A child sitting in front of the family television is engaged in a virtual feeding frenzy of image consumption. Along with advertising's extraordinarily stimulating, mesmerizing moments of high-tech groveling for attention, comes an instructional picture-book on how to play and whom to play with. In recent years, children's toy manufacturers have given a new cast to these lessons by routinely, almost compulsively, showing ethnically diverse groups of children playing with their products. The heightened social consciousness of our time and the even more compelling need for companies to reach as many lucrative market segments as possible have created a real expansion of the social imagery used to attract child consumers and their parents.
Television advertising exhorts children and their parents to buy toy products, but the real learning begins when the toys are used in play. Watching pictures, no matter how staggering their number or how stimulating their messages, remains an essentially passive, limited means of acquiring information. Children learn best by multi-sensory experience. Children learn best by interactive play. And one of the first and most immediate ways that children get to know themselves and others is by playing with dolls.
In human history dolls have been universal in their psychological power and significance. On a primitive level, dolls have magic; indeed dolls are magic. They are representations of the human spirit, soul, self. Unlike any other kind of toy, a doll can look back when it is regarded by its owner; it elicits a strong personal attachment. This attachment occurs not because of the particular way it is produced or dressed, but because of the way human beings operate psychologically. Children have a built-in urge to attribute feelings to objects that even vaguely resemble human physiognomy -an urge to attribute "aliveness." A doll is, and. historically has been, far more than a mere toy for children's amusement.
A baby's mother is really his or her first "doll." There are parts to be played with, noises emitted, places to touch and cuddle. The psychological boundaries between an infant and the outside world are so permeable that this wonderful mommy-doll is just an extension of the baby's self. A child beginning to separate and differentiate itself from its mother, then starts to use dolls as surrogate extensions, as carriers of the child's own feelings.
Chinese American children with dolls (32K)
Grandchildren of Mrs. Ella Watson, a government charwoman, Washington, DC. (134K)
Rice Paddy Baby (252K)
Su Ling and Huggy Bean (29K)
Color Plate 4 (67K)
Color Plate 3 (20K)
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Since the rise of mass-manufactured dolls in the late 19th century, adults have had increasing control over the forms and features of the dolls with which children play. Adults have populated children's worlds with the insultingly stereotyped ethnic doll representations from the "bad old days" and with the laudably accurate, positive ethnic dolls of today. But from the perspective of child development more is less in terms of imaginative play. Imagination is the driving force in play, and children are drawn to anchor their fantasies in the outside world, to attach their feelings to even the most primitive twig or stone. As many bewildered parents know, it is often the box that is played with rather than the fancy toy. Why? Because the box opens up the possibilities for imagination; the too structured toy defines, limits, dictates and rules. Nevertheless, dolls accurately proclaiming the details of children's cultural and racial heritages are needed. The continued dominance of Caucasian imagery in multi-ethnic America is just one reason non-Caucasian children require some assistance in using their dolls as natural extensions of themselves. Offering children prefabricated dolls that resemble the ethnicity of their owners is psychologically and socially preferable to giving children access only to dolls that resemble Caucasians. In the mad rush of images children receive every day, it is extremely difficult to unravel the psychological effects of ethnic dolls on their owners. For example, adult members of an ethnic group who purchase ethnic dolls for their children are likely to share with their youngsters other positive views about their self identity in the larger American society. At the same time, how the child uses that ethnic doll in his or her collection of other dolls and toys is as unpredictable as is the imaginative world of play, and cannot be dictated by even the most well-intentioned parent or teacher. Children use their dolls as scapegoats, as mouthpieces, as props for role playing, as ways of assimilating what they hear from adults, and as little "selves" to nurture or cure or scold. There's no assurance that the ethnically similar doll's owner will automatically be more favorably disposed toward it. In 1985 Yvonne Rubie, founder of Golden Ribbon Playthings, introduced "Huggy Bean," a mass-produced, mass-marketed Black character doll with a proud, feisty image for Black children to identify with. As Rubie puts it, Huggy Bean is a "three-dimensional expression of the belief that a child needs a positive image" that a doll can reinforce; it is important that a child can say, "She's cute and I look like that." Huggy Bean is soft and cuddly; psychologically, the tactile relationship is critical in forming human bonds. Intentionally or not, Huggy Bean's soft construction itself provides a natural incentive for Black children to connect with the doll and their own ethnic identities. |
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When the child grows up playing only with Caucasian dolls, the daunting effects of his immersion in the white-oriented United States culture are compounded. "You'll find Black children even today," Ms. Rubie observes, "who haven't been exposed to Black dolls, say in Montana, where they might be totally surrounded by whites, who express negative feelings about the blackness of Huggy Bean." Psychologically, these children are rejecting an image of themselves because they haven't positively embraced a sense of themselves as Black. In the United States, ethnic children have to battle their ways not only past concrete negative images of themselves in the media, but also past the impression that the pervasiveness of Caucasian imagery means they are not part of the "real" American society. Golden Ribbon Playthings, a Black-owned company, produces Huggy Bean with African-American features, and it deliberately gives the doll a positive personality in order to educate Black children about Black issues and heritage. Huggy Bean goes on adventures to places such as Ethiopia and even South America and comes with a detailed fantasy storybook in order to help the Black child discover who he or she is. Golden Ribbon constantly gets letters from parents recounting how proud their children are of their Huggy Bean, and so, of themselves. Recently. the company has expanded its products to include Hispanic dolls, which are marketed to and purchased by Black consumers, as a way of enlarging their "families." |
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Of course, if ethnic dolls are going to be produced for and used by parents to enhance ethnic identity and self-esteem, then the necessarily imagination- limiting constructs used to cue these positive qualities need to be carefully designed so that the sacrifice of fantasy freedom still leads to an expansion of the sense of self in the world. "Mini-immigrant" dolls, complete with passports, packaged by Rice Paddy Babies with the plea "We want to emigrate," represent an Asian ethnic identity but one that fails to introduce the child owner to either the doll's cultural heritage or to the creative opportunities of life in America. The doll is confined by its definition as a transient, as a life in transit, devoid of respect for who it is. The psychological message it conveys to ethnic consumers is to detach, to "emigrate," from their heritage rather than to be proud of and identify with their roots. Unlike the "mini-immigrant" Rice Paddy Babies, "Su Ling" is part of the Eugene Doll and Novelty Company's My Best Friend collection which includes Hispanic and other ethnic representatives. By packaging Su Ling as a child's "best friend" the company sends an open-ended message about acceptance and friendship to children. The doll's identity is defined first by her capacity to be a child's best friend with all of the imaginative possibilities inherent in that social role. The doll's ethnic authenticity is there, and significant for an Asian American child, but it is secondary to the doll's broader psychological function in the child's fantasy life. According to Michael Pietrafesa, Vice President at Eugene, the ethnic dolls reflect the "greater mixture of cultures out there in the general population that kids are exposed to." He adds that children are geared "to buy the dolls as a family with a variety of different members" because so much ethnic diversity is currently being presented in children's advertising. |
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There are many reasons for the increased ethnic representation in commercial messages and toy production. Yla Eason, founder of Olmec Toy Company, was jolted into creating the first Black superhero toy, "Sun-Man," after hearing her son announce he could never be like Mattel's "He-Man" because "He-Man" was white. Eason produces "Sun-Man," as well as a line of Hispanic, Asian, and American Indian superheroes because "there is no more ethnic a toy product as a doll, since it reflects the beauty and characteristics of the race it portrays" [Color Plate 4]. Olmec's primary business is making toys that are facilitators of positive cultural identity and self-development although it also is in the business of making money and has been growing at a healthy clip. Nevertheless, ethnic accuracy is Black-owned Olmec's chief priority. "Naomi," a Barbie-like fashion doll, has Black facial features; she is not just a white painted brown. There is a market for ethnic accuracy. By contrast, Mattel's priority in producing ethnic diversity in its advertising and its products is not to enhance the self-image of its young consumers. "Barbies" are manufactured to be profitable, and Mattel has found that, more than ever, it is lucrative to sell to the ethnic market. When Barbie was first introduced to America, the doll business was predominantly white and reflected, according to Candace Irving, Mattel's Manager of Marketing and Public Relations, what the mass market wanted in dolls. By the late 1960s, in response to a rapidly changing society and out of a need to be "responsible," Mattel introduced a Black doll named "Christie," a friend in Barbie's world. Nevertheless, Christie and Mattel's other ethnic dolls are "not designed to be educational," but rather to build a social group for Barbie--and a purchasable collection for her owners. |
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Barbie's current friends "Miko" (Asian), "Teresa" (Hispanic) and a Black Barbie all possess ethnic features sculpted by designers who have distilled recognizable images from pictures of the dolls' purported ethnic groups [Color Plate 3]. The aim is not accuracy for the sake of psychological educational development, but recognizability for the sake of sales. As Mattel's Irving explains, "Toy markets reflect what's happening in society; everything tells us that the Black and Hispanic markets are growing, and you will see Mattel targeting more and more products toward those segments." Although Mattel downplays the educational implication of its dolls, children's imaginations are so powerful that even suggested ethnic features are psychologically valuable in contributing to their sense of identity and belonging in American society. The precise shape of Miko's eyes or the fullness of Black Barbie's lips are not critical if these dolls are instantly recognizable to children of Asian and African-American backgrounds and if they are equals as friends to Caucasian Barbie, and, of course, to her living counterparts. In any case parents and teachers must be prepared to reinforce the messages of positive identification that any ethnic doll is intended to carry, messages that further the fundamental psychological function of the doll in children's development. |