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Is it escapism and immaturity to own your favorite plush toys as an adult? The answer is clearly no. People generally fall into an either or cognitive trap, that is, a person who still likes plush toys in adulthood must be childish, which must have a negative impact on his/her social life. But the question is, if this evaluation is replaced by "childlike innocence", will it be much more positive?
Plush toys are often regarded as children's playthings - a childish hobby that we should eventually give up, just like fictional friends and Capri Sun. If this hobby continues after puberty, it may appear awkward. Actor Margot Robbie joked on The Late Late Show With James Corden: "Please, no one should psychoanalyze the fact that I am 30 and still sleep with a rabbit every night."
However, This is not rare: the survey found that about 40% of American adults sleep with plush toys [1]. And in the past few years, plush toys have become more popular among adults.
© Keystone / Hulton Archive / Getty
Erica Kanesaka, a professor at Emory University who studies cute culture, told me in an email that, This is not just the problem of keeping childhood souvenirs until adulthood for emotional reasons - adults are also buying plush toys for themselves, just because they like them.
"Kidult" (the word Kidult is a combination of kid and adult, which refers to an adult who still loves the culture of young people with childlike innocence, and also refers to an adult who is not growing up psychologically and whose mind is still like a child) market (defined by a market research company as any person over 12 years old) is said to have an annual toy sales of about 9 billion dollars. Among the most popular modern plush toy brands are Squishmallows and Jellycat, which specialize in the production of non-traditional plush toys, such as cabbage and rainbow ostrich.
Squishmallow series plush toys. © Catharine Parker
Generation Z has taken the lead in embracing plush toys: among the buyers of Squishmallows, 65% are 18 to 24 years old [2]. Richard Gottlieb, a toy industry consultant, told NPR, "This has evolved from an embarrassment... to what it is today. Generation Z and Millennials are playing with great pride."
Of course, many people still find it strange or childish for adults to collect plush toys. When TikTok online celebrity Charli D'Amelio released a photo of her resting with a small group of colorful Squishmallows, some commentators immediately began to laugh at her collection. Damelio was frustrated: "Everyone expects me to be an adult all the time," she wrote (when she was 16 years old), "I'm still growing up."
Although this online dispute seems unimportant, it points out a continuous cultural negotiation, that is, how much space can adult life leave for loveliness and play, and whether adults need to "grow up".
When I was young, I was not very interested in plush toys; I regard them as helpless, candy free Pinatas (Pi ñ ata, a paper paste container filled with toys and candy, which is hung up on festivals or birthday parties and is hit with sticks. When broken, toys and candy will fall off. Editor's Note). But when I was in my early 20s, many of my friends began to buy and give each other plush toys. A friend asked me whether Belly or Lulu was more suitable for the name of Plush Dragon. On my 21st birthday, someone gave me a jellycat plush pretzel toy. I put it on the bed, and I know many people of my age are doing the same.
Some people blame social media for the growing popularity of plush toys. On social media, plush toys are cute and nostalgic, and are very suitable for sharing. Kanesaka said that the global popularity of Hello Kitty and Pikachu in Japan also played a role.
Millennials sleep with plush toys in their arms. What happens when they have children of their own? © Jesse Lenz
Others accuse the young generation of being too vulnerable. As the title of a Philadelphia Magazine said, "Millennials! Put down your blankets and plush toys and grow up quickly!" [3] But the most common explanation seems to be the pressure, loneliness and uncertainty brought by the early epidemic, making adults seek comfort from plush toys. "I took a plush polar bear from my childhood bedroom," Sarah Gannett wrote in the New York Times, "to withstand the impact of bad news and fear."
However, scholars such as Simon May, a philosopher at King's College London, are not sure whether the revival of adult plush toys is entirely related to the epidemic. Mei told me that as early as 2020, pressure and uncertainty have become a part of human life. For him and other scholars who study cute animals, this revival is part of a larger transformation over the centuries: the boundary between childhood and adulthood is disappearing.
Childhood is not always worth remembering. This is a life stage full of uncertainty: many children fail to live to adulthood and die of preventable diseases today. Some children have worked in factories and coal mines since childhood.
"Take an example that is unimaginable now," Joshua Paul Dale, professor of lovely culture research at Tokyo Central University, wrote in his book Irresistible: How Cuteness Wired Our Brains and Conquered the World, "It is not only common for children to drink unconscious in pubs, but it was also accepted until the early 20th century."
In this painting created by the Italian painter Duccio di Buoninsegna in 1283, the hair line of the son at a young age has become like this. © DeAgostini/Getty
Dell believes that, The concept of "childhood" was mainly formed in the period of the Enlightenment. Before that, most people regarded children as small adults ——Even many babies in medieval paintings look like strong, unyielding, miniature adults with receding hairlines and so on. The philosopher John Locke's "Tabula rasa" to some extent helps people reposition children as potential whiteboards rather than half baked adults.
By the 20th century, commonly known as the "Century of the Child", the protection of children as a formative stage of life has been quite mature. Mei even called the values that appeared at that time "children worship". By 1918, every state in the United States had passed laws requiring children to go to school. In 1938, the United States imposed strict restrictions on child labour. In 1959, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Child advocated that children enjoy "special protection and care". Parents can also expect their children to live longer: 46% of children born in 1800 did not live to be 5 years old, but by 1900, the number had almost halved. In The Power of Cute, Mei wrote that childhood has become a "new sacred place".
However, Dell told me that in recent years, although childhood is still respected and protected, adulthood is often associated with difficulties rather than freedom. A recent study found that [4], Adults aged 18 to 30 have the most negative views on adulthood, which may be due to the delay of traditional "adult" milestones (such as marriage and childbearing), resulting in the gap between expectations and reality of adulthood. Dell also attributed the pessimistic adult to such factors as the part-time economy and job instability: "It is increasingly difficult to be an adult now."
© PlushThis
Therefore, In recent years, the boundaries between childhood and adulthood seem to have blurred. "Do we see that, on the one hand, children are behaving more and more like adults?" Mei wrote. To a large extent, due to the role of social media, children often come into contact with adult creators. They have the same anxiety as adults, which also leads to the use of anti-aging skin care products and other phenomena of "Sephora tweets" (popular nickname for teenagers who love various skin care products and cosmetics). "On the other hand," Mei continued, "adults are increasingly convinced that childhood is the decisive factor in the whole life."
So, Children in childhood become adults, while adults become children.
For Mei, childhood seems to have become a mirror for many adults to examine their emotional life. Zen Master Th í ch Nh ấ tH ạ nh once wrote: "In every one of us, there is a young and suffering child." And this Inner child The concept of "health" was first promoted by psychologist Carl Jung, and now it has become a popular health concept.
The embodiment of this concept is sometimes sweet, sometimes almost absurd: we often see articles such as "Heal my inner child by collecting dolls" and "I took part in the Caribbean cruise to heal my inner child". On TikTok, a trend in 2022 will be for users to post childhood photos with the words: "When I was mean to myself, I remember that I was also bad to them."
At the same time, in Jennifer Lopez's new film This Is Me... Now, the emotional climax is the scene where the adult Lopez bends down to embrace his young self and tells her "I love you... I'm sorry". If childhood is a "new sacred place", as Mei said, this emphasis on "inner children" may be a way for adults to insist that they are also sacred - inner children deserve to be treated gently, even including plush toys.
© Toynk Toys
Turning to cuteness may be a way of rejecting rigid and too serious adult life, and acknowledging that childhood and adulthood are constantly changing. Kanesaka wrote: "Embracing loveliness can also be a way to challenge traditional adult roles, which have become anachronistic, outdated and harmful." Being an adult means not only paying taxes while drinking scotch. "Rather than accept the idea that there is only one form of adults and power (we must be strong and masculine), it is better to embrace a softer, gentler adult life with plush toys."
Indeed, collecting plush toys is not everyone's hobby, but there are other ways to let people have games and miracle moments in adult life, such as bird watching, joining the Dragon and Dungeon Alliance and so on.
Mei believes that the change of boundaries between childhood and adulthood is part of the natural development of human thought. The boundaries will collapse, especially the binary opposition: "What we see now is gender." Although the boundaries of legal age may be maintained, childhood and adulthood may one day be regarded as a point on a continuum rather than a distinct life stage. In the end, "the new adult approach will be to incorporate these childlike elements," Dell said. The revival of adult plush toys may be just the prelude to the coming event: Maybe one day we will all become adults with childlike innocence.
reference:
[1]www.usatoday.com/videos/news/nation/2018/03/06/4-10-american-adults-still-cuddle-stuffed-animals/32663493/
[2]time.com/6234061/toys-for-adults-popularity/
[3]www.phillymag.com/news/2019/04/20/millennials-sleep-with-stuffed-animals/
[4]link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10804-024-09477-8
Article/Valerie Trapp
Translated by/Tempura
Proofread/rabbit's walking
Original/www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2024/04/adult-studed-animal-revival/678012/
This article is based on the Creative Sharing Protocol (BY-NC), which was released by Kushan in Leviathan
The article is only the author's point of view, and does not necessarily represent Leviathan's position
