Cute and cuddly, or a “horrible monstrosity” that’ll destroy humanity? Many people feared the worst—that this new toy would ruin young girls’ developing maternal instincts, and lead us to a terrible fate.
The Moral Influence of the Teddy Bear
The Tribune | June 16th, 1907
In future years it will be found that the fuzzy, stupid, stuffed animal has had as permanent an effect upon the manners and morals of our age as pretty nearly any other factor you can mention.
The Teddy Bear Craze
Lancaster New Era | January 7th, 1907
C ollege girls and society women have taken up the fad, says The Boston Herald, and there is no telling where the craze will stop.
Teddy Bears Under Ban of School Teacher
The Idaho Recorder | August 22nd, 1907
The Teddy bear is not good for little girls. The bear is keeping the children from the pleasure of caring for a doll. He can’t wear pretty frocks and dainty underwear, and the little girl who has him for a pet gets no incentive to make these things.
Denounces Teddy Bear
Great Falls Tribune | July 15th, 1907
The priest held that the toy beasts in the hands of little girls were destroying all instincts of motherhood and in the future would be realized as one of the most powerful factors in race suicide.
Psychology of the Teddy Bear
Pine Bluff Daily Graphic | July 26th, 1907
There is something natural in the care of a doll by a little girl. It is the first manifestation of the feeling of motherhood. And in the development of these motherly instincts is the hope of all nations. It is a monstrous crime to do anything that will tend to destroy these instincts. That is what the Teddy bear is doing, and that is why it is going to be a factor in the race suicide problem…
Scientists vs Teddy Bears
The Washington Herald | September 9th, 1907
Another gentleman… finds in the Teddy bear a great danger to the republic, because it tends to destroy the instinct of motherhood latent in all little girls, and even deprives little boys of the embryonic symptoms of fatherhood that might otherwise be advantageously developed.
Teddy Bears’ Deep Roots
Pine Bluff Daily Graphic | June 15th, 1909
But the great influence of the Teddy Bear, the too often malignant influence, can be traced away back even beyond the days of Solomon.
Have an Example of Pessimism to Share?