http://www.visionforum.com/hottopics/blogs/dwp/2007/09/2996.aspx
Lately I read this post about the necessity of little girls being able to play and develop their nurturing instincts with toys like dolls. Doug Phillips posts about the sluttiness of many of the dolls on the market lately, though he's ever so much more tactful in his choice of wording. But I'm figuring any doll that needs to be BLURRED when pictured on his website is... probably not a doll of high moral repute and respectability if you know what I mean.
Phillips speaks about how such choices for girls' playthings sends them the feminist message. I'm not sure that I agree with this analysis because these dolls project more the Paris Hilton-before-jail type personas. No real work to do, but plenty of money for fancy cars and clothes. Perhaps if one were referring to a high-price escort service, the feminism analogy would be correct.
But I wouldn't worry about my daughter (if that's really what we're having) picking up "feminism" from these dolls. Worldliness and being all about looks, maybe. Low morals and rebellious attitudes, maybe. Unrealistic role models beauty-wise, maybe.
But not "feminism," really.
Vision Forum has come out with the "answer" to this problem. Cute little girl dolls to dress and care for. But as a mother with five boys who has NEVER put frilly underwear on her children, I have to ask where the cute little boy dolls and their baby-blue accessories are available. Wouldn't it be nice if they offered "Timmy" or "Nathan" with a little wooden toy push-car and a couple cute outfits??
Just wondering... Anyone else see a real lack of boy dolls for girls to play with?
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Look Out, Dad!!
My father is the purple dot above the blue weather station. He's juuust outside Milton's evacuation zone. Well! My brother and I jus...
You bet those dolls teach feminism!
ReplyDeleteTake Barbies for example....there is a doctor Barbie, an office Barbie, a vet Barbie, all sorts of professions. Barbie and Ken go out after work in the sports car.
To my knowledge there is not a stay-at-home-mom, homeschooling, breastfeeding Barbie. Where's the attachment parenting Barbie that comes with a sling and a co-sleeper?
The rolls that Barbies are designed to play are business-world professional and NOT traditional housewife. They are not in anyway maternal (where are her stretch marks and nursing bra?!) but they ARE sexual--overtly so. Sexual without maternal is a distortion of reality and it is the lie that feminism has been teaching from the beginning!
These dolls are designed to teach a girl she can be anything she wants to be as long as it does not confine her to the four walls of her home, serving Ken and looking after all the little Kens and Barbies.
Needless to say my daughter does not play with Barbies or Bratz and does like this.
Well, Daja, I have to disagree with you. We'd agree that these dolls do NOT project the Christian image and they're NOT something that we want our kids playing with...
ReplyDeleteBut...
I don't know that hardened old-time feminists view the objectification of women (I'm thinking specifically of the Barbie and Bratz collections) as a good thing that "teaches feminism." Sure, *sometimes* Barbie has a job but she's not there on her own terms if she has to wear such a short little skirt and act the strumpet. A "real" feminist would have the professional Dr. Barbie wearing pants and work-appropriate shoes. One wonders if she would have Ken as the nurse and the cleaning-man in that hospital as well LOL!
But really, what I see MOST of the time with these dolls is that they really are just like Paris Hilton and the like. They seem to have youth, beauty and a lot of money to blow. They're more "hedonists" than feminists, IMO. Though I grant you that hedonism today has a lot of feminist "streaks" blended in as well with that idea that we don't need others and that well, Barbie sure doesn't need to "settle down," does she??
I think, though, that we're more in agreement than not. :]
Mrs. C.
Maybe I connect dots that don't need to be connected! :-)
ReplyDeleteBUT.....
WHY do women wear slutty clothes? I really think that deep down a lot of women LIKE the power it gives them. It makes them feel powerful OVER MEN.
That's feministic!
Who knows what feminism is anymore, really? In the "old days," feminism was about doing the same job as a man with the same expectations and the same pay. Now... it's due to feminism that you get the six weeks' off work, and people raise a stink if you don't hire pregnant women...
ReplyDeleteSorry, but if I were hiring someone a pregnant woman would NOT top my list LOL!!
For "lotsa" reasons...
Mrs. C
PS So no wonder we're not sure we agree whether the dolls are "feminist" LOL!!!
About the bottle-feeding...
ReplyDeleteHer child has GOT to be adopted with that figure of hers... Plus her figure is unnaturally shapely and I would have concerns myself about that baby gulping silicone with his breastmilk.
OK I'm being mean to a doll...
Mrs. C