. I might pick her up, dunno yet. if i do though, the armbands getting scrapped, as is the hat symbol and possibly the belt sash.

don't hate on me or think i'm condoning naziism, because i'm not. it drives me up the wall so bad trying to find doll sized uniforms, both in sd and 1/6th scales. the only other uniformed doll i have is azones lycee love impulse. i'm just offering my 2 cents and a slightly alternative viewpoint. make of it what you will =/.

Further thoughts

[twotone]

Part of my "Ack, Nazi" reaction to this is the fact that it's explicitly a military uniform (Japanese text on poster says so) with a red arm band. Japan's occasional idealization or trivialization of their military history makes me uncomfortable.

Of course, this brings up the question of:
Was this designed in Japan, by Japanese folks who don't realize the emotional impact of Nazi-themed uniforms?

Or was this designed in Korea, by Korean folks?

And should that make a difference?

I have noticed that many Asian "OMG WTF" cultural artifacts (flash animations, "Engrish", etc) are automatically labelled as Japanese, even when they're clearly Korean or from another country.

Re: Further thoughts

[tyloncorp.livejournal.com]

Yeah i know the feeling. When i was in tokyo, they took us to one of the gothic clothing streets (i forget what it was called, it was the one next to snoopyland.), and i went up and down looking for cool clothes and trenches. i ahd a VERY hard time though, ebcuase alot of the outfits there has blatant nazi symbolism and regalia. it was very fustrating. VERY fustrating. i finally found a gorgeous black trench, so i was happy. but it was kinda disturbing how bad it was. its not personally offensive to me, but i can eaisly understand your concern and others


as for junplanning, i dunno the company, so i could not say whose fault it is.
as for regionality? possibly. the japanese would be more likely to trivialize and foucus on nazi uniforms. the koreans however, would not, for at the time they were a japanese colony and fairly uninvovled with the pacific conflict.

thats a shame though when everything is generalized like that. i purposely taught myself to recognize korean/japanese/chinises text form one another so i always know.

Re: to play devils advocate....

[tikistitch.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the links. I agree--uniforms are kewl!

But I've seen enough dolls cosplaying as Nazis, that I'd be surprised if Jun Planning wasn't catering at least *a bit* to that market, what with the red armband and the hat symbol (as you mentioned). I'm just thinking, no sane person would promote "Barbie dressed as an Enola Gay Bombadier!"

As another example, closer to home, people who do custom GI Joe setups will come up with some severely tasteless and boneheaded dolls. But, I don't see Hasbro come up with a "Heavy Duty Fragging Hanoi Jane" action figures.

Re: to play devils advocate....

[nachtlicht.livejournal.com]

*butts in* I crossed-posted this, and yeah....

I love my Pullips too but this pisses me off, and as a longtime war history buff, yeah. I need only point to her gun:

Why, that looks like a Erfurt LUGER. Hmmm. Shall we compare?



There actually aren't very many militaries since the Nazis that have their soldiers wearing similar uniforms. Riding boots, yes, the *style* of hat, yes, but I am sorry, looking at foreign police uniforms and such, no, you really can't draw those parallels. The Schutzstaffel (SS) wore black uniforms, in particular Hitler's personal division of them, but the Waffen SS, the actual armored and fighting divisions, wore similar uniforms that were grey. One sees many militaries wearing the black riding boots, but few of them wear the bloused-out style riding trousers in that style (they really aren't very good battle uniforms), and how many of them have emblems that so uncannily resemble the Totenkopf on the hat???

No police officer I know wears that, in any country.

And the blonde hair? Yeah. I'm surprised her eyes aren't bright blue.

[tacohime.livejournal.com]

All right, that quelches any desire I ever had to own a Pullip or indeed any Jun Planning merch.

Japan, knock it the fuck off.

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

I think this would all be less frustrating if not for the language barrier. It would be nice to be able to send them a polite note saying that THIS IS NOT COOL, here's why, please reconsider.

I swear, if I tried to tell someone outside of fandom about this stuff, they'd call bullshit and say it was an urban legend, like the crucified Santa store display.

[twotone]

This is developing into a fascinating discussion (not least the comments on Pullip's roots as a toy and a character). Would you mind if I bookmarked it?

[tikistitch.livejournal.com]

Not at all! Be our guest....

[avalonjones.livejournal.com]

Tikistitch, wasn't there a similar kerfuffle a while back, when someone, somewhere had some Super Dollfie outfits available that were pretty heavily Nazi-oriented? Was it a limited Volks outfit?

[tikistitch.livejournal.com]

Yuppers, it was something on DoA, and I believe the mods closed the thread. ^_^

For whatever reason, I *don't* think it was a licensed Volks outfit. I believe it was an SD sized outfit made by one of the other manufacturers.

[kimako.livejournal.com]

I'm amazed that a doll fashion can cause so much concern and get people to waste hours talking about it. I'm surprised the nun Pullip didn't cause any controversy or maybe she did and I just missed it?

I like Beressa, but I've never bought a Pullip and if I did Jupi or Mercu would be first on my list.

[tikistitch.livejournal.com]

I'm amazed that a doll fashion can cause so much concern and get people to waste hours talking about it.

Well, it's either this, or work on my SAS macros. Dollies always seem to win out over writing code. ^_^

CENSORSHIP GEEKS FUCK OFF!

[nfpgasmask.livejournal.com]

I am still so surprised that so many ppl get all pissy about a doll. Especially you Tiki Stitch. Aren't you a big Star Wars fan? How come you don't have a problem with all that Star Wars stuff in your house? I think we all know the "Empire" very closely represents the 3rd Reich in many ways. Right down to Darth Vader's helmet. And what about all those jack boots worn by the Empire? And if I am correct, George Lucas did not coin the term "Storm Trooper". Maybe you should write an email to Lucas Arts and ask them to change Stars Wars so no one gets offended by all the Nazi references in the movies. Seriously though, its a doll! Its fiction! Just like Star Wars. If you don't like this Pullip doll, why do you like Star Wars so much? It doesn’t make sense. I know the Empire does not have any big swastikas on their uniforms, but neither does this Pullip as far as I can tell. And she is a Police Officer, not a Nazi, just like Darth Vader is a Sith, not Hitler. Its a borrowed aesthetic, nothing more. Everyone just needs to GET OVER IT, and go back to watching Star Wars if Japanese Dolls are too intense to handle. I guess Lucas did a better job of disguising his use of Nazi imagery than Jun Planning. But actually, I just think he is good at brainwashing people so they buy into his grand marketing scheme......hmmm, just like Hitler, only Lucas makes you spend your life's savings on his "collectables" instead.

When we westerners stick our noses into other cultures, we should ACCEPT the culture the way it is. The Japanese fashion aesthetic includes Nazi-esque imagery (as does Star Wars) and I don't think we can ever change that, nor should we.

Re: CENSORSHIP GEEKS FUCK OFF!

[tikistitch.livejournal.com]

There is a difference. As you might have noticed, Lucas has cast the Empire as *villains* in his saga.

Re: CENSORSHIP GEEKS FUCK OFF!

[middle-savagery.livejournal.com]

Ahh, cultural relativism rears its head once again.