Feminist Blogger Ampersand Has a Point About Girls’ Doll
Prominent feminist blogger Ampersand (aka Barry Deutsch), a longtime critic of the men’s and fathers’ movement, including of yours truly, has an interesting post about a new girls’ doll, and I find myself sympathizing with his argument. Feminists often complain about the body images the media gives to women and girls. In general, I’ve had a certain sympathy for these arguments, restrained in part by my wariness of feminists’ sometimes spurious victimhood claims.
Lately I’ve begun to pay more attention to the female body image issue because of my preteen daughter. Over my objections, my wife sometimes reads these goddamned Hollywood celebrity magazines with my daughter, where everybody is beautiful and very, very slim. The other day my daughter told me “I don’t think I’m pretty.” This pissed me off to no end, and I tossed a couple of those magazines in the trash where they belong.
Anyway, with this in mind, I noticed Ampersand’s recent blog post Dora’s Makeover!, which basically consists of his illustration above.
In the show Dora The Explorer, Dora and “her band of animal friends journey through the Spooky Forest, Crocodile Lake, and other exciting places.”
Ampersand’s argument is that Nickelodeon, in marketing a doll based on Dora, has taken a happy, chubby little girl and made her into a not as happy, slim, petite princess. I don’t know that I buy his whole argument, but I will say this–the Dora on the left is a happy, mischievous little imp. The expression on her face reminds me of my daughter’s facial expression when she’s rampaging through our big yard with her little friends. The Dora on the right is okay, but Dora’s impish little spirit is missing.
I also agree with the criticism that the girl’s “adventure tools” are gone, apparently replaced with a comb. For a child, adventure tools are far more important.
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December 1st, 2007 at 4:29 pm
Ampersand is just another feminist self-loathing clone. His ongoing ranting has coverted him into a “pretend female” persona..
So let me get this right. We have a feminist male complaining about dolls, right so far ?
December 1st, 2007 at 8:33 pm
Propaganda is propaganda, plain and simple. “Realistic chubby kid’s body”? Give me a break!
Chubby isn’t realistic. It’s just what it is… a chubby body. Thin is better than chubby in my opinion and thin children are happier because they can do more and be more active and they generally don’t spend as much time eating as chubby children do.
Sorry, glorifying chubby is not the answer. And giving space on this website to female-type whining should be a crime, in my opinion.
December 2nd, 2007 at 5:54 am
Dora the Explorer is there to help little American kids get used to the idea that illegal Mexicans are here. And to make that seem okay, and normal. You don’t have a problem with that.
But making her attractive is wrong? What if they made her gay? Would that be better? Sometimes I wonder where your head is, Glenn.
December 2nd, 2007 at 8:21 pm
Doesn’t hold a candle to the bratz dolls which look like call girls in vegas.