Call it end-of-pregnancy compulsion, but this weekend I went out again looking for a selection of dolls beyond the blue-eyed blond numbers at Target. Now my girlfriend Carrie told me that she decided to go to the Target near her house in Connecticut, smack in the middle of the largest Brazilian population in the U.S. What did she find? ONLY BLOND HAIRED, BLUE EYED DOLLS!Ï couldn't find a doll that looked like me!" she cried. And she's white.
So...I went to Toys 'R Us, thinking CERTAINLY they would have a wide selection, right? No. They had several black cabbage patch kids, but I wanted a newborn doll. They also had two bigger dolls that were black, but again, that's not what I was looking for. I searched their white dolls for one with brown eyes, brown hair, ANYTHING! No dice.
Carrie told me that her friends told her I had to go to WalMart if I wanted to have any luck at all. On my way there I cried. I cried thinking about how I would feel if I had a little girl who didn't have blue eyes and blond hair, and how she would feel looking for a doll in the stores. Maybe it was pregnancy hormones but it tore me up. I was also bummed that the place I boycott, on principal, was the place to go to find a doll. So there I was, in WalMart, surrounded by scary, and Carrie was right. Dolls with brown eyes, several different black newborn dolls, something other than bright white.
I didn't set out to buy a black doll. Heck, the Sprout is like 98% guaranteed to have blue eyes and blond hair so all those dolls probably look just like her. I wanted to get a race ambiguous doll though - something with olive skin, or brown eyes. I guess I didn't want to buy my son a black doll to "match"him or a white doll to highlight the fact that the new baby is white. I'm sure he doesn't notice a thing, but I didn't want the doll to have anything to do with the racial make up of our family - I just wanted a doll for him to play with while we're introducing the concept of a new baby in the house. Anyway, I bought a black doll and Small Son LOVES it. He carries it around hugging it and kissing it and bringing it to us to be snuggled. So, it seems to be working. When we ask him where the Sprout is, he pats my tummy and hugs it. He points at pictures of babies and says "baby". I think he gets it as much as he's going to.
Whenever I heard about websites selling ethnic dolls and toys" I thought they must be for very specific stuff, like dolls for Japanese-Latino children - something really hard to find in the toy store. If it took that much effort to find a black doll, it must be nearly impossible to find an Asian or Latino doll. I know the older toys like Barbie and bratz might have more variety, but who wants those toys anyway? This whole experience was shocking to me and I'm pretty upset over the whole thing.
When Buster (19 yo now and white, bio son) was a baby I made him a rag doll with the Raggety Andy pattern you can buy. I made it with brown brushed cotton cloth for the skin and black hair, partly because that was the softest fabric I had and partly because we lived with a black woman and her daughter so being interracial was normal. Buddy Boy loves that rag doll now and it is just about wore through. I am planning to make two new rag dolls for the boys for Christmas, and will look for soft brown fabric for skin.
We have several doll in our house; brown skin and peach skin. My mom bought a brown one and I got a white one at a yard sale. So I haven't actually had to look for any in the store. It is really something that you had to go to Walmart to find a brown skinned doll. What does that say about who they see their as their clientel? I am sure I have seen AA dolls in our Target here and Toys R Us as well. Barbie, Bratz, etc. But we have a very diverse area...
Posted by: cloudscome | 23 October 2006 at 11:25 AM
Miss I loves her FP Little Mommy bathing doll who is black (and looks just like her, really, tiny teeth and all). But sadly, her current favorite is an ugly white baby doll she picked up in the dollar store!
(I was furious with Target too, as there were no aa babies here).
Posted by: abebech | 05 November 2006 at 08:20 AM