What’s missing?
Feb. 5th | Posted by Nicky
13 comments
Ok, so I was out shopping the other day, and decided to go into Toys ‘R’ Us and stare at all the baby stuff that I can’t buy because I don’t know how old my kids are. This is just one of the lame activities expecting adopting mothers do – besides blogging and checking my email every 20 seconds.
Anyway, I decided to check out the dolls (’cause chances are that I will have a girl… 
) and was just standing there is the doll aisle, looking around. Then I noticed. Do you see?
All white kids. And if you go down the aisle to the ones with hair – they were all blond. There was, like, one doll with brown hair. But seriously – all 100% pink skinned dolls.
Now Kelowna is not an especially ethnically diverse community, but there are 900+ East Indian, 660+ Chinese, 575+ Japanese people living here, according to the 2006 census. But not one Asian baby doll in the store.
And even as a pink-skinned brown-haired little girl, I wanted dolls that looked a little different than I did.
So I have two things to say.
#1 – It would be conducive to promoting acceptance and multi-culturalism among little girls (who grow up sooner or later!) if there were a mix of dolls available at the store.
#2 – I am so glad for ebay. Because there I can get a mix of dolls, and books with African or black girls and boys in them… and Asian kids and red-haired white kids, etc.
And fro the record, I’m not talking about tokenism here… what I’m trying to say is that our family and friends are a mix of people from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds, and I want my kids to see themselves (and our family and friends) in the book heros and doll-friends that they have. It’s good for their healthy self-image.
Anyway, enough said. Here’s the cabbage patch I ordered the next day on ebay!
P.S. for parents: February is Black History Month in the US, so there are tons of great kids book lots (with black and African kids as the characters) for sale on ebay right now! (Maybe I shouldn’t have said that. Now you’re going to bid against me!)
That is the same Cabbage Patch Doll that I received for my 15th birthday!! We lived in Northern Alberta and my mom still talks about how many stores she had to call before she could find a brown doll, and in the end it involved a 6 hour car trip. She belongs to my daughter now and she has held up pretty well.
You can also get some very cute Waldorf dolls that are brown and can even special order families with skin tones matching your own.
I have always kept my eyes open for multi-cultural dolls for my daughter and you are correct – in the past 7 years I haven’t seen many…
I’m sure your daughter will love her Cabbage Patch!
Nicky, I got the most gorgeous (albeit expensive) doll for Mal’s 1st bday at http://www.dollsbyeve.com
Check it out
Also, I just emailed info you requested on the chat board.
Ahh! Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything
People are outbidding me!!!!
I am TOTALLY going to eBay now!
Great cabbage patch doll – I never liked them before that that one is kinda cute.
I live in Victoria and it is IMPOSSIBLE to find any dolls in ANY store that has any ethnic detail. I’ve looked all over this city! But I have eyes and ears all over the place, I’ve got people looking in London (ON), Calgary, & Mission (BC)! I spent a week with my gf in Calgary and we mostly shopped. At the end (when I hadn’t bought anything) she admitted never noticing how little minorities are represented in childrens toys.
I keep thinking that when I find a doll in a store it’s not going to matter how much it costs I’m going to buy it! Too bad I’m not a good ebay girl. I guess that’s where all the good stuff is! I’m “old school”
My friend did manage to find a mini Cabbage Patch Kid, about 4″ tall maybe at Walmart of all places! Maybe we should write a letter and speak up about this. You are very articulate…
Alicia
I know what you mean Nikki, I have noticed the exact same thing at Toys R Us at both the Halifax and Ottawa locations. NO diversity in their dolls whatsoever and when you ask, they simply say that they don’t carry them. This really angered me as I too am trying to buy dolls for Zia in a whole range of skin colours/hair colours and I can’t believe that a company like Toys R Us doesn’t recognize that there are people with dark skin, or dark hair or red hair (like me as a kid!).
I will join you in saying THANK GOD FOR EBAY!
Best to just stay out of Toys R Us completely, really…
Here’s another neat site for dolls though…
http://store.gxonlinestore.org/zimbabwedoll.html
june
I hear ya! It’s tough finding toys/dolls that look like our children. Although at around Christmas time they had black Cabbage Patch Dolls at Costco…. Thank God for internet shopping!
Oh yes. I had forgotten about this part. I had forgotten how white bread Canada can be in terms of shopping.
I have a friend in the southern US who has a much better time getting access to toys, books, etc. that have kids of other skin colours and backgrounds as a focus. She’s been great for this sort of thing, and I hope she’ll be a resource when we begin shopping. But I know not everyone has that option.
Personally, in terms of baby dolls, I’m planning on making some. In the past, for all my nieces, I’ve knit them baby dolls, of all sorts of skin tones and hair colours and whatnot. So I can make a bunch of them.
But it’s not the same. It’s not the same as waking up on Christmas Day and running down and unwrapping a store-bought toy with a brand name that looks just like you. Kids notice that sort of thing. They WANT to have the shiny bright toys they see on TV, and there’s a dearth of them that are not blonde-haired, blue-eyed, and pink-skinned.
I want to be able to provide that for my child. So…. looks like I’ll be checking eBay as well!
A few years ago, I actually phoned a local store to complain after I found not one non-caucasian doll, including the Barbies, which take up another whole row. The next time I was there, they had brought in two brown skinned dolls, one a doll and one a Barbie. I would suggest doing the same because it helps others in your community if they at least have the option of introducing their children to dolls with a bit of diversity. I have also found that usually Educational toy stores (like the teacher ones such as Scholar’s Choice, Education Station, etc.) always carry a large diversity.
Hi Nicky! There is a teacher’s catalogue called “Wintergreen” (I think you go to Wintergreen.com) and they have dolls, rubber toys and costumes for many different ethnic backgrounds…..Dads wearing aprons, moms with business suits, handicapped kids. We have many different black dolls and a few of the little rubber families…..our kids love them all! Now there is equal ethnicity toys and dolls in our house!!
just email me if you can’t find it.
Heather
ps….all the stuff in that catalogue is ‘indestructable”, as it has been tested with classes of children!!
I am totally on the same page as you! I bought my girls some black dolls and white ones, black Barbies and white ones… it took some serious looking though! In fact, I sent Shay a white Barbie and Ruthie a black one… the subliminal message I was trying to send was that you can be whatever, it doesn’t matter!
Now, I just need to search for some more variety in my doll buying!
Tracy
I totally hear you! We live in Brisbane, Australia and although we live in a very multicultural nation, our neighbourhood stores do not stock multicultural dolls on a regular basis. A few years ago, I spotted a little dark-skinned doll and an asian doll on sale – there was only one of each and I don’t have to tell you that I snapped them up straight away. Anytime my husband or I see a doll that is not white – we buy it because its so hard to find them without having to go online…