Monday, November 29, 2010

just like you

One of my favorite parts of the holidays every year is getting a Salvation Army doll from my church and then going shopping to dress her in the most stylish doll clothes out there. It's the one time a year when it is still acceptable to play with dolls.

This year I was horrified to learn that the Salvation Army only gave my church white dolls with blond hair. I don't know anything about the children who get these dolls, but I assume that they are not all white little girls since we live in a very diverse area. Grant it, you don't have to play with a doll that matches your color (I was the little girl who'd fight other girls in my preschool so I could play with the African American baby doll) but most girls like to play with a doll that looks like them. The American Girl Company is making a lot of money off that theory, so I think, based on their success and how they continue to let girls design dolls that look like their owners, we can assume that most little girls want similar looking dolls.

Whose idea was it to order only white dolls? Was it an oversight? Was it cheaper or easier to only order one color? If we were going to pick one color shouldn't we choose a darkish skinned doll with brown hair that could go in many different directions? Why the Scandinavian looking doll who looks like she's been kept in a closet her whole life? I'm sad for the little girl who will open her on Christmas morning only to find a pale white but well dressed toy. Maybe I'll make mine a Russian Orphan so the little girl who gets her can pretend she's adopting a little white child to give her a better life.

Or maybe I'll stop looking for things to write about and go back to studying stats for my final tomorrow...

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