Should Toy Makers Break The Mold For Diverse Dolls? [Yes]
Posted by meredith on 08-04-2009
It got a little more crowded in the doll world this week after two big brands introduced new lines for tweens: toy company Spin Master launched the Liv Dolls, complete with Liv world (a virtual world) and MGA Entertainment, a.k.a. the maker of Bratz dolls, debuted Moxie Girlz with four core characters and a variety of online games.
In a case of unfortunate timing, at first glance the two quartets appear to be nearly mirror images of the other. Not only in style and positive ‘tude that both seem to be giving off, but also in their similar gestures towards diversity with each set including a doll or two with slightly darker skin tones that suggest an ethnic background. “Suggest,” however, being the operative word. We tweeted the press release for the Liv Dolls over the weekend, and a discussion was sparked about whether any of the relatively fair-skinned dolls were “supposed” to be brown or black.
I took a look at the Liv World website and confirmed that one character was African American and another could possibly be Hispanic. This, however, was only garnered from watching a video that featured real girls cast as the dolls’ characters. Also, there was also a slight affect to the African American doll’s voice that suggested she might not be white. In truth, I was a little underwhelmed and more than slightly uncomfortable with the effort.
On the Moxie Girlz site, there’s less content to flesh out the individual personalities and storylines of each character, but the dolls (which also include two figures with slightly darker skin tones) are also nearly identical to one another in both facial features, straight long hair and body type.
To me, both sets of dolls leave some realism to be desired. Of course, that’s not limited to diversity (can we please move past the lollipop head and stick body already?), but the lack of racial sensitivity seems especially acute here where all of the dolls appear to be playing into the Caucasian standards of beauty. The whole experience reminded me of the sentiment expressed in an article on The Root a few weeks back where the author recalled how black Barbies of her childhood might as well have been of the blond variety. What spoke to her of real progress was the inclusion of dolls with “authentic skin tones” and hair that resembled her own (a point that seems particularly important with the emphasis both dolls place on hair). Basically, attempts that made the representation seem more than a token gesture.
The dolls that The Root article was referring to were a new African American line from Mattel. A definite step in the right direction, but as one of our Twitter respondents pointed out, in 2009 isn’t it time that we see this type of attention to detail and inclusion happening at the same time?
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Categorized under: Tweens
August 20th, 2009 at 11:52 am
Hello,
I work for the company that designed the Liv Dolls. I’d like to thank you for taking the time to review our dolls. Despite some of your criticisms, we hope, overall, that you like them. Just to comment on what you said – and this only applies to Liv, as I can’t speak for other co’s – we tried our best to take a “cross-section” of society/ethnicities when we designed our dolls. We live in a multi-ethnic world, and as such, we don’t try to cover the “extremes,” but rather what we consider to be a representation of the average. When we designed the dolls, we actually look across all cultures and try to blend features. Believe it or not, the dolls’ lips come from a blend of several ethnic backgrounds. They are not simply, “white or black or asian.” (I’m white, and have what some may call “bigger lips,” so I think the suggestion that all white people look a certain way is also a stereotype). Having said that, in the future, we may consider dolls that represent “stronger ethnic” traits similar to what you’re referring to. Our goal is that girls, ultimately, see these dolls they way they want to see them. The dolls are archetypes. From there, we hope that the girl will add the final touches – the most important touches. In that respect, the dolls will come out in the girls’ imaginations looking exactly the way the girl wants them to. Again, thanks for taking the time to comment. If you have any thoughts in the future, please don’t hesitate to let us know. best. ben
September 7th, 2009 at 4:02 am
Parents owe it to their children to take a closer look. Their ’super secret diaries’ are full of every sexist cliche: the girls hate to study, focus entirely on shopping for the ‘latest’ fashions so they’ll be cute for boys, and borrow heavily from slang that is simply annoying. Yes, the Bratz line were all about sluttiness, but this line is just all about being constant consumers without an ounce of self-worth. A Liv girl only has social standing so long as she’s got the latest hairstyle, fashions, and boyfriend. Do your daughters a favor and skip this expensive trash. It’s inappropriate for girls whatever ‘race’ they happen to be.