Earlier this year, I was able to spend time with some of the little humans in my life. One wanted us to play with a wooden doll set they had where you could dress up the dolls and their pets in different magnetic clothes. The toy set is from the Melissa & Doug company.
On the surface, there’s a lot to like about this toy. It has 4 different “girls” (making use of both sides of each doll), and they have different hair types and skin tones which reflect the diversity of humans in the world. I thought that was wonderful, and I was thrilled to be able to dress the “Black” doll while my young friend dressed the “Asian” doll.
As I started to look at things more closely, however, something struck me. The two darker-skinned dolls had a bra and panties base while the “white” and “Asian” dolls had on full coverage undershirts with their panties. There’s a ton of research on how women are color are underrepresented in the media and how they are disproportionately sexualized when they are portrayed – particularly darker-skinned women. That said, I wasn’t expecting to see this with dress-up dolls where there appeared to be a goal of providing the ability for kids to see themselves (at least if they identify as girls) in these dolls.
This an admittedly small things that young girls may not be focusing on – at least at a conscious level. But when this is paired with broader portrayals of girls and women of color, messages are likely being received and internalized – even if its done without conscious awareness of what thee messages are or where they come from.
What have you run across in toys (or another domain) that surprised you – positively or negatively? Please share your experiences in the comments!