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Flackette Goes Retro
11/20/09

In reply to Welcome To The Dollhouse: Do We Need Our Dolls To Be Mini-Mes?
I have hazel eyes - a sort of mottled gold, green and brown mess. When I was a little girl I spotted a doll in the store who had the same color eyes and I fell in LOOOOVE with her, because she took something that I didn't like about myself (my mom has light blue eyes, so I always wanted those) and made it pretty. I felt the same way about any dolls with brown hair, as I was pretty close to developing a complex due to having dark hair in the 80s, when not only my Barbies, but also all my adult female relatives had bleach-blonde hair.
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judgingamy
11/20/09

In reply to Welcome To The Dollhouse: Do We Need Our Dolls To Be Mini-Mes?
American Girl came out with the dolls that you could customize the features of right when they were very popular for my age. My Grandma got me one that looked exactly like me, and it spooked the crap out of anyone who saw me with it.
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sequined
11/20/09

In reply to Welcome To The Dollhouse: Do We Need Our Dolls To Be Mini-Mes?
American Girl "includes" a line of historical dolls? That's the whole point! Have we so lost our way, Pleasant Company?
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Flackette Goes Retro
11/20/09

@sequined: I know. That made me sad. I'm an original mid-80s Pleasant Company girl.
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Pizza!Pizza!Pizza!
11/20/09

In reply to Welcome To The Dollhouse: Do We Need Our Dolls To Be Mini-Mes?
Most of my dolls were hand-me-downs, so I never really got to choose. Half were stuffed animals. Many were handicapped. No one was spared my teacher-ly wrath.
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la.donna.pietra
11/20/09

In reply to Welcome To The Dollhouse: Do We Need Our Dolls To Be Mini-Mes?
Somewhat related: On Halloween, I had to go to the DMV and stand in line. On the plus side, a Hispanic guy had brought in his two adorable daughters (ages approx. 3-4) who were dressed as Tiana and Sleeping Beauty, respectively. The Tiana dress got the majority of the compliments. (Sleeping Beauty was mostly interested in wreaking havoc in the waiting area.)
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vulcanized
11/20/09

In reply to Welcome To The Dollhouse: Do We Need Our Dolls To Be Mini-Mes?
My parents bought me a doll that looked like me after my sister told me I was adopted (I wasn't). She claimed that it was obvious I wasn't my parents' kid since I didn't look like anyone else in the family with my blue eyes and blonde hair and that my baby pictures were all fake. My mom was ginger and my dad and sister dark-haired. I'm not sure how the doll was supposed to help, but it did. My sister later overextended her story and lost me as a believer when she made the additional claim that our parents adopted me from the Indian reservation that used to be where our neighborhood was before the reservation was taken back by the government and we built our house over their graveyard. I was at least smart enough not to believe that.
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lucystrawberry: Tier 2 is the new black
11/20/09

@vulcanized: The correct answer to this taunt is always "Well, at least I know Mom and Dad CHOSE me, whereas they just got stuck with you."
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la.donna.pietra
11/20/09

In reply to Welcome To The Dollhouse: Do We Need Our Dolls To Be Mini-Mes?
For centuries, super-high-end dollmakers have specialized in making dolls that looked just like their clients' kids (see: A Little Princess); maybe this is just the democratization of something that's been available to the upper classes for around 400 years.
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Edited by la.donna.pietra at 11/20/09 2:35 PM la.donna.pietra was starred la.donna.pietra was unstarred

Zombie Ms. Skittles
11/20/09

In reply to Welcome To The Dollhouse: Do We Need Our Dolls To Be Mini-Mes?
Anyway, the people just looking at Elisabeth's kid were probably just jealous of her kick ass Tiana doll. I'd cut a bitch for one of them.
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Pizza!Pizza!Pizza!
11/20/09

@Zombie Ms. Skittles: Or maybe Elizabeth thought the dirty looks were meant for her daughter, when rally they were just the usual – aimed at her.
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quatrevingtquatre
11/20/09

In reply to Welcome To The Dollhouse: Do We Need Our Dolls To Be Mini-Mes?
I absolutely wanted a doll that looked like me, but that didn't exist when I was a little girl (I was born in 1984). My mom refused to buy white Barbies (or dolls of any sort, much as I pleaded for a Molly doll), but she did give me her Nurse Julia Barbie doll, which was as close to my skin color as anything I ever encountered growing up.
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Ulookinatmyjunk, JOC
11/20/09

In reply to Welcome To The Dollhouse: Do We Need Our Dolls To Be Mini-Mes?
There's also the effect the child's family and close acquaintances has on how the child feels about their own appearance. The inclination to prefer the white doll may be due to societal influences, but it can also be caused by how the family deals with race in the household. Speaking from the perspective of being (darker-skinned) black, some of the ugliest and most racially insidious things I heard were from other black people, particularly from my family or close acquaintances. "Nappy-headed" and "burnt-black", just to name a couple. Doesn't really instill a great sense of pride.
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foodandshoes
11/20/09

@Ulookinatmyjunk, JOC: that's seriously fucked up. I'm sorry that happened to you. We do so much violence to ourselves; I know my grandmother went through hell for being "yellow" back in her day that she shuts any conversation about color down in an instant.

Unfortunately that doesn't stop her from coming at me with a hot comb since I've gone natural :)
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Ulookinatmyjunk, JOC
11/21/09

@foodandshoes: Yea, it comes from all sides and it's unfortunate. I remember being younger and hearing lighter-skinned children talk about how they'd been made fun of and I thought they we full of it, because I mean, they were who I thought I wanted to be. They had it the best out of all of us, right?! But...no. As you said, we do a lot of damage to ourselves. And yea, my Nana still can't understand my natural hair and she keeps asking my mother to take her hair down and straighten it (my mom has shoulder length locks and has tried to explain to Nana more than once that she can't simply 'take them down' without shaving them off) But that's Nana.

Hey, maybe a Barbie with natural hair or locks would be nice? I reckon there'd only be a small portion of people who'd by it though.
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foodandshoes
11/21/09

@Ulookinatmyjunk, JOC: Hey, my grandfather keeps on asking how I get my hair to be so curly! There's the cultural/cognitive disconnect at play where I think he really believes that my hair is straight!

#tips
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ImDatNinja (loves her Red Sox)
11/20/09

In reply to Welcome To The Dollhouse: Do We Need Our Dolls To Be Mini-Mes?
This segment was one of the few times I actually liked Elizabeth. I'm off to look for the flying pigs now.
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Snowbunny
11/20/09

In reply to Welcome To The Dollhouse: Do We Need Our Dolls To Be Mini-Mes?
I would be afraid if my parents bought a doll that looked like me. What if they were replacing me with a more appealing version of me, one that didn't leave legos all over the basement or sing show tunes all the time. OR what if the doll was determined to become me? And it convinced me parents to love it more before slicing me into tiny parts and hiding me in various rooms of the house, thus fulfilling her blood quota and becoming a demon spawn who rules the world!

This doll issue goes deeper than inherent social discrimination, guys. We need to stop with dolls and only produce stuffed animals.
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Sadako
11/20/09

@Snowbunny: Better yet. Let's stop depicting the way people look. Let's stop with dolls, robots, pictures, magazines, actors, cartoons of real people, photos, etc. Let's get rid of everything that's not pictures of cats on Internet with captions and pictures of cheeseburgers.
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Snowbunny
11/20/09

@Sadako: I like the way you think.
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Tippi Hedren
11/20/09

In reply to Welcome To The Dollhouse: Do We Need Our Dolls To Be Mini-Mes?
I always chose dolls based on which one came with the coolest outfit. Though I'm white, my favorite Barbie as a kid was one that was vaguely Asian with long, black, crimped hair and a badass orange outfit.
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Zombie Ms. Skittles
11/20/09

In reply to Welcome To The Dollhouse: Do We Need Our Dolls To Be Mini-Mes?
I was always so happy when I found a Barbie who had the green and brown flecks in her eyes, because that was the closest to my actual eyes. It's not that I wanted a doll to look just like me, I just liked the reaffirmation that not all blondes had to have blue eyes.
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CurtCole
11/20/09

@Zombie Ms. Skittles: I always had to cut off one of Barbie's feet to create a make-shift penis for Ken. Childhood...it's tough.
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Edited by CurtCole at 11/20/09 2:29 PM CurtCole was starred CurtCole was unstarred

Zombie Ms. Skittles
11/20/09

@CurtCole: Considering Barbie's feet were the most delicious part of the doll, I think you just added a whole new level to that age old "nature vs. nurture" question with regards to sexuality...
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CurtCole
11/20/09

@Zombie Ms. Skittles: I try to keep thing interesting...
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badmutha
11/20/09

@Zombie Ms. Skittles: WHAT? Maybe you are just a mutant. Just kidding, I am blond with green eyes.
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Zombie Ms. Skittles
11/20/09

@badmutha: Funnily, I'm blonde with hazel eyes and I'm marrying a guy with brown hair and blue eyes.

If I wanted children, I'd be looking forward to how that panned out.
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HereComesMyBaby
11/20/09

@Zombie Ms. Skittles: Hah! Those feet sure were delicious!
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BAngieB
02/05/09

In reply to Conspicuous Consumption
I say leave the poor fella alone. I mean, really, his affair may be one-sided, but who has been in that position?
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