I’m a rag doll girl in a Barbie world
As a kid, I didn’t want for much in the way of playthings. I had a banana-seat bike (and later on, a ten-speed) and my own pair of white roller skates with red polyurethane wheels. My shelves were filled with books ranging from Beatrix Potter boxed sets to Judy Blume paperbacks from Dell Yearling. Monopoly, Scrabble, and Sorry were staple board games. I may not have had an Easy-Bake Oven, but the cookie jar was always full.
And I had dolls. Madame Alexander dolls who sat atop my bookshelves and were dusted every few months, and dolls that I was actually allowed to play with - including a black Raggedy Ann rag doll and a hard-headed, pink-cheeked baby doll who were my favorites.
My mother showered me with doll accoutrements: a wicker doll bed (with matching pillow and coverlet), a doll crib, a doll high chair, and dozens of doll-sized outfits that she’d sewn herself. She even collaborated with my grandfather to build, decorate and furnish a beautiful dollhouse for me.
But as happy as she was to set me up with an army of dolls, there was one doll she wouldn’t buy: Barbie.
Her objections weren’t based in feminism. My mother has her own tiny waist, slim hips, and vast array of fancy outfits - not to mention feet that are permanently molded to fit into high heels.
I’m not exactly sure why she was so opposed to Barbie - I never did get a satisfactory answer to that question, and I don’t think I asked it more than once (and even then, only tentatively) - but the gist of my understanding was that she thought Barbie was trashy.
No, not what we perverted little girls made Barbie do with Ken. (Don’t deny it; we all did it, and that includes you too.) But the mass production and the marketing machine - the sheer commonness of Barbie - kept her from being special and unique and worthy of sitting next to the Madame Alexander creations at a childhood tea party.
As much as I adored visiting friends who had the entire lineup of Barbie dolls and accessories, I think it was the fact that I didn’t have that same stuff at home that made playing with it elsewhere so much fun.
Now that I write for a site that’s all about highlighting non-mainstream fabulousness (including super-cute dolls that don’t come in plastic boxes), I can better appreciate my mother’s reticence to embrace Barbie. Everyone else may have her, but is that enough of a reason to want her too? For a child, yes. For a mother, maybe not.
And now that I’m a mother myself, we do have a few Barbies at home. Some of them were gifts, and some of them came from garage sales. They don’t have their own Dream House, but they do have two Jeeps and a Corvette - also gifts. While I won’t go out of my way to invite her over, Barbie is welcome at my house if she decides to drop by.
But she’s got to leave her Easy-Bake Oven at the door.
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Scrabble, yes. Barbie, no. It seems I’ve been a Hasbro customer since childhood! Check out their Hot Summer Toy Event - get free shipping for yourself, and help Hasbro donate to Toys for Tots. And if you’ve got a blog, write about your own toy coveting and toy shopping experiences for a chance to win some really cool prizes in this week’s PBN Blog Blast.
July 25th, 2008 at 6:04 am
My mom wouldn’t buy a cabbage patch doll because she thought they were ugly. However, I did have a(n) (un)healthy collection of barbie dolls. I had them in the late 80s/early 90s, when their plastic bodies were not embossed with underwear and there were no barbies of color. I even had Barbie’s younger sister Skipper, whose boobs would protrude if you moved her arms. My mom tossed that one out, fortunately.
kiridas last blog post..69.89.22.118
July 25th, 2008 at 7:06 am
I did have a ton of Barbies, but I still loved going to friends’ houses to play Barbies because they always had different stuff than I did.
Heathers last blog post..69.89.22.118
July 25th, 2008 at 9:04 am
My mom refused to buy me a Barbie, but it was purely for feminist reasons. I think that eventually I was given one by a classmate for a birthday party. Personally, I always hated dolls though. They seemed so boring and, well, lifeless. I much preferred board games and puzzles or doing something outside. In someways I’m glad I have two boys because the idea of playing endless games of tea parties and dolls like my sister-in-law must might drive me right around the bend!
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July 25th, 2008 at 9:39 am
My mom didn’t allow Barbies or Cabbage Patch Dolls….which of course meant I got them from my step-mom and dad.
I have issues with them and then i don’t. I have more issues with what teens see everyday in magazine, than my kids playing with Barbies. Mostly because i know that the magazines (and my step-mother) did more harm to me than Barbie and her weird figure did.
My girls have a few Barbies, mostly gifts and we went through a Bratz stage (I decided not to fight it and it went away pretty fast) but the Littlest Pet Shops, My Little Ponies and Transformers are the true loves at my house.
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July 25th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
I had a few Barbies (and my daughter has received a couple as gifts). I begged my brother to play Barbies with me one boring summer and he finally gave in when I told him he could take off one of Ken’s legs and make a pair of crutches for him. My mom even sewed up poor Ken’s pants on the one side. Good times!
July 25th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
[...] I’m a Rag Doll Girl in a Barbie World [...]
July 25th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Interesting, I did have a Barbie and my mom was a feminist. But I can definitely see her point.
I find as my son gets older that it’s hard and harder to limit the influence of advertising and what he wants. I guess it’s about what you can live with. (For instance, we take an anti-Disney stance.) Hard to have parents like us sometimes.
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July 25th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
You mean Barbie’s figure isn’t based on reality? Shock and awe!
Caras last blog post..I love a rainy night…
July 26th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
But…but…Ken has no…well, you know whats…
Daisys last blog post..A grad’s future in this (*&^%$) economy
July 26th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
Janice and I were all about Hot Wheels and Lego. We had a few Barbies that had been gifts from our cousin who owned every Barbie ever made.
My 3 yr old Julia had one that was a gift, and my mom (grandma) threw it away. We didn’t think Julia had noticed until one day she saw a commercial about Barbie and started wimpering that she’d had a Barbie once but she didn’t know what had happened to it.
I felt soooooo guilty. I almost ran to the store to buy another… but luckily by the end of the day she had forgotten and I haven’t heard anything more about it.
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July 27th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
My Barbie was a dirty, dirty whore. She liked to take trips in my friend’s Barbie camper.
July 28th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
I’ve just got to stick up for the Easy Bake Oven. Those little cakes were tasty. I always thought I should make them for someone else, so I’d make two - one for me and one for my friend/mom/brother - and end up eating one and a half. It wasn’t the domestic part I liked as much as the eating part. That’s still why I bake. Some things never change.
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