Trixie Belden: Tomboy Detective

Early in the '80s, I "discovered" Trixie Belden. I was never into Nancy Drew (whose first book was published in 1930), but I devoured the Trixie books.

The Trixie books first came out in 1948. The last book was published in 1986. Altogether, the series has 39 titles. I spent my allowance and birthday money on them, reading them as quickly as I could get my hands on them. When I was older, I sold them all in a garage sale... that was foolish of me. When my daughter was born, I started recollecting them, not with any particular urgency. I still don't have them all.

What I found so engaging about Trixie was her impishness, her tomboyishness, her utter lack of perfection -- things that made me not like Nancy. The stories are pretty timeless, too. When I was reading them as a kid, I had no sense that those first books were more than four decades old by the time I read them.

Even her little cameo there distinguishes her from Nancy. She's freckled and her hair's untidy.

Nancy is like Detective Barbie in that version on the right.
Trixie is so much more relatable.

I just finished a fantastic online class about gender in comic books. As classes like that tend to do, it has made me look critically at gender in other media, as well. It's made me think about comic books, and lack of female representation. It's made me think about who would make a good heroine and role model for girls. And this afternoon, it occurred to me that Trixie Belden and the Bob-whites would make an awesome comic book. (Assuming the illustrator could manage not to make her all sexy -- because that would be gross and wrong.) Unfortunately, it looks like Random House has the license for the books. They've reprinted the first 14, but none of the others since 2006, at least not that I can determine. So while it's a huge publishing house with lotsa lawyers, it's not been a successful purchase for them from Golden Books (or they would have reprinted the entire series), so maybe they'd be more willing to OK a comic book. *shrug*

Note to anyone out there who wants to take this on: I would totally buy a Trixie Belden comic book (so long as you didn't turn her into a sexpot).

When I was reading the series as a kid, I was pretty sure I wanted to be a detective, and I was more than a little in love with Jim. She was spunky and smart, fearless and impetuous... and likeable. She was real to me, relatable on a level that Nancy Drew never was. (I dislike Nancy for the same reasons I dislike Superman: that kind of goody-goody perfection is just annoying.) I think heroines like that are in pretty short supply. I know good heroines are scarce in comic books, and goodness knows there aren't many options for comic books aimed at young adult girls.

Now I know I'm likely in the minority here, I know that Nancy is a lot more popular as girl detectives go, but our girls need Trixie.

Starting Lineup: Grrl Jocks

Still working on the Heroines/Villainesses list, thought I'd just set these grrls out of the way so I didn't inadvertently leave them out. I'm really not happy including these with action figures (there's really no "action" to them), but I don't want to exclude them completely, either. Strong women, whether they are physically gifted real people like these women, or if they are from the pages of a comic book, are important role models for all women, not just they little ones.

There's a lot of baggage tied to the word "jock" in the US, particularly if you're more in the "nerd" camp in high school. But the best way to diffuse a negative slur is to adopt it, so yes, I am calling these female athletes "jocks." (And hell no I am not feminizing it by calling them "jockettes." That's demeaning and diminishing.) I'm refraining from hopping on my soapbox here, and railing about different kinds of beauty and worth and what is feminine. You're welcome.

ANYway... Here's a list of the Starting Lineup female figures, made by Kenner* and Hasbro:

Bonnie Blair (US Olympian, speed skating)

Timeless Legends (1998)

Nadia Comaneci (Romanian Olympian, gymnastics)

Timeless Legends (1996)

Florence Griffith-Joyner (US Olympian, track and field)

Timeless Legends (1996)

Jackie Joyner-Kersee (US Olympian, track and field)

Timeless Legends (1996)

Dottie Kamenshek (All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, et al.)

Cooperstown (1997)

Olga Korbut (Soviet Olympian, gymnastics)

Timeless Legends (1996)

The 1996 Timeless Legends assortment was good for the female athletes. Of the 9 individuals in the series, 4 were women!

Not pictured, and not yet in my collection
• Sheryl Swoopes from 1998 and a 2000 NCAA March Madness Starting Lineup series. While still in college, she got two of these figures. (That's kinda BS, because I know there were plenty of worthy athletes out there, why did she get a second one?)
• Pepper Davis from the 1999 Cooperstown Collection.

Unfortunately, it looks like the bias is just as strong with the grrl jocks as it is with the grrl heroes; ladies are underrepresented, period. Alas, Starting Lineup is a defunct line, so any dreams you athletic amazons have of seeing your heroine reproduced (if she's not listed above) are dashed. McFarlane Toys is doing a larger-scale version of sports figures, more like actual action figures, but I haven't seen any women yet. The lines seem to be focusing on US major league sports.

So, if Starting Lineup was an active line again, who would you want included? My first wish would be Shirley Muldowney, the drag car racer (and the first woman to get a license from the NHRA to drive a top fuel dragster).

Here's some links to get you thinking and dreaming. Hey, maybe if enough people asked Hasbro, they'd reactivate this and we'd have our sporting females!

Sports Illustrated Top 100 Women Athletes

The 25 Greatest Female Athletes of All-Time

Top 50 Female Athletes Ever

The Top 10 Greatest Female Athletes in Modern Olympian History

100 Trailblazers: Great Women Athletes Who Opened Doors for Future Generations

* Kenner's name and licensed properties were purchased by Hasbro in 1991.