Modern Dolls: Slut-Trainers or Empowerment Tools? Is There a Middle Ground?
by Super Jive

According to my learnings, which include Wikipedia, other opinionated mothers I know, and four lovingly-wasted years as a budding art historian, dolls are possibly the oldest toy in the world. They have been found in the children’s graves dating back thousands of years, and were often made of wood or pottery. I am guessing that these are just the ones that actually survive the ravages of time. I can just see a caring Grecian mother surprising her daughter by whipping a wooden doll out of her toga.

Mother: Here, Octavia, something for you to do between hauling giant buckets of water and weaving cloth.

Octavia: Oh, thank you mother. AGGH! The splinters! IT BURNS!

Mother: Heh heh. That’ll teach her to put a toga pin on my milking stool.

So I’m guessing that there were cuddly cloth dollies for everyday use. Lucky for us, little girls today don’t have to worry about dollies being cute and cuddly, because when I see dolls now the words that come to mind are “pointy” and “transvestite.” I’m not dogging this trend, though. I’ve gotten some of my best fashion advice from transvestites.

In our era, meaning the last century or so, I am told that there were a few fashion dolls on the market before Barbie, at least ones that made a splash or are remembered. She has become the prototype for everything that’s come after. Think about it. Everything on the market now is basically a riff on, or a response to Barbie.

Bratz Dolls are the “hipper” and “multicultural” version of Barbie. What do Bratz do? I glance at them in stores, and they seem to just stand around looking like Meg Ryan. Is this okay? Is it true that their whole feet come off? If so, how will young girls know the pleasure of nibbling on Barbie’s single shoe (the other has gone missing under the dresser)? I have so many questions.

There is the lesser known (in the United States) Fulla doll, which is sometimes referred to as the “Muslim Barbie.” Fulla has a different figure than Barbie does, and come with optional modest accessories, such as head scarves.

There are also American Girl dolls. “Oh thank goodness,” parents sigh. “These dolls are ten, and like, historical, and expensive and stuff, so this is a good alternative to Barbie, right?” Full disclosure: my older daughter is the proud owner of a Hella Historical Felicity doll, who, in her little careful made-up dolly universe of 1775, lives in the Northern United States, and only knows free blacks. The American Girl thing is interesting. As Lisa Milbrand puts it so well, “(I)t’s chiefly white-girl history.” I have found myself filling in the blanks where the slaves and the other ugly realities of the colonies are missing. But you certainly wouldn’t have to.

The tug-of-war between what a doll should look like, what a doll does or does not do for a living, and how old a doll should be has finally come full circle back to ancient Greece. There’s a new doll on the market: SophiaDolls, which seek to “expand the definition of beauty.” The SophiaDolls are, literally, Greek goddesses. The website offers a comparison of shapes past (Barbie), present (Bratz), and future (SophiaDolls). They are not just dolls. They are Empowerment Tools.

Can you expand the definition of beauty for girls? Aren’t little girls just going to gravitate towards the shiniest or most traditionally beautiful thing? Should the real role models be us, as mothers, aunties, and older sisters? Beverly at Homeschool Image argues that it’s up to mothers to set the example, not the dolls. Now I am imagining custom dolls that look like the women in my children’s lives. It could be cool, but probably expensive, to have a doll hand-painted with all my stretchmarks.

Where do you draw the line at your house? What purpose do you see dolls serving in a child’s life? Do dolls need a job, an agenda, and a “realistic” (whatever that means) figure? Or can they just be imagination toys? If you buy the weird new PC dollies, and no one else on the block has them, will they even be played with?

Other BlogHers weigh in:

Rita Arens on Hussy Control
Mir from WCS: Sorry, Sweetie, That Doll’s Too Skanky

*******
Your Pop Culture Librarian nibbles Barbie feet almost daily at I, Asshole.

Submitted by Super Jive (view blog) on Fri, 09/21/2007 - 9:17am

Comments

 

Hmm. I was never that much

Hmm. I was never that much into dolls myself, precisely because most weren't good for playing with. Barbie has a limited number of uses. Stuffed animals, on the other hand, were big in my house. And fortunately, I've never (yet) seen a skanky sheep.

I don't know what I'll do for my daughters if they turn out to be the doll types.

Edit: I'm actually quite fond of Fulla. She doesn't have as unrealistic a body as Barbie and she's brunette. I think one reason I didn't take to dolls was the scarcity of nice brunette ones with brown eyes when I was a kid.

Submitted by Mrs.Micah on Fri, 09/21/2007 - 10:05
 

I've said this before, but

I've said this before, but Bratz look like blow-up dolls. Am I the only one who sees this?

I played Barbies as a kid. I'm not ashamed of it; I don't try to hide it. I still managed to grow up with a healthy body image, I think. There were no PC dolls. We were pretty much limited to the blonde, Superstar Barbie. I do remember wishing there were more choices, of course -- and I used to color their hair dark and paint over the eyes with a black marker. I even drew braces and pimples on a few of them - and gave one unfortunate doll a breast reduction. (This worked best on the cheap, dime-store knock-offs whose plastic was a lot thinner.)

Available Light & Five Dollar Radio

Submitted by kperfetto on Fri, 09/21/2007 - 12:33
 

This is such a fraught

This is such a fraught issue, and I totally duck it in my house because my kid likes to play with animals much more than dolls. She has a few Barbies that other people have given us, and they mostly just stay in their rubbermaid box, while the lego people and plamobil people who have very little in the way of differentiated body shapes get the most play.

I like the idea of the Sophia dolls, but their advertising copy is kind of a creepy mixture of the worst kind of pseudo-wiccan guff and hard sell - the message that you should pick a doll based on how you feel about it was kind of undermined by the cheery "Collect them all!" at the end of the article. Also, those drawings showed a disturbing amount of nipple; clearly there's a line between anatomically correct and woah, nellie.

Submitted by WhatLadder on Fri, 09/21/2007 - 14:07
 

Dolly good times

I loved dolls when I was a naive girl who believed that I would follow my mom's exact footsteps in life: first I'd be a teacher, then a mom, then a part-time bank teller, and then a grossly underpaid cashier at the local drug store. Even after I realized what a bad plan that would be for me, I played with Barbies. My Barbies were always getting it on with Ken (sort of like on "The Bachelor" - there's one guy that nine women are fighting over) so I'm not sure how much worse Bratz dolls are except that they repulse me.

As usual, excellent post. You are sooooo heeeelarious, SJ. I'd definitely buy any future nieces and nephews an SJ doll if there was one.

Suzanne Reisman, Contributing Editor - Feminism & Gender
Campaign for Unshaved Snatch (CUSS)& Other Rants

Submitted by Suzanne Reisman on Fri, 09/21/2007 - 14:51
 

My mother was anti-Barbie

But she never made a big deal out of it. I was allowed to get them as gifts, for example.

I remember owning 1 actual Barbie. I still vividly remember the taste of her foot. So chewy and satisfying, and it never seemed to come apart no matter how much I gnawed on it. (They just don't make things like they used to. Sigh.)

Anyway, I try not to make it a big thing with my girls. My youngest would play with every pretty princess thing imaginable if she could, but her big sister does an excellent job of scattering them all over the house in a state of random undress, so she doesn't often have the chance to get them all together for organized pretend play. I bought each girl a superhero barbie (Supergirl and Wonder Woman) a few Xmases ago, and other than that if they own anything like that it was given to them by someone else.

My take on it has always been that you give a thing more power when you turn it into the forbidden fruit. Suddenly it's not just a Barbie or a Bratz doll, it's a forbidden, unattainable symbol of beauty and glamor. None of them actually look like anything authentically human, anyway.

Submitted by Tacomamama on Fri, 09/21/2007 - 16:23
 

Tattoos and Dashikis

My mother would not buy dolls for me so of course I wanted one desperately. We went to a toy lending library as kids and got credits for returning things on time. I saved my credits to exchange for a giant blonde doll.

This was in the 60's and I promptly gave her tattoos of peace signs and black power fists. Then when my mother taught me to sew for my girl scout badge I dressed her in homemade dashikis.

Just one of the several charmingly strange tales of my childhood.

Kleenex® Let It Out™ Blog
Beyond Help

Submitted by Maria Niles on Fri, 09/21/2007 - 17:21
 

Maria, you are fabulous.

...only partially because you tell the best stories. And they're true. : )

Laurie

Submitted by lauriewrites on Fri, 09/21/2007 - 19:51
 

Luxurious furry boa! Long, blonde hair to
style lots of ways!

Maria, your comment cracked me up, as did this great post. I won my first Barbie at a birthday party raffle. Up until that point, my mother had forbidden Barbies (for reasons that seem noble now, but were completely lost on me then). Pink & Pretty Barbie was the grand prize! She was mine, fair and square. Mom was forced to throw in the towel.

So with all this talk about modern slutty dolls, I went to trusty internets to see how my beloved Barbie would compare. Old girl is not so classy. She's spent way too much time at the tanning salon and her 20 absolutely dreamy looks are all about the glitter and fur trim. That said, Mattel was thoughtful enough to include a "Doll Needs Support to Stand" warning/reality check on the box. After all, those hooker heels can be treacherous.

Check her out. She's stunning...
http://cgi.ebay.com/Stunning-1981-Pink-Pretty-Barbie-Doll-NRFB-No-3554_W...

I'm more than a little tempted to place a bid. Is that so wrong? It would be ironic. Or something.

Claire Mysko
5 Resolutions to Transform the Fashion and Beauty Industries

Submitted by 5resolutions on Fri, 09/21/2007 - 20:32
 

Thanks!

Thank you Laurie and Claire. And thank you for yet another fantastic pop culture post Mme. SJ. And to answer your question, clearly in my case, an empowerment tool because mama raised me right. ;-)

Kleenex® Let It Out™ Blog
Beyond Help

Submitted by Maria Niles on Fri, 09/21/2007 - 22:53