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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