Comments on: Ann Ducille on “Ethnic” Barbies

By: dollbuyer

dollbuyer — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 21:22:14 +0000

i agree with most of what you have said but i do believe it is important for children to have representations of themselves in their toys and the media etc as it can lead to confusion if they are only given one (race) as the preferred norm.
it is down to us teaching our children abut different races and cultures so they can have a respect and appreciation of them.

however, dolls who are ‘ethnic’ but have ‘white’ features make things even more confusing and mattel’s attemps at diversity are laughable.
the ‘jamaican’ barbie is hideous and ridiculous and the word boonoonoonoos is a word i have never come across as a jamaican.

By: Sabrina

Sabrina — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 05:15:26 +0000

While I believe that this subject is interesting, I also think that anybody who takes Ann Ducille’s opinion too seriously must be narrow minded and naive.
I am a woman who’s ancestry is multicultural, my great-grandmother was German, my grandfather was Chinese and my grandmother had African background. I married an African-american man and we have two girls: one has curly hair an the other one has straight hair.
Why am I saying all of this? Barbie doesn’t define racial stereotypes, WE DO. Barbies are plastic dolls meant to be played with or in some cases, collected.
Do you dress your girl in pink clothes and give her a doll to play? Do you give your boy cars to play with? Then you are already making a stereotypical statement.
When I had my first child I occasionally dressed her in light blue clothes with puppies and some people told me what a beautiful boy I had. Again, dolls and toys don’t make statements, we as individuals, make those statements. Mattel is also not the only company who make ethnic dolls, should we ban those companies for making dolls too back or not black enough?
As far as I know I have never met a white woman who looks even remotely like a Barbie, I am sure there are, but I have never met one personally, however these white women buy Barbies for the same reason I do, because the girls want to play with them.
Miss Ducille said “…it reifies race. You can’t make an ‘authentic’ Black, Hispanic, Asian, or white doll. You just can’t. It will always be artificially constraining…” Does that mean that we should have custom made dolls to look exactly like us? Or does that mean we should stop playing with dolls altogether? By the way, do you know how much a custom made doll goes for?
All I can say is that I played with blonde Barbie as a child and it didn’t make me believe that I was less than a white woman or in any case inferior or worse looking. I am an adult and I believe that if we want to make a difference in how we see people in society it is our job start by changing how WE “as individuals” see others and realize that no race is better than another and teaching our kids not to be prejudiced. THAT I assure you is more helpful than complaining, Oh, excuse me “ANALIZING” how Barbie doesn’t represent every single woman in the entire world.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 22:57:32 +0000

Wow.I kinda think its true.The dolls look alike.And I do beileve the ”dark skin dolls” dont have as many hair styles.Other then the other skin colors or races.

By: Hot and Sexy Barbie Issues « 20 Minutes Ago

Hot and Sexy Barbie Issues « 20 Minutes Ago — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 20:29:34 +0000

[...] http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2008/10/27/ann-ducille-on-ethnic-barbies/ [...]

By: I. Am. Terrified! « Uplift Magazine

I. Am. Terrified! « Uplift Magazine — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 10:28:09 +0000

[...] the stifling gender stereotyping, the emphasis on playing dress-up, the dubious tokenism and ham-fisted racial diversity, the crappy career choices… we were never going to champion Barbie as an empowering female [...]

By: Mary McGuire

Mary McGuire — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:14:51 +0000

I think the dolls look great and I’m sure any young girl would love them all. Perhaps Mattel could change features as well as colour but I imagine that would be financially prohibitive. Where should they draw the line the are 6 billion of us on this planet and no two look exactly the same. Seems to me that a lot of people spend to much time looking back rather than grabbing the opportunities for happiness which present themselves daily; so long as we are in the frame of mind to see them that is.
Live Love Respect and Be Happy

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 09:15:40 +0000

Also I think we are forgetting Barbies are for children. I doubt my 6 year old would understand the concept of colonialism whilst playing with her jamaican barbie!

By: K

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 03:33:24 +0000

Regarding the comments on Jamaican Barbie…
Maybe I misunderstood what you meant, but did you equate speaking a creole language with being “barely literate”? It could be that you meant that Mattel itself is describing creole languages in an insulting way. And yet, there’s no mention of literacy in Mattel’s description of Jamaican Barbie, and it doesn’t sound to me like they’re denigrating Jamaican Patois. So, it really looks like you’re assuming that to say someone speaks a creole is an insult, because you don’t think that creoles qualify as proper languages.

I don’t speak a creole, but I do speak a combination of Anglo-Saxon and Norman. I may not be fluent in either of those languages, but as you can see, I am literate in English!

By: Alexis

Alexis — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 07:12:36 +0000

When I was a child I loved barbie dolls. Because we moved around a lot (across continents) and traveled a lot I was lucky to be able to collect Barbies from many different places. Also being in international schools, I was fortunate to be able to make friends with other children from many different countries and of various ethnic backgrounds. And we all loved Barbie dolls. and the whole issue of race and stereotypes and so on never came up. or it did but it was never a bad thing, or offensive or anything like that. It’s just dolls. It’s meant to be fun. For children. It’s not hurting anybody. Some people just take everything too negatively.

By: Julie

Julie — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 17:45:08 +0000

Mattel’s new line of black barbies:

http://barbie.everythinggirl.com/activities/friends/soinstyle/

By: White Privilege And The Trouble With Homogeneity: The Black Oreo Barbie » Sociological Images

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 03:39:13 +0000

[...] instance. Diversity, then, is often good business. For more on Barbie and racial politics, see this post inspired by Ann DuCille. 20 Comments Tags: food, marketing, race/ethnicity, race/ethnicity: Blacks/Africans, [...]

By: oreo barbie: black edition « mulatto diaries

oreo barbie: black edition « mulatto diaries — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 18:19:32 +0000

[...] more on Barbie and racial politics, see this post inspired by Ann DuCille. [...]

By: Ethnice Barbie, Beauty @ Sociological Images « Dolls of Color

Ethnice Barbie, Beauty @ Sociological Images « Dolls of Color — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 03:40:39 +0000

[...] Ann Ducille on “Ethnic” Barbies @ Sociological Images 081027 [...]

By: Kjen

Kjen — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 20:23:04 +0000

Hey, I just found a link for this website from sociological images. Glad I did!
I actually came of (plays with Barbies)age when the Barbies around the world were just hitting the shelves.
I remembered thinking that the African (Kenyan) Barbie was pretty, but I was puzzled by her super short, spiky black hair.
But I did love getting the Shani, Nichelle, Barbie dolls. Three different black dolls – different shades (from light to dark chocolate brown!), and different lip and nose sizes. They were really something.
Since then occasionally changing the facial features and skin colors of ethnic Barbie dolls. But the hair game remains subpar? Just what is so difficult to grasp that hair doesn’t have to be floor length and super straight?

By: rozafa

rozafa — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 11:15:23 +0000

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