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Original poster

Mattel introduces 'gender neutral' dolls

36 replies

JustTurtlesAllTheWayDown · 25/09/2019 15:19

time.com/5684822/mattel-gender-neutral-doll/

Except, of course, you make it a girl by dressing it in girl clothes and long hair, and a boy by having short hair and boy clothes.
In some ways, it feels like a right step by stepping away from the Ken/Barbie divide, but it's just reinforcing stereotypes again, just from the other direction.

Then he turns to the playmate in the toy-testing room, a 7-year-old girl named Jhase, and asks, “Should I put on the girl hair?” Shi’a fits a long, blond wig on the doll’s head, and suddenly it is no longer an avatar for him, but for his sister.

OP posts:
RufusthebewiIderedreindeer · 25/09/2019 19:10

hands

I think you are right Sad

HandsOffMyRights · 25/09/2019 18:55

Rufus - impressive!

Today, the Bionic Woman might have to be called The Bionic Womxnstruator. Shock

VinandVigour · 25/09/2019 18:50

Do the accessories include furry outfits, packers and breast binders? That will make for an interesting list for Santa! [santa] Shock

MockersthefeMANist · 25/09/2019 18:27

Expecting a wave of identity-crisis ridden transdolls attempting suicide with Ken's Jeep.

RufusthebewiIderedreindeer · 25/09/2019 18:20

i grew up in the 70s and 80s. I played with Action Man, Barbie, Sindy, Ken, Pippa etc

I don’t mean to brag but i had a bionic man

nellodee · 25/09/2019 17:22

I don't mind these. They're just unisex Betty Spaghetti and what's not to love about switching parts about? Not sure whether they will be big sellers though. I think they could definitely be worth buying and keeping unopened as a possible future collectible, memorabilia of our times. If you could get a Trump baseball cap for them, they would just sum up the decade.

HandsOffMyRights · 25/09/2019 15:30

Carefully manicured features betray no obvious gender: the lips are not too full, the eyelashes not too long and fluttering...^

Yeh, because I have that problem all the time as a woman

I grew up in the 70s and 80s. I played with Action Man, Barbie, Sindy, Ken, Pippa etc.

In the New Romantic era Eagle Eyed Action Man wore makeup. Barbie was punk with pins in her nose. I gleefully hacked off her hair because well, bollocks to conformity!

It feels like we were more advanced back then.

Original poster
JustTurtlesAllTheWayDown · 25/09/2019 15:26

One question. Why?
From the article, it looks like they just saw a trend and thought they'd make money out of it. Pinkification by another name imo.

OP posts:
HandsOffMyRights · 25/09/2019 15:23

One question. Why?

PositiveVibez · 25/09/2019 15:22

I agree that it is just completeley reinforcing stereotypes.

BeardedVulture · 25/09/2019 15:21

I thought all Mattel dolls were gender neutral because they don't have genitals.