Our Dolls,Ourselves

  Thanks to everyone who has sent Fuzzy get well wishes. He's doing fine now. Now Ivy is sick! She hasn't had a fever, just nausea, congestion and sore throat. Hopefully they both have, or had, nothing but the flu.
**For those of you offended by classical paintings and statues, there is artistic nudity below.**
  Last month was Black History Month. You may have read my post about The Doll Test. In the test the researchers gave African American children two dolls, one White and one painted brown. (The tests were originally done in the 1940's, and the researchers were unable to find an African American baby doll. They had to paint a White one.) The children were asked questions, including, 'Which doll looks like you?' The children attributed racist stereotypes to the brown dolls, which suggested to  researchers how the children saw themselves. This month is Women's History Month. In this post I'm going to discuss how women's opinions of themselves are affected by dolls, or if they are affected by them at all. If they're not, what does affect them?
  For years researchers, psychologists, and regular people have complained that Barbie doll's exaggerated body has given little girls the idea that they have to have a huge bust, a tiny waist, and unnaturally long legs to be 'perfect'. Does Barbie's body really have that much influence on a child's image of herself? There are a lot of other things which might influence a child's self image. Television and movies, fashion models, peer pressure, etc., all might contribute to a child's idea of what they 'should' look like. I really think that Barbie and other dolls more likely reflect what society sees as the 'perfect' woman, rather than setting the standard. (Also, I'd like to point out that there were several dolls in the Barbie line that were not built like a brick Barbie doll. Francie, Casey, and Twiggy were all narrow hipped and small busted. More modern times saw Teen Skipper, who had a smaller bust and hips than Barbie. There were also other Mattel lines that featured 'teen' dolls like Starr and her friends, who had more teen-like bodies.)
  So I can't blame the whole thing on Barbie. I think it's much more likely that real women, who have given us ideals way beyond most women's reach, are more to blame. (Rail thin models for example.) But where did they get the idea that being that size and shape was the ideal? Fashion designers want super thin models to wear their clothes because it supposedly makes the clothes look better. But does it also give women the idea, possibly only subconsciously, that the clothes will make them look like the models? I look at the models and wonder why in the world anyone would want to be that thin. To me they look like victims of a concentration camp. But I grew up in an era when women were 'supposed to' be more zaftig. Of course, it was also the era that Twiggy became a style icon, so we're back to that thin thing again.
    When I was growing up the cliche 'perfect woman' was supposed to have the measurements 36-24-36. When Barbie first came about, the 36-24-36 standard was in full effect. In 2020 a woman with those measurements might be considered fat. So where did that standard start? Where do any of them start?
  With all the complaints about body shaming and fat shaming, there are more women who aren't trying to be so thin. But most are still slaves to the idea that they should look like malnourished little boys. Having a 'thigh gap' is still something a lot of women strive for. I watched a movie a couple of days ago and was a bit creeped out by how thin the actress was. I won't say who it was. Maybe she's naturally that thin. But I don't think so.
  But we're still faced with the question, where does the idea of the 'perfect' woman come from? It didn't start with Barbie. Adult lady dolls with mature figures existed long before Barbie,(In spite of what Mattel would like you to think!). Miss Revlon and her competitors had smaller busts, but were indeed curvy, with long legs. (Mind you, most legs look long to me. Mine are very short.) In the 1800's there were dolls with the wasp waist popular in that era, achieved by corsets that changed the very positioning of a woman's innards.

Dolls have always been made to reflect the beauty standards of their time. Those standards change over the years. Not just dolls, but paintings reflected the beauty standards of their times. Ruebens' ladies are considered fat and flabby today, but, in the time they were painted, their figures were considered beautiful.
  

Man, was I born too late. The Three Graces by Peter Paul Rubens

  To quote Peter Cook's 'Pete' character, Ruebens "does all the paintings of fat ladies with nothing on. Great, pink, fat ladies." Cezanne had a painting called Les Grandes Baigneuses. Les Grandes Baigneuses literally translates to 'The Large Bathers'.

 To quote Peter Cook's 'Pete' again, "'Les Grandes Baigneuses'. You know what that means, don't you? Big Bathers." (You may have guessed that I love this sketch, from Peter Cook/Dudley Moore's 1960's TV series. Check it out. It can kill some time in quarantine if nothing else. You can see the sketch HERE. The conversation on the paintings starts at about 5 minutes in.)
Sculptuary also reflects the beauty standards of it's time.

The Venus De Milo is a little big in the hips, but at least she doesn't have to worry about upper arm flab...

   Ancient figures of woman show different forms.

This one is a bit Kim Kardashian-ish.

This one is ancient too. How did they make a sculpture of me way back then?!

This dancing girl, sculpted in 2500 B.C. is quite a bit more slim.

 Maybe they depict the fashionable shape of the day, or maybe they were just modeled after women  the artist found at hand.   
  But where do the standards come from?
  Is it men? Men have obsessions with certain female parts, and that doesn't change. (They 'like big butts and they cannot lie'.)What men like has always been a major influence on everything. But even most men polled say they don't like women to be so thin. So why do women think they have to be so thin?! I'm not sure there's a clear answer to that. 
  And then there's still the question of how much influence dolls have on a child's opinion of themselves and their idea of what they should grow up to look like. I don't remember my kids ever thinking they had to look like Barbie dolls. Ivy explains that she never liked Barbie dolls when she was small because she didn't think they were realistic looking. She did get some as she got older, but she was particular about which ones she liked. They were usually the special ones like 'big dress dolls' or ethnic ones. I never thought I had to, or should, look like my dolls. It's a good thing. I mean, you've seen some of my childhood dolls.

One of my favourites, Little Miss No Name. Ken can't look at her because he says she looks like 'Ignorance and Want' from "A Christmas Carol". You can see her post HERE.

I guess he is skinny... Pixie Brennan, richest man in the world, and one of my first and favourite dolls. You can see his post HERE.

Not my original Beany doll, but one just like him,(without the facial scars and with the tongue! You can read about that HERE.)

Ivy has a red dress version of my green dressed doll. Same face though. You can see this girl's post HERE.

One of  my all time favourites, my childhood Sad Eyes Doll. Ok, I did always want big brown eyes, (which at least I used to have),and dark hair... You can see her post HERE.

This guy recently replaced my childhood Happy Herman Are you starting to see a theme here? I loved dolls that were either extremely sad looking, or extremely goofy looking. Hmmm...maybe I did want to look like my dolls...

  I liked the sad looking dolls because they looked like they needed loved. They needed me. I always had a problem with depression, even as a small kid. Maybe I saw my own depression in the dolls and thought I could give them the help I needed. As an adult I sort of reveled in my misery. My sister had a print of  John William Waterhouse's The Lady of Shalott when I was in my twenties, which she said was me, because, "She has your hair and she looks all miserable."

   I did have a bunch of orange haired dolls, which I guess I related to? They had those goofy faces though. I didn't want to look like them, but maybe I thought I did? For the record, my sister and I did have Barbie dolls, Tressy, Francie, Tammy, (when I was really small), and Glamour Misty. But I never thought about looking like them. If I had striven to look like my Barbie doll, I'd be bald now.
  Ok. I didn't want to look like my dolls, but I did always think I was too fat. I look at pictures of myself when I was 105 or 112 pounds,(Not anorexic! Just a naturally small person.), and wonder how I ever thought I was fat.

Lori, and me, in 1981, when we were about 19, and I was about 110 pounds.

But at the time, I felt my bust was too big, my 34 inch hips were too wide, and my thighs were too fat. (I now realize they were muscley from riding a bike all the time.) What I wouldn't give to be so 'fat' now! Why did I think I was fat then? Why did I think I needed to be so thin? Where does the idea come from?
   In 2006 researchers did tests with little girls by giving them three choices: Barbie dolls, dolls with more realistic shapes, and no dolls. They then asked the girls questions about their body image. The girls who looked at the Barbie dolls 'tended to have internalized a more negative body image than the other two groups of girls had.' But they had just looked at the dolls. Maybe in half an hour they would have forgotten about it. Maybe not.
  Maybe dolls like Barbie do give girls the idea that they need to measure up to her. But maybe if the girls had a good self image in the first place, they wouldn't be so influenced by the dolls. Girls of younger and younger ages are worried about their appearance these days, I don't remember having any image, when I was very small, of what I needed to look like as an adult. At that age my only view of what I needed to be as a grown up was that I wanted to be a mother. My image of what I needed to look like came about when I was a teenager. I tried to camouflage my large chest, and I was most influenced by my love of old movies and old styles. I wanted to look like a  1930's or 40's woman, or even an 1800's woman.

Like Bette Davis...

...or Hedy Lamarr. Way too much upkeep to either of those looks anyway, so that was never going to happen.

Later on in my teens I wanted to look like singer Kate Bush. (But I thought her legs were too skinny, so I wasn't wanting to be that thin.)

  By my early twenties I had developed my own style, which my kids describe, (from photos), as semi goth. I don't think it was anywhere near that. I wore a lot of black, and very long skirts, but my make-up, what there was of it, was decidedly more natural. Nobody I knew of dressed like I did. I just liked it.
 

Me with a bale of straw, Yorkshire, 1985, at age 23. About 110 pounds. Beret, 1930's English riding jacket, my friend's skirt, because mine was in the wash, and those leaky Italian patent leather shoes.

So none of my self image, or what I thought I wanted to look like came from Barbie, or any other doll. I did think I wasn't thin enough though. Where does that come from?!
    I do think it's a positive thing for kids to have dolls they can relate to, or see as positive role models though. It's good that Mattel has recently produced dolls in the Barbie line, of all sizes, shapes, and colours. I think it's great that there are now dolls with prosthesis, and wheelchairs. There was a line of bald dolls representing cancer kids. Mattel has the fairly new Creatable World line, for transgender and non-binary kids,(or just people who like to have options and be creative with their dolls).
  That brings us to the end of this post, and the subject of our next post, which you will hopefully see here soon.