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 The debates normally surrounding dolls usually include no more than two topics: how slutty are they and/or should you let boys play with them? Well that topic list just grew by one!
"bebe Gloton" is a new product that allows young girls to simulate breastfeeding. It will pretend to be hungry and can only be calmed by the act of breastfeeding. Of course, since the doll is intended for very young girls it doesn't actually require breast milk. (Thank goodness!) This is such a strange concept that even now, weeks after the initial public relations nightmare began for the doll and its manufacturer (Spanish toymaker Berjuan), I still find it difficult to formulate my own opinions succinctly. And in total honesty, it took weeks to even decide if this was a bloggable topic for us. Breastfeeding is and should be a Mom-dominated topic. When parents are deciding whether or not to breastfeed their children, of course that should be a discussion between Mom and Dad with input from their doctor. But teaching a daughter to breastfeed or explaining the act of breastfeeding is really a girl thing. No issue here. But then it dawned on me that this is about more than just breastfeeding. This is about a toy, its symbolism and psychological message to a young girl, and how it might help craft her thoughts on motherhood, family, and children. So where does that leave Dad? Quite plainly: right in the middle of the discussion. As Dads, we should make sure we are giving our children -boys or girls- the toys we believe appropriate. Children are influenced by everything they encounter and toys such as this are dealing with issues far beyond the reasoning and thought maturity of a 7-year-old girl. She has no idea what it means to really be a Mother, but this doll is strongly pushing her to desire a child. Could it be an element in a decision to have teenage sex? Unprotected teenage sex? Unprotected teenage sex with the sole goal of having a baby? Unprotected teenage sex with the sole goal of having a baby just to relive that fun experience of breastfeeding? Perhaps not such a straight line from doll to Mommyhood, but mix this doll with a few Bratz (whore look-alike "action" figures, in every sense of the word) might help promote a whole lot of promiscuous behavior. But I'm just one Dad with one opinion and as my wife and I discovered last night over dinner, I'm an old fuddy duddy: I used the phrase "I'm the bomb" followed up by "rad". So what's your opinion?
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Also, many children in breastfeeding households already pretend-play nurse their (nonelectronic) dolls and other toys.
I'd also like to pose you this question, don't you think dolls that come with bottles (which is almost the entire doll market) promote bottle feeding?
Children learn through play, when playing with baby like dolls young girls learn, imagine and mimic how to be a mother. It is in these early years of play, coupled with the parenting style of their own parents that girls learn how to be mothers. That is to say, the purpose of a baby doll is to, at least in part, teach young girls how to be mothers.
Likewise the purpose of non-baby dolls like the ever ridiculed barbie, is to allow the child to explore their own personality in a non-confronting, safe way. Through these dolls older children can experiment with different personality types without having to deal with the social consequences and isolation of poor choices.
For most of the 20th century baby dolls came with bottles, and one can only imagine the connection between this and the staggeringly high number of modern women whom chose, against all the medical evidence, against all the evidence to show it causes harm, to bottle feed their babies. There are even now strong emerging links between bottle fed babies and obesity in later life.
Before we judge this doll too harshly let us first too what has previously been on the market & what else is currently on the market and their social consequences.