Doll Talk
I made one of the guy dolls on the right for, Sylvie, a young member of my Regia group. Her mother reported that she loved it but wanted a gal doll.
I copied the guy doll from one found during the Viking Age in Novgorod. There were no gal dolls, but I can't disappoint Sylvie! I decided to give it some thought and try to resist any modern think or outright sexism.
The gal doll is slightly smaller. She doesn't have prominent boobs, but I decided to give her a rounded, rather hip-y shape since that seemed to be rather popular shape. Not having to do separate legs actually made it easier to finish, although I might do a line to indidate legs since I'm not doing the Victorian Age :). She has yet to be coated with linseed oil, so it's not that she is going to be paler than he, although the face is not as broad. The arms are longer, which is perhaps a little undernote commenting that women are expected to do more things :)
The big decision was hair. On the one hand, I'm certain long hair on women is a predominant modern think. On the other hand, Anglo-Saxon art shows women wearing caps and not showing hair, while men routinely went capless. I'm leaving the final portrayal up to Sylvie's mom!
ADDED: The photo is at http://www.flickr.com/photos/folo/4422776799/ Sorry about that! Thanks, Stitchwhich, for pointing out my error!