Comments on: Brown is Not Enough

By: modernmami

modernmami — Tue, 08 May 2012 02:06:00 +0000

What a wonderful way to help! Very thoughtful of you guys to actively collect diverse dolls for a good supply come donation time around the holidays. Great lesson for your grandchildren!

By: Susanneil

Susanneil — Mon, 07 May 2012 04:45:00 +0000

I am a grandmother with white skin but a heart for babies and children of color. Last Christmas, my grandchildren and I helped at a community party where the children received presents which had been donated thru a local organization. We noticed that most of the children were children of color and that all of the dolls were white. We talked alot about the self worth and self esteem issues mentioned in this blog. The three of us committed to having lots of dolls of color for next Christmas. It is now early May and we have 52 dolls of varying colors and sizes...some more ethnic than others. We will continue to collect all the dolls we can and educate store managers and owners at the same time. This project is as much fun for us as it will be for the little girls and boys who will receive them.

By: Glenn Robinson

Glenn Robinson — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 08:00:00 +0000

How do you feel about the American Girls dolls?

By: Tonni

Tonni — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:13:52 +0000

Perhaps I was not as forward as I should have been. American woman are being lost in the culture diversity war. What should be the focus of our discussion and even the toys for our daughters our toys that make the playing field level. The fact that it is 2009 and woman still make 60 percent less and in todays hard economy you will still hear that a job any job may have been given to a man because an employer believes that the man has more of a financial responsibility to care for his family than the woman he does not hire or worse replaces her.This says to me that we are not pushing perception from our toys to our young womans clothing to a professional level. We are so worried about making sure people know about our personal lives and our family history that we allow that to be so loud they cannot hear the professioanl American woamn speaking. Barbie wasthe strong healthy well dressed Vet, Dr. Pilot, race car driver and attorney. You could get a Barbie brief case with the Barbie sports car and young woman wrote about that as goals or feeling like they had finally made it when they had the real thing the “whole Barbie life”. So perhaps pushing for more color in Barbie is what you are saying and I have to agree Barbie needs to apply to all but just in cloor not changing shape and as the colors need to be broad and vary the style needs to be very American woman and her goals, the best of the PTA moms or the board room need to speak loudly about high education and pride in our nation.

By: Melanie (Modern Mami)

Melanie (Modern Mami) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 11:20:29 +0000

@Tonni, Thanks for your passionate comment. I believe you were addressing some of the other comments rather than the post itself, if I’m correct. The post was about how hard it is to find dolls/toys in the image of other cultures. If those dolls are made in the USA, then even better! But, the fact is that they’re hard to find…period.

By: Tonni

Tonni — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 23:27:17 +0000

Here we sit with American workers, families even, sitting in tent cities, and you all, very smart woman really, have so over thought the problem that you have forgotten what we all came here to do. Discuss the creation of a toy a child could enjoy,perhaps even love,and create the toy, using with any hope American labor and American stockholders using American people as customers. When I was a child Barbie was the icon that was there to remind us that we could be anything we wanted when we grew up she represented to me a stong woman that could change her cloths and go from a woman dressed for the office and running her company to a cowgirl. Don’t laugh to much I sort of became that and I never cared that or even noticed that I didn’t have her dimentions it was a fact that was part of the adult world I was fortunate to not have to deal with and I’m only even now only 5’3″. We woman of the nation can surly overcome this man made problem and save the country just by working together. Currently by working apart we are only making every country other than our own very profitable and at the cost of destroying the earth and our childrens health as other countries do not have to abide by health codes or enviormental codes so they don’t. Nor do they pay their people enough to live so we get cheap goods that destroy the plant with the waste from factories polluting water and air,all the while being made by people being under paid, who have no rights. Our children end up with lead and choaking hazards and recalls. We can just say enough is enough, I have been so impressed with how many of you that have called companies and told them what you want to see. now just call American companies and tell them what you will and won’t stand for, let them add up your numbers and apply it to stock numbers and while you are at it think about if you make this difference and purchase stock in a current American company and then make the difference how it could help your family and the families you network with. Buy your kids American toys,make it a family project not just within your immidiate family get everyone you would send a joke to and the people you will exchange $10-$20. dillar gifts with, make it American and lets all see if this Christams we can make a difference. If we can’t find what we want you all know how to make the calls. This Moxie doll is from what I can find so far made in Croicia.The toys that have endured are the toys that the babyboomers played with, slinky, puzzzels, board games and yes…Barbie. Help us all out by building the best of american toy company lists and sending to all you know.The Bratz group is in every garage sale and still some how every little girl, grows up and passes the best of their Barbies down to their children. Legacy toys is what people should be looking for this Christmas and it just may be what we leave behind in changing our shopping habits and telling others to do the same, a national legacy even if her name is Barbie. Tonni/ Oklahoma

By: Black Barbie - African American Barbies - Reconsider Columbus Day - Barbie So in Style - Multicultural Dolls — ModernMami™.com

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:22:43 +0000

[...] Two months ago, I wrote about how brown dolls are not enough and we need more multicultural dolls. [...]

By: Lisann

Lisann — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 22:18:15 +0000

When I got Hawaiian Barbie, I thought, wow, she looks like me! That was the closest I came to identifying myself w/a doll as a child. But that was all I had (I’m Puerto Rican). And for a long time I didn’t see myself as beautiful because I wasn’t fair skinned or blonde (like the dolls) – I was jealous of my Puerto Rican cousins who were.

On TV I always sought to find someone like me. Felicia Rashaad’s character Mrs. Huxtible, although not Latin, opened up a world of possibilities for me: an attorney, a mom, who was dark, stunning & spoke Spanish. I was amazed & thought, that could be me!

I think that’s why my parents always pointed out the Hispanics/Latinos/as in the media that were successful (As a kid, I was thrilled to learn that Linda Carter was part Mexican, Christy Turlington part Salvadorian, Rita Moreno, Puerto Rican! Geraldo Rivera, Raquel Welch, Rita Hayworth… Etc). I grew up embracing every part of my culture (and eventually of myself), looking for it in every facet of my little world.

Its always been hard to find positive & accurate representations of ones culture in the dolls children play with, the portrayals in pop culture and in the media in general (). To this day I am excited to meet someone who embraces their own culture, their roots, and shares it with everyone! Although we’ve come a long way, we haven’t come far enough. It’s up to us, to voice these opinions in the hopes that we will be HEARD. Kudos to you!

By: Annie

Annie — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 10:16:41 +0000

I had never considered the point you make about things like hair, etc. I’ve also noticed that a lot of the time, the ‘black doll’ in a line is just that – “THE black doll”. You’ll have a dolly who can jump! A dolly with pigtails! A dolly that comes with a glow-in-the-dark turtle! A dolly in rollerblading gear! A black dolly! The physical characteristics of characters on a TV show: One has purple hair! One has freckles! One has orange hair and green eyes! One has black hair and blue eyes! One has brown hair and blue eyes! One has really long black hair and blue eyes! One is… black … because, you know, only white people have variation among themselves.

By: Robin

Robin — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 04:55:24 +0000

“SW is scrubbing and cleaning and cooking for a bunch of grumpy old midgets while she waits for some guy to save her—presumably to scrub and clean and cook for him)”

Woah there. What is this? First off, midget is an offensive term for little people. Second, she snuck into their house and cleaned up of her own volition, and then they agreed to give her free room and board. It’s not like they kidnapped her and made her do chores. Sure, she’s not the most heroic of characters, but don’t make her out to be a martyr of hellish domesticity.