On baby dolls and (snow-white) beauty
The doctor called to say that Bubla does not have a liver tumor. You know, in a few months, all of his health problems could be more or less resolved. But what would I do with myself? And how can Bubla live without the seemingly constant attention of people in white coats? THOSE are the burning questions.
:-)
It should likewise be abundantly clear to everyone that I'm not involved in enough causes. To remedy the situation, I've gone on a veritable rampage about this baby doll business. (See recent post in the anti-racism community; I'd link it but don't know how.) I started off simply by being annoyed that I couldn't find what I'm looking for, suspecting that it was partly due to a flawed ethnic desirability scale and partly some dubious patterns of supply and demand. As I've become more emotionally involved and spent more time looking at websites as well as other evidence, I've realized that this is probably a highly pertinent indicator of where we are with race in America.
To summarize, according to recent Census Bureau statistics, 45 percent of U.S. children under 5 are from a minority background. While certain non-White phenotypes are beginning to be well-represented in the "Bratz, Barbie and Booty" doll category, as I'm calling it, the same can't be said for baby dolls. As in, looks like an infant, tends to come with a bottle, stroller and/or pacifier and can be used to make toilet training go more smoothly. Let's just say I'm forever boycotting Corolle dolls, if not for their tokenism then for their all-white advertising. And that's not the only company that makes a (rather limited number of) "ethnic" dolls but blatantly excludes them from mainstream marketing.
Yesterday at Target, I became so upset I forgot to buy the corner guards I need to protect Bubla's head from aggressive furniture. Blame his first major table bump on White privilege and cluelessness. I picked up the in-store phone hoping to speak with a manager about the baby doll selection. A third of one aisle was taken up by a number of different doll products in boxes with various infant and small toddler accessories (completely separate from the Bratz, Barbies and Booty). The top part of the entire _next_ aisle was stacked with rows of Cabbage Patch Kids and an even more baby-like doll brand. The percentage of non-White dolls in these two sections was not 45, not 10 and not even one-in-fifty. Hard as I looked, it was zero. The manager-type Gadjo whom the operator insisted on sending over, however, seemed to have a line all set to go: "We do sell different kinds of minority dolls..." I tried to explain that teenage glitter dolls and action figures serve a very different function from baby dolls and therefore aren't in the same category, but he refused to honor that possibility. "So what you're saying is that you didn't find a doll in the STYLE you're looking for." And the exchange continued in this vein (I'm not quite sure to what extent he really didn't understand me, as opposed to denying the obvious.)
Oh, no, my little Gadzoro, ("Don't give me that shit!," I ended up yelling after him), your store, in which I probably shouldn't be shopping anyway and which incidentally has AT LEAST a 50% minority customer base, boasts a plethora of baby doll styles. But apparently it would destroy the aesthetic unity of your display to include even a single fake baby with dark skin.
There is no way this kind of insupportable nonsense isn't sending a clear racialized message to children with any and all skin tones. The default color for lovable, innocent 3-D representations of human infants -- which make you want to go into nurture modfe and share your resources -- is white. I almost want to ask: where are the boycotts? Where the hell are all the parents who've ever given a thought to giving their kids a multicultural education, not to mention minority parents of any persuasion?
Because I'm starting to feel like I'm just the weird crazy one who refuses to spend $42 on a White doll, however anatomically correct its wee-wee may be. And now someone can accuse me of reverse discrimination.
:-)
It should likewise be abundantly clear to everyone that I'm not involved in enough causes. To remedy the situation, I've gone on a veritable rampage about this baby doll business. (See recent post in the anti-racism community; I'd link it but don't know how.) I started off simply by being annoyed that I couldn't find what I'm looking for, suspecting that it was partly due to a flawed ethnic desirability scale and partly some dubious patterns of supply and demand. As I've become more emotionally involved and spent more time looking at websites as well as other evidence, I've realized that this is probably a highly pertinent indicator of where we are with race in America.
To summarize, according to recent Census Bureau statistics, 45 percent of U.S. children under 5 are from a minority background. While certain non-White phenotypes are beginning to be well-represented in the "Bratz, Barbie and Booty" doll category, as I'm calling it, the same can't be said for baby dolls. As in, looks like an infant, tends to come with a bottle, stroller and/or pacifier and can be used to make toilet training go more smoothly. Let's just say I'm forever boycotting Corolle dolls, if not for their tokenism then for their all-white advertising. And that's not the only company that makes a (rather limited number of) "ethnic" dolls but blatantly excludes them from mainstream marketing.
Yesterday at Target, I became so upset I forgot to buy the corner guards I need to protect Bubla's head from aggressive furniture. Blame his first major table bump on White privilege and cluelessness. I picked up the in-store phone hoping to speak with a manager about the baby doll selection. A third of one aisle was taken up by a number of different doll products in boxes with various infant and small toddler accessories (completely separate from the Bratz, Barbies and Booty). The top part of the entire _next_ aisle was stacked with rows of Cabbage Patch Kids and an even more baby-like doll brand. The percentage of non-White dolls in these two sections was not 45, not 10 and not even one-in-fifty. Hard as I looked, it was zero. The manager-type Gadjo whom the operator insisted on sending over, however, seemed to have a line all set to go: "We do sell different kinds of minority dolls..." I tried to explain that teenage glitter dolls and action figures serve a very different function from baby dolls and therefore aren't in the same category, but he refused to honor that possibility. "So what you're saying is that you didn't find a doll in the STYLE you're looking for." And the exchange continued in this vein (I'm not quite sure to what extent he really didn't understand me, as opposed to denying the obvious.)
Oh, no, my little Gadzoro, ("Don't give me that shit!," I ended up yelling after him), your store, in which I probably shouldn't be shopping anyway and which incidentally has AT LEAST a 50% minority customer base, boasts a plethora of baby doll styles. But apparently it would destroy the aesthetic unity of your display to include even a single fake baby with dark skin.
There is no way this kind of insupportable nonsense isn't sending a clear racialized message to children with any and all skin tones. The default color for lovable, innocent 3-D representations of human infants -- which make you want to go into nurture modfe and share your resources -- is white. I almost want to ask: where are the boycotts? Where the hell are all the parents who've ever given a thought to giving their kids a multicultural education, not to mention minority parents of any persuasion?
Because I'm starting to feel like I'm just the weird crazy one who refuses to spend $42 on a White doll, however anatomically correct its wee-wee may be. And now someone can accuse me of reverse discrimination.