Quote:
Originally Posted by Shaun 84 Targa
Your niece finds beauty and strength in being different. Bravo to her.
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Vive la difference, but is a child (or adult) being 'different' when they participate in the latest fad or fashion?
While these dolls are 'different' in one sense, in another they are the same as any fad or fashion; they are only different until they quickly become common, a la Barbie dolls (can anyone look back and say that any child found beauty and strength in being different as evidenced by the fact that they wanted a Barbie doll?).
Was the adult who designed these dolls being different - or being the same as any other designer setting out to produce a product that will be appealing to as many prospective customers as possible?
In the adult world, marketing is marketing and let the buyer beware, or be oblivious, who cares? We're responsible for our own actions.
But is that perspective reasonable and healthy when applied to the child's world?
I don't judge these dolls on any moral or ethical basis. I actually think they're funny. I can easily see them as the works of an artist whose genre is social satire. But as a child's toy, I find them banal at best and, at worst, a negative influence on a child's developing creativity.
If a toy was introduced that comprised a 'kit' of doll parts that included a selection of dolls clothes and arms, legs, heads, torsos, etc. that could be snapped together and dressed in combinations chosen by the child,
then children who were demonstrating that they are different and/or creative could be distinguished from other children who snapped their dolls together and dressed them in accordance with adults' definitions of ideal images or current fads or styles.