With Christmas coming up, the toy buying season in full sway, the subject of types of toys seems pertinent for anyone with children in their families. When I was growing up, a Barbie type doll would have delighted me. For years I had to make do with Sparkle Plenty who I tried to pretend was a real woman. I was not the type to enjoy pretending I was diapering a baby doll. At least Sparkle had long hair to fix up.
The only possible adult appearing toys were stand up dolls designed to show off fancy crocheted dresses. Fortunately my mom was a gifted crocheter and I had quite a few of those, but they (and the one decidedly un-masculine looking circus costumed male) just weren't what I wanted. None of them looked like real men or women.
When I got old enough, I made myself a set of paper dolls with unbelievably intricate outfits and as close as I could get them to anatomically correct male and female figures. You have to remember those were the days where finding out what was anatomically correct wasn't very easy for a little girl. I did my best.
Unfortunately there came an age (later than for many) where I felt having nude paper dolls with elaborate pioneer outfits was not appropriate, and I burned them. Pity as they really were well done-- in my memory anyway.
When my daughter was born, Barbie dolls were possible but they were already controversial. Feminists thought they would warp little girls' minds. Well, I don't pay much attention to that kind of rhetoric and thought it out for myself when one Christmas Barbie was on my daughter's wish list. I even today cannot see any logical reason why it would be better for a child to pretend she is a mommy than to pretend she's a grown up woman.
There has been controversy over Barbie's figure from the start-- too sexy. Not realistic. Some would probably blame her for all the plastic surgery women undergo to attain some ideal of beauty that rarely or never exists in nature.
I would be all for Barbies that were more anatomically correct, but that's not going to happen and some of it is because of what little girls want. They like a fantasy figure and the popularity of Bratz (something my granddaughter wanted, of course, but never got-- totally wrong persona) probably proves it.
The toy box at the farm is filled with toys for the grandkids when they come and among them are some Barbies (I held Clark Gable back for awhile before I finally relinquished him). Along with trucks, balls, little plastic figures and animals, I got to buy myself Barbies.
As a mother, I saw Barbie as a learning tool not only about developing imagination but also reality. I remember once when my daughter was probably about nine and wanted me to play dolls with her. I chose one of the Barbies as my avatar declaring she was a truck driver. My daughter was irritated. That was totally inappropriate for a girl. Except it wasn't and she learned through play that a woman could be whatever she wanted-- something she later applied to her own life when she became a field archaeologist.
My son and daughter used to play with their Barbies, GI Joe and Han Solo dolls (Ken was way too soft to make the grade for a boy as anything but a comedy foil) and created intricate worlds also inhabited with squirrel families and wise old owls. Their creativity with their stories has to be a plus and I don't think either of them felt they had to grow up to look like any of the dolls-- including the squirrels. It is pretend and being a child is about being free to pretend.
It's also not bad sometimes for adults.
You do know Barbie was originally based on an adult sex toy doll? ;^)
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild_Lilli_doll
There is a lot to the history of Barbie. Parapluie's mother designed dolls and she might give more info on this subject.
ReplyDeleteWe found a construction worker doll (12") for one of our grandsons (writing more about that in next blog) and found out the same site (on eBay) sold dolls the same name, full sized-- and sexual. That worried me a little until the doll arrived and it said it was for children on the box... Had it been sexually explicit, guess I'd have had to keep it *s*
You should totally make a Rain doll for older people! We need dolls, too!
ReplyDeleteHi Rain . . . Did you really say "Sparkle Plenty"? Boy, what a memory. The other day at the Kiwanis luncheon one of the old duffers called our speaker "Gravel Gertie". I told the old boy he's so old he must remember "wrist radios" and "Flat top" and "Terry and the Pirates" too. Yep. He did.
ReplyDeleteDixon
LOL yep, what you say is true! My GI Joe kicked Ken's butt anytime. Hey, I turned out OK---well, mostly...
ReplyDeleteI never liked Barbie -- I gave up on dolls when I was nine (and damn I never did get the hockey skates I wanted -- just stupid white figure skates). My mother was applalled. My daughter loved soft cuddly things and the dolls she liked best were the Cabbage Patch dolls. She still has them as well as most her stuffed animals. And in typing this I realized that it might explain why she has no children -- just two of the funniest, best trained cats
ReplyDeleteI've ever seen!
Donna,
ReplyDeleteNot all entries into Wikipedia are true information. In the case of Barbie, I am sure there is a mistake. My mother was making fashion and window display dolls 10 years before Barbie and marketing a kit for young girls teaching basic sewing. The kits were available through the Mark Farmer Doll Catalog. In 1957 mother was approached to expand into a factory of mass production but in order to cut costs the doll had to be made skinnier and with fewer curves that would make the casting process more efficient. Mother wouldn't allow the degrading of her healthy looking grown woman dolland refused to move her home based business to become industrialized. Then my father was transfered out of California and she quit supplying Mark Farmer with fashion dolls. A couple of years later Barbie was first marketed. Some of mother's doll friends thought that her design was stolen. The hip joints and bending knee were similar.
As an adult I researched the Ruth and Elliot Handler story, " The Impossible Really is Possible."
They were evidently using the same raw materials from the same warehouses as mother. They had a third partner, Matson. Matson helped win the designing of Barbie and other plastic toys. Matson because of illnes sold his interest in the company. I thought ah ha, the Mattel Company actualy did go through a parallel development in casting toys and perhaps became ill from the toxic fumes of curing plastic just as my mother had. The only difference was in the Handlers' case the woman did the promotion and the men did the designing and production.
I played the Ken roll a couple of times with friends that had Barbie dolls and Skipper and Christie. But I never really got into the action figure doll thing. My little brother had a Six Million Dollar Man doll. I was more into toy trucks and trains.
ReplyDeleteI do not really think Barbie dolls are causing women to get plastic surgery. I think film and TV probably influences that more. Although I have not shot anyone from playing Cowboys and Indians or Cops and Robbers when I was young and I certainly have never dropped an anvil on someone's head from watching Road Runner cartoons.
I never cared much about playing with dolls. I did like paperdolls and liked to make clothes for them, then paint them the colors I liked. I remember some pretty wild color combinations. I still have my paper dolls, but haven't played with them lately. Maybe that's what I should do some afternoon???
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