Trichelle & Janessa (little sister) Barbie dolls
Being part of a family where we each have a unique skin tone and hair type has made me really think about the images my children are bombarded with every day, through adverts, toys, games, clothing, etc. Although it is clear there is a widespread and concerted effort to represent all different looks these days, when you actually start to pay attention, you soon realise we have a long way to go. Nearly every t-shirt, backpack, lunchbox or greetings card that features a child features a white child. Where non-whites are represented, they are often the token nod to non-prejudice, a friend or relative of the main character, shown only in a supporting role.
Grace Barbie doll & Darren (Ken-type doll)
I think it is extremely important that non-white children see images of children who look similar to themselves, so they are not left wondering why non-white children are sidelined or ignored. Are non-white children not as important? is a question they may well ask themselves. I find all of this especially important when it comes to images held up as an ideal of beauty, as in the case of Barbie or Sindy dolls.
Trichelle Barbie doll (gorgeous curls!)
It is now fairly easy to find so-called ethnic baby-type dolls in all complexions and we've had a brown-skinned baby doll, as well as a gorgeous brown-hued rag-doll, since Schmoo was small. However, one type of doll is harder to track down - the fairy or mermaid doll. For some reason, when it comes to fantasy, people lack imagination! Nearly every fairy or mermaid doll (or picture of a fairy/mermaid) is white. Luckily, Disney has come to the rescue and Iridessa, one of the fairies from the new cartoon, 'Tinkerbell & the Great Fairy Rescue', is black, which means lots of great tie-in black fairy merchandise!
Kara Barbie doll
Schmoo actually received a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Barbie doll for her 4th birthday, but luckily she took no interest and I quickly snuck it out of the house! She's now 6 and, today, to my horror, she received a replacement, as a take-home gift from a party. This time it was love at first sight and she has spent the evening playing with it before taking it to bed with her. I mentioned that I had been about to buy her such a doll (true, but Princess Tiana rather than the Aryan doll she was lovingly clutching!) and tentatively suggested that perhaps we could make an exchange when her new doll arrived?! This suggestion did not of course go down too well - she said she would prefer the doll I bought her (bless her) but that she wanted to keep both dolls.
Trichelle & Chandra Barbie dolls (Trichelle with afro)
When she went to bed, I rushed online to see what the possibilities were - and found to my delight that there is now a whole range of brown-skinned Barbies available - I went a bit bonkers and bought 10 dolls! I partly bought so many because I wanted to have the whole range of different skin tones and hair types (I even found one on eBay with an afro - a very rare thing in Barbie-world!), though each has beautiful brown skin and gorgeous dark eyes. Most have 'African' features too, rather than the 'white doll painted brown' look of the first black Barbies. I think Schmoo's 10 new brown-skinned dolls (which include a ridiculously cute 'little sister' dol, a boy doll to represent her brother and a Disney Princess Tiana doll) will be enough to balance out her white Barbie, so I will be happy for her keep it after all!
Princess-style Barbie doll (for a bit of glamour)
Note: All the Barbie dolls (and one Disney Princess Tiana doll) in the pics are the ones I bought!
Disney Princess Tiana doll
Useful sites:
www.kidslikeme.co.uk - for multicultural toys, books and other products (love the way they describe their products as 'inclusive')
www.willesdenbookshop.co.uk - for multicultural books (including a wonderful round-the-world Cinderella page!)
http://www.positive-identity.com - especially good for dolls
http://www.eduzone.co.uk/acatalog/index.html - a huge selection of multicultural products
2 comments:
I appreciate your thoughts here! Being caucasian, I haven't given nearly as much thought to the media aspect of diversity (or lack thereof!). Thanks for sharing!
Tamara
As a white stepmother of two brownies - when presented of a choice of a brown barbie, a white barbie or a black barbie - even though they lived in a black country - they chose the white one and told me that the black one was too black... I guess everybody has their own preference.. I was quite surprised though...
Post a Comment