Sad State of Dolls and Society

Seriously are we so backwards and archaic in our thinking that we only offer dolls dressed in bright pink and purple and mainly dresses?

Because we expect only girls to play with them?  And why do we expect girls to only want girl dolls?


My son asked for a real baby for Christmas.  Of course we explained why Santa cannot deliver and does not deliver such gifts.

So he asked for a doll.  I asked him if he had a preference for a boy or girl and he said a boy and it had to look like a little baby and he didn't want "fake stringy hair" bald or bumpy hair (molded plastic) were okay.
My son really wants to be a big brother.  He really wants a baby sibling (he doesn't care whether the baby is a boy or a girl because he understands that you don't get to pick that when growing a baby).

However given the choice in a doll he wanted a boy baby he could pretend to be a daddy for or the big brother for.
This should have been a simple request to fill.

His grandparents decided they would get him a baby doll for Christmas.

My mom and sister spent a lot of time combing stores trying to find a doll that met his requests.
They were faced with wall after wall of shelves covered in pink and purple.
Eventually they settled on a doll that looked like a newborn baby that was dressed in a sleeper over a dress.
That was the other thing.  Most of the dolls were not only dressed in pink or purple but also wearing dresses.
AND all of the accessories were pink.  Pink toys, pink dishes, pink cribs, car seats, strollers, miniature pack and plays etc.

My son was pleased with his doll.  Though disappointed that the doll was dressed in a purple with pink and green polka dot sleeper.  He wanted a doll wearing black or green or even just purple.  He doesn't really care for pink except for accessories.  He owns a pair of pink mitts and at one point pink fuzzy socks.  His current mitts are purple "girl" mitts.  They are girl mitts only because that was how the store had sorted them.  At a glance no one would know that they were supposed to be for girls only.

Gramma promised to take him to try and find some boy clothes and barring that she would make his baby (named Owen after his cousin) some boy clothes.

Well the stores disappointed.  So Gramma is planning on making baby Owen some black, green, orange and blue themed clothes (as requested by my son).

I have spent the better part of an hour combing websites of well known toy stores and many many websites looking for doll clothes that are gender neutral or suited for a boy doll.

Not only can I not find any, I can't find any boy dolls that can be purchased from Canadian sites.  I found one that looks like his doll except the clothes are blue on the US Toys R Us website (http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3252893)
Otherwise the only toy boy dolls I found were cloth and don't look anything like a newborn baby.

Searching for dolls clothes was even sadder.  Searching boy doll clothes was beyond sad.

If the site had anything for boys it was almost always army or community helper related, maybe a handful of shirts and pants that might total 6-8 items on a single page.  Meanwhile the girl section has pages and pages and pages of outfits.
Not to mention the only site that had any selection it became clear the clothes were meant for display dolls, not for play AND cost as much as $25 per an outfit.

I can buy my son an outfit for that price.

Seriously what message are we sending our children with this singular thinking?  What message are we sending our girls and boys?

In a world that is supposed to be about equal opportunity for both genders we still teach at a young age that only girls care for the children and boys are sissys or wimps or being girly for wanting a doll.

Apparently it is okay to be an involved Dad as a grown up, but it isn't okay for our sons to  mimic their Dads by wanting to take care of a baby of their own.

It saddens me that I am going to have to prep my son for the inevitable day when he is "Special me" in his class and wants to take his doll for his special show and tell item that there will be children who tease him.
Tease him for no better reason then their parents have a twisted view on the world. Because being a boy and wanting a doll just isn't acceptable for some senseless reason other then some stupid group of people decided that a boy must be gay if he wants to play with dolls.
Too bad that has nothing to do with being gay AND there is nothing wrong with being gay if the kid were to choose that life path.

Except the real reason any kid wants a doll is to care, nurture and love something of their very own.  To mimic their parents and for the want of a younger sibling they don't have.
And in today's society if you are a boy and want those things it is considered wrong.

My son wants to write a letter to the toy people to complain about the lack of boy dolls and boy doll things.
I don't even know who to begin with.

So tomorrow we are going to measure his doll and see if we can find some baby clothes from the thrift store to dress his baby in until I can get a pattern book for knitting that I can then knit the clothes to the colours he wants.
He has also asked me to knit his baby a rainbow blanket.