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Dolly Time
A few months ago I was thrilled to be able to drink wine at a dinner party with Felix around and wasn't at all afraid of spilling it because he was busy playing with a baby doll. I commented to my friend that it was nice to watch him trying to poke its eyes out instead of mine and said I should get him one.
My friend, whose child is much older and who already knows all the questions, asked if I planned on getting a black or Asian baby doll or sticking with a generic Caucasian one. Her question (need I say this?) pretty much put the kibosh on the toy, because all of a sudden picking one would have gone from making a random choice to making a STATEMENT, and I've been busy. My search has changed and I am now on a quest for the perfect classic teddy bear. (Suggestions, anyone? No Steiff please. They are classic and beautiful but wildly expensive and the opposite of cuddly.)
I was suddenly reminded of the conversation while glancing at the Movie City News blog and catching the inevitable headline: "Where the Girls Aren't Is In Family Movies For Starters." There was a link to an article about how (shockingly) male characters wildly outnumber female characters in G-rated movies. The actress Geena Davis finds this appalling and has founded See Jane, a group whose mission is to increase the number of female characters in children's media. I have no real quarrel with this idea, but I wonder how this is news. I also wonder what kind of response there could be to this agitation. Does this mean we'll start seeing a lot of extra girl characters who sit around and don't do anything interesting? I just remember talking with someone about how in the 1980s there were so many popular movies for adults with almost no female characters and complaining about it, and his response was: "At least you can ask where the women are. How much better would it be if the screen only had expendable sexpots on it?"
But I'm a cynic, because the doll world is full of girl drama, or melodrama, as the case may be, there are plenty of races represented but there are mighty few boys, and, one at least, is really fraught. According to today's New York Times, Barbie's ex-boyfriend, Ken, is going to be reintroduced in an effort to repopularize the whole Barbie brand which has taken a huge hit at the hands of the hideous Bratz dolls (some of which remind me of those Trolls from bygone days).
And so, guided by "customer feedback" Mattel reconfigured Ken, explaining his absence as the result of misery after Barbie ditched him for some Aussie surfer. Ken toured Europe and the Middle East and became a practicing Buddhist and Catholic (All! Both! Everything! Does anyone else think that some members of the Barbie fan base were having some fun with the Ken "narrative" at the Mattel executives' expense?). He reemerges in cargo pants a new man with a new more "rugged" jaw line, fit as a fiddle and ready for love (as the song goes).
Mattel makes no bones about saying that Ken (and Blaine, the Australian surfer and the other boy dolls) are "accessories to Barbie." And even in the Bratz world, the "Boyz" don't even make it into the brand's unfortunate tag line ("The only girls with a passion for fashion!")
So here is a "world" controlled by and populated by girls. Is this any better than the G-movie arena where there are hardly any female characters? I have nothing against See Jane or its mission but I wish it would work on the problem of stupidity while its addressing numbers.
posted by Elise at 6:26 PM
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Here's a suggestion: buy him the doll he likes to play with. Let him pick it out. Or buy him a Waldorf doll. All natural, soft, pretty expressionless. The best way to avoid all the Barbie?bratz junk? Get rid of the TV. My almost 3 year old can't, thank god, ask fot hings she doesn't know exisits. I know tghis happy time will end. But we'll ride it out as long as possible.
2/11/2006 7:56 AM
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11/12/2006 2:16 AM
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11/12/2006 2:17 AM
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11/12/2006 2:17 AM
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