Meeting in the Middle: The Desexualization of Playscale Miniaturism

This hobby isn't new, it's playscale miniaturism. It is a combination of dollhouse miniaturism (with or without the dollhouse) and scale modeling. It's population and accessories just happen to hail from both the green and pink aisles. Barbie established the scale in modern times (which is why it is sometimes called Barbie-scale), but, when Joe became a civilian --and got hair!-- with the advent of his Adventure Team (or earlier in individual collections), the scale became irreversibly co-ed; it married the two camps. Prior to this, most adult collectors were polarized into military & fashion (or domestic) miniaturism, largely along gender lines.

In 1962, James Bond's film debut had introduced the "guy" flick. Now, we guys had our own film genres for inspiration beyond westerns & war films. These "new" genres included pretty women and fancy clothes which could only be found in the pink aisle while remaining patently masculine.

Between the two scale names, playscale is the more fitting in that context. AT meant us guys didn't have to limit ourselves to military themes, or even to pulp adventures, for that matter. We could go anywhere from there. Barbie was already comfortable in other careers. At least if she was still considered a fashion model, it included MODELING other careers, including outdoor/adventuress themes. It was only a matter of time before they met in those other genres, officially.

As adults, we don't have the aversion to the opposite sex that we may have had as children. Our view of femfigs is colored by how we view our girlfriends/wives, daughters, co-workers and even our kinfolk with matured eyes. I would go so far to say that co-ed miniaturism is a telling distinction from child's play.

For spy-fi & other techno-pulp related posts, see my blog Getting Technical...