Dolls: a report from the field
A few weeks ago, my mom went shopping for a Christmas gift for a very young cousin of mine. This cousin is very fond of dolls, so my mom set out on what should have been a completely unremarkable, straightforward mission.
It started out that way. She had only to drive to the nearest Toys “R” Us and follow the hot pink glow to its source.
But when she arrived at the doll aisle, she was disturbed by what she found.
“Do you know what dolls look like?” she asked me, the next day.
“Um,” I said. “Is this a trick question?”
“Do you remember what they look like?” We hadn’t spent time in the doll section since I was ten or so.
“OK,” I said, playing along, “There are two basic types: baby and Barbie.”
“And their hair?”
“Blond.”
“Yes! It’s ALL blond!”
(source)
This was the thing that caught her off guard. Almost every doll she saw was blond. A few were brunettes, and even fewer could be identified anything other than Caucasian. The ones that weren’t babies looked like they were about to go clubbing. They were all trying to seduce some non-existent male doll (let’s hope it wasn’t the popular Justin Bieber doll). Their breasts were very prominent, and very perky.
It used to be that way, too. When I was very young, Mom bought me Barbie-sized dolls with small breasts and proportional eyes and flat feet. She found baby boy dolls. She must’ve worked pretty hard at it. I wanted dolls, and I had them, but they didn’t look the ones my friends had. I preferred brown hair, anyway.
The thing is, nothing has changed.
“Something must have changed,” I said. I mean, I’ve seen a few black and Latina Barbies, and kind of get the sense that toy companies might be trying to be more inclusive. Maybe I just spent too much doll-time with American Girl (which makes a huge effort to go beyond blond).
“No,” she said.
“Well, you were at Toys ‘R’ Us,” I said.
She told me that she’d gone to three more toy stores after it. She was indignant and determined. One of the stores was in a majority black area. But the dolls stayed blond.
And beyond that, there were no science kits in the girl section of any of the stores. She had to go to the boy section to find those. And when she found them, they featured oozing slime and pictures of “mad scientists.”
“Science is actually fun,” she said, a little defensively. “Why do they think they have to make it gross so it will be interesting?”
Why do they think they have to make dolls white and blond to make them interesting? Personally, I’m bored just thinking about the way these dolls look.
But I’m anything but bored by the fact that they dominate the market.
So what did my little cousin end up with?
“I got her a plastic horse.” Girls love horses, too, right? It came with a rider doll. “She looked normal,” said mom. “She didn’t have those big breasts.” Well, that’s something.
(this one isn’t blond! source)
* * *
Un-roast: Today I love the way I look in a dress with a big, retro belt.
Note: I went to the Toys “R” Us website and they have a search category called “ethnic dolls.” So maybe shopping online is always the better option?
(I know this is pushing it, but I’d like to see a doll with really, really dark skin, and more recognizably ethnic features. Or an Asian doll. A Korean-American doll…A Guatemalan-American doll…I’m just fantasizing now. source)
New post on Un-schooled, about the people I knew who became school teachers.
This post also appears on Huffpo here.
Kate on December 30th 2010 in Uncategorized
Christin@purplebirdblog responded on 30 Dec 2010 at 4:54 pm #
Bratz dolls seriously disturb the hell outta me. Preteen sluttiness, YEAH BITCHES! At least some of them have brown hair? *snicker*
AlisonM responded on 30 Dec 2010 at 5:38 pm #
My sister had a black doll when she was young, c ’88. In fact we got it from Toys R Us. I remember there being a minor family scandal about it at the time, as my maternal Grandfather, from a somewhat conservative mining community in the north of England, was the one who was buying it for her. She went straight for the black one, and he offered her increasingly lavish and expensive white alternatives, and she rejected all of them, until my mum told him to give it up. My sister got the black one, and still has it I think.
Ok, so that’s more of a personal anecdote than a comment. But it seems relevant, so I’ll leave it. If anything, it redeems UK branches of Toys R Us slightly!
Ashley responded on 30 Dec 2010 at 7:40 pm #
Hmmm. I work at Target and we have quite a few ethnic dolls and some white dolls with brunette hair, and some with highlights, etc.
San D responded on 30 Dec 2010 at 8:07 pm #
We should really get back to making our own dolls and toys, then you can make them anyway you want. When growing up my sister was the “doll” girl, I liked designing and making clothes for them..wasn’t interested in the doll at all.
Sarah responded on 30 Dec 2010 at 8:09 pm #
There was a really good story on This American Life on NPR a while back about a popular brand of dolls in FAO Shwartz. They ran out of the white dolls near Christmas time and they couldn’t get parents to buy the black or Latino dolls. It was an absolutely bizarre but fascinating story. The episode of This American Life was called Matchmakers: http://yoyojoes.blogspot.com/2008/03/hilarious-piece-on-fao-schwartz-in-this.html (If you click on the link to the show you will be taken to the This American Life Archives.)
As a redhead, I was absolutely obsessed with finding redheaded dolls and barbies. There were a few, but I always felt like they were supposed to be the ugly friends of the blond dolls. I think it’s absolutely depressing that nothing’s changed…and even finding a non-blonde doll is hard, let alone one that represents diversity in race, size, etc. Very sad.
Kate responded on 30 Dec 2010 at 8:33 pm #
@Ashley
Interesting. I’ll tell my mom to try Target next time. I wonder if there’s a difference between non-toy stores that sell toys and stores devoted completely to toys. But if so, it should be the opposite…
Kate responded on 30 Dec 2010 at 8:33 pm #
@AlisonM
Love the story
Kate responded on 30 Dec 2010 at 8:35 pm #
@Sarah
Thanks for the link–this is kind of amazing.
And I actually remember wanting a redheaded doll when I was really little, and not being able to find one. I ended up with a Little Mermaid doll.
Samantha Angela @ Bikini Birthday responded on 30 Dec 2010 at 10:26 pm #
I used to have one of the “Misfits” dolls (you know, from that wonderful hit TV cartoon “Jem”). She had purple hair and I thought she was amazing. I grew up wanting to dye my hair a wild colour like that and I wish my parents would have let me do it as a teen. I can’t imagine the looks I would get if I went to the office with bright purple hair these days.
Valerie responded on 31 Dec 2010 at 1:35 pm #
Samantha, I had the same Misfits doll when I was younger and I always wanted multi-colored hair! Fortunately, my parents didn’t care what color of hair I had so, until I joined the work force, I got to live the childhood dream of having rainbow hair.
You should get some of those clip in extensions in wild colors. They sell them at places like Hot Topic. Then you could realize your dream, but still be office ready for a Monday morning. I’d love to see pics of that!
Just Josie responded on 31 Dec 2010 at 4:43 pm #
I used to have those one dolls — I feel like they were called “Spaghetti Dolls” or something? Probably not. Herm. I don’t know. But you can take their arms and legs and bodies apart, and… yeah, they were kind of awesome. And there were Latina dolls, and black ones. Now I’m going to have to ask my sister what they were called! 😮
Barbara responded on 31 Dec 2010 at 8:00 pm #
When I was little, I played house with stuffed animals. I had a menagerie that included a giraffe, rhino, elephant, pig, deer, squirrel, dogs and cats. There was inter-species marriage. I never thought about their hair color or ethnicity. What freedom!
Christina (Dinner at Christina's) responded on 01 Jan 2011 at 1:37 am #
I think I was in 4th grade when one of my friends gave me “Teresa” for a birthday present. She was Barbie’s “friend” and had very tan skin, brown hair, and roller blades!! Looking back, she was probably Hispanic, but as a little Italian girl I was just THRILLED! Up until that point all of my Barbies and Skippers and knock-off Barbies had varying shades of blonde hair.
Barbies are pretty crazy nowadays. My friend’s little sister had a Barbie that actually becomes pregnant! She had a hollow belly that magnetized to the Barbie’s front and fit a little fetus inside of it. Disturbing to say the least.
Oh and last Christmas J’s little nieces got a Barbie w/ these hooker platform glitter heels and the toilet in her house had a revolving panel in the bowl that rotated b/w yellow water “pee” and blue water with a brown “poop” with ea. flush. All of us adults were just mesmorized and freaking out over it.
Suzanne responded on 01 Jan 2011 at 2:32 pm #
Holy cow! I totally feel your mom’s pain. When my daughter was little I had such a hard time finding her diverse dolls. I got an African American doll from a stinkin’ claw machines. (you know, the claw in the box that you manuever to get a stuffed animal/toy). Anyway, I managed to wrangle an asian doll, hispanic doll, as well as the blonde one. no wonder little girls are so worried about how they look. they don’t see anything in the stores like them and so they try to fit into the small ideal set before them. thanks for always writing such interesting posts!
Paige responded on 01 Jan 2011 at 2:47 pm #
She could try a Berenguer doll the next time she needs one.
http://www.berenguerdolls.net/category/berenguer_dolls.angel_face_berenguer_dolls/
rachel responded on 02 Jan 2011 at 1:26 pm #
This post pairs nicely with the one before by Liz.
The fact that most dolls reflect conventional western notions of beauty is only part of the problem. Another question to ask is why are little girls meant to identify with dolls at all? Little boys play with action figures, but the fun there is about acting things out that don’t happen in real life – superhero fighting uses imagination. On the other hand, it seems like the only imagination girls are encouraged to use when they play with dolls (and other toys marketed to them) is to imagine the adult life that awaits them. All children’s toys teach kids how to be consumers, especially now that everything is cross promoted between tv shows and music and clothes, etc.
AW responded on 03 Jan 2011 at 10:38 am #
Check out educational toy companies like Environments and Kaplan… you’ll find great baby dolls in all shapes, colors, and sizes.
Kate responded on 04 Jan 2011 at 9:54 am #
@Everyone
I think that I will direct anyone who ever has this problem with dolls ever to the comment section of this post. You guys are amazing.
Liza responded on 04 Jan 2011 at 8:43 pm #
You see, the new style that came out now is all slutty. Its just the new fashion. Come on, if you were 10, and you were buying a barbie, you wouldn’t buy the “ugly” looking one (but it is actually pretty). Girls are being influenced by the media. And I admit, “Woman” are being targeted for sex.
Five for Friday :: 7 January 2011 | Nourishing the Soul - A forum on body image and the effects of eating disorders responded on 07 Jan 2011 at 7:02 am #
[…] got to be one of my favorite blog titles ever – gives a report from the field on the status of… dolls. Apparently, things have improved much since early 80’s. No surprise there. As an aside, my […]
Emmi responded on 16 Mar 2011 at 2:02 pm #
I loved Barbie dolls when I was a kid. I loved making up stories about what they did. Same with My Little Ponies. But my preference was always for Lego, Lite-Brite and the chemistry set, though the last was taken away from me when I ruined part of the carpet.
Growing up, I actually felt sad for my Barbies. They all looked alike! They had to share all the same clothes, their feet looked like they were sore. I liked the Ponies, where they were all different colors and shapes. Variety is the spice of life 🙂