The girl looked happy. This was her doll & she was playing with it. I wonder....I wonder about how this young girl will grow to understand her own body, skin color & hair. Not that there is anything wrong with the color of the doll's skin. Not that a black girl should only play with black dolls & a brown girl play with only brown dolls. But...dolls are important part of our growing up. Just last night I told my husband that when we have kid/kids I will encourage them to make their own dolls. Sketch the doll they want & then we go to a crafts store & buy things to make the doll with. That way the doll can b a truer expression of the child, whatever the color of the doll's skin. my husband is a white man & I'm brown (wheatish). So...who knows what color our child will choose for his/her doll's skin.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Black girl White Barbie
In the subway going towards Bronx I'm sitting opposite a 9 years old black girl who is combing her white Barbie's blonde hair. This girl's own hair is in braids with several colorful beads at the end of each braid. She is meticulous in doing her Barbie's hair. I get off the train but this fleeting moment is lingering with me.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I've never heard anyone describing themselves as wheatish before. LOL Love it! I'm more corn huskish, I think. Creating your own doll is a great idea.
ReplyDeletehaving your children create their own doll is such a wonderful idea to get them inspired early...love it
ReplyDeleteCorn-huskish.... I like that. I think we should all be allowed to give a name to our particular skins. Like in Vagina monologues women named their vaginas different names.
ReplyDeleteI always describe myself as caramel-colored and my daughter is cafe au lait. I come from a multi-ethnic family and I had dolls of different colors, but I made up my mind that I would only buy my daughter dolls that were people of color. Asian dolls were fine. Latino dolls were fine. Black dolls were fine. Just no white ones. I figure she'll encounter more than enough positive images of white people without me needing to provide her with any. Fortunately, my white in-laws and those in my biological family have the same values and I never had to tell any of them not to buy her white dolls. She's 14 now and, so far I haven't seen her really struggle with the self-image problems that I've seen many girls face. If anything, she needs to stop looking at herself in the mirror and preening so much! ;)
ReplyDelete