Handing Over the Reins

Black Beauty, horses, healing, women, vintage toys, Catherine Held
The Modern Consumer–1950s Product and Style Exhibit, Girls’ Toys Display, SFO United Terminal, April 2019; Photo by Catherine Held

A few weeks ago on my way to Tucson, an interesting museum exhibit in the United Terminal at SFO caught my eye. It had artifacts from the consumer culture that arose in the 1950s. One glass case profiled girls’ toys, while another profiled the toys marketed to boys. Not surprisingly, the boys’ toys are futuristic and space-themed. 

Black Beauty, horses, healing, women, vintage toys, Catherine Held
The Modern Consumer–1950s Product and Style, Boys’ Toys Display, SFO United Terminal, April 2019; Photo by Catherine Held

It was the case with the girls’ toys, though, that caught my eye. Along with a jump rope, a dress designing kit, a Barbie and Ken doll set and a gum-wrapper chain was a gem. Produced in 1958 by the Transogram Company was the “Game of Black Beauty.”

Black Beauty, of course, was the 1877 children’s classic by Anna Sewell. For more than one hundred years, the book has remained one of the most beloved children’s books ever written. There have been numerous film versions and adaptations recounting the trials of the black horse. Written from the stallion’s perspective, Anna Sewell hoped that it would open eyes to the poor treatment of horses. Housebound due to illness at the end of her life, she died just five months after completing her only novel. The author never lived to see her book called the “Uncle Tom’s Cabin of the Horse,” or to be used as a call to action for the protection of horses and other animals.

Black Beauty, women, healing, horses, vintage toys, Catherine Held
The Modern Consumer–1950s Product and Style Exhibit, Vintage Black Beauty Board Game, SFO United Terminal, April 2019; Photo by Catherine Held

A close look at the box shows children dressed in clothes of the time period. (I remember wearing bobby socks!) My surprise is that it is a boy holding the reins to Black Beauty, while one girl sits and the other girl stands nearby. This was a toy marketed to girls, yet the boy is the one shown in the active role with the horse.

This time capsule look at girls’ games shows that times and gender roles sure have changed. By 1958, advertisers and marketing departments recognized that the game would appeal to girls, but on the box top, the reins of the horse still remained in the hands of boys and men.

Sixty years after the game came out, girls and women now dominate virtually every endeavor related to horses except for horse racing. Since the early 2000’s I have been tracking the shift in the culture that has brought horses out of the hands of men and into the domain of girls and women. I wrote my Ph.D. in Depth Psychology about what that might mean for the culture, and am currently completing my book, Called by the Horse: Women, Horses and Consciousness to present some of my findings.

Move over boys, the girls are holding the reins now.

For more about how Black Beauty impacted the ethical treatment of horses and other animals:

http://westbynorthwest.org/artman/publish/printer_1177.shtml