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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To chuck this "toy" in the bin??

105 replies

ginmakesitallok · 13/04/2011 11:44

DMIL brought DDs presents from her hols as usual. DD1 got a doll and a key ring, DD2 got a Golly (!!) DMIL thought it was lovely and that as DD2 "doesn't have a gollywog she'll like this". DP let DD2 take it with her to SILs house for tea - lots of questions asked of MIL "Where on earth did you get it?", "Why did you get it?", "Isn't it rascist?". DMIL insists its "not rascist, its just a gollywog, she likes it.."

I feel uncomfortable having it in the house - should I just bin it???

OP posts:
poutintrout · 13/04/2011 15:54

Recently I have seen two shops where we live selling Golliwog toys. I don't know why they seem to be having a resurgence. Didn't Robertsons have to drop them on their marmalade jars because it was offensive.

I don't really know the history of the Golliwog but I was really quite shocked to see these shops selling them (on display in their shop window too).

LaWeasel · 13/04/2011 15:58

pout I went in to complain to manager of a store doing this once. Got all the usual crap back 'oh they're not racist, they were only ever called golly's' blah blah bullshit.

Easy way to lose customers at least.

ashamedandconfused · 13/04/2011 16:03

we have a shop where I live thats full of gollies, different stuffed ones, badges the lot

its what i would call a "studenty" shop - sells lots of t shirts and bags, candles, jewellery and insence sticks

seeker · 13/04/2011 17:30

They are not "gollies". They are "golliwogs"

If you are going to support these ugly, rasict offensive anachronisms, then at least don;t hide behind a euphemistic name change.

KatieWatie · 13/04/2011 17:35

My favourite toy growing up was a golliwog. My parents are as anti-racist (what's the word I'm looking for there?) as it's possible to be, and I'm the same. I never even realised it was racist til there was all that fuss about the marmalade jar or whatever it was.

I think the main problem with your DD keeping her golly now is going to be other people's reactions to it, and for this reason you might decide you want to bin it... but it seems very sad :(

manicinsomniac · 13/04/2011 17:46

I believe the golliwog is making a come back. People think anti-racist paranoia went too far in removing an innocent childhood toy.

I'm not sure of the truth of the matter and have no strong feelings in either direction. I wouldn't buy my children a golliwog but I wouldn't throw one away if it was given to them. They're both mixed race and look far more black than white but even so I'd be very surprised if they made a connection between themselves and the toy.

The Enid Blyton book (which I did admittedly love) was about three very naughty little golliwogs called ... wait for it ... Golly, Wolly and Nigger!!
I'd be astounded if that hasn't been changed. I'm slightly surprised that it was still available for me to read in the 80s and 90s! I'd say it was an expression of the times though rather than written intentionally to be racist.

FAB5 · 13/04/2011 17:48

I remember Gollywogs on the jam jars and have no idea what the issue is with them. I am willing to be educated if someone can tell me please.

KatieWatie · 13/04/2011 17:56

manicinsomniac I seem to remember it being in the news a few years ago that the names had been changed, without them actually saying what the names were... but I could be totally making that up.

On another note I have an original copy of Little Black Sambo which was my favourite book growing up and was withdrawn from sale due to being 'racist'.

Tryharder · 13/04/2011 18:07

My DH is black and my 3 DCs are mixed race and a golliwog wouldn't offend me. I know nothing about their beginnings though - will have to google so my opinion may alter.

If the toy offends you, OP, then you are well within your rights to "lose" it.

Birdsgottafly · 13/04/2011 18:18

When we forget the history behind events such as why the gollywog was banned we are in danger of them being repeated. Speaking as someone who comes from a mixed race family and who is in their fourties, i value the changes that has happened in our society inregards to racism and other 'isms'. Life has improved.

What might seem like a bit of fun and inconsequential to some will blight other people's lives. Why take steps backwards?

emsyj · 13/04/2011 18:24

For those who read and/or participated in the £4.50 scone thread, the cafe in question also sells golliwogs......

There were a few raised eyebrows at that. I thought they were almost universally regarded as offensive.

YANBU

poutintrout · 13/04/2011 19:15

God Enid Blyton. I've got books in the loft from my childhood that I was saving for my kids (when I have them) and now you mention it I remember the illustrations of the Golliwog (I didn't remember the names manicinsomniac but that is shocking). Might have to rethink & keep them in the loft.

Agree that stocking these toys might well alienate quite a few shoppers. Have to say I certainly don't feel inclined to browse in the shops that sell them.

edam · 14/04/2011 09:03

FABS - there's a link to a website near the start of the thread, and I quoted from it a few posts later.

seeker · 14/04/2011 09:16

I'm always amazed at how many people's favourite toy as children was their "gollywog" They are always the people who don't see a problem with gollywogs being on sale and played with now.

The only conclusion I can come to is that playing with gollywogs in early childhood makes you grow up to be an inesneitive racist idiot.

For that reason alone I wouldn't let my child have one, and the oens on sale now should certainly carry some sort of health warning.

edam · 14/04/2011 09:23

seeker - bit unfair, I imagine when they were children they just didn't realise there was any link to Black people. My mother didn't approve of the golly moneybox my Gran gave me (and taught me racism was extremely stupid and wrong) but I didn't have a clue it had anything to do with real people.

seeker · 14/04/2011 09:25

I know they didn't realize there was a problem when they were children - but something has stopped them realizing it since, and made them insist that there isn't a problem now!

ShinyMoonInAPurpleSky · 14/04/2011 09:45

I have one, which my mum had to get made specially when I was a baby because she couldn't find one in the shops. She wanted me to have one because she grew up collecting the stamps from the marmalade labels and always wanted one herself.

I always saw it as a toy, nothing more or less and as someone who fimly believed that my toys came alive at night, he like all my other toys was treated with great respect and repaired as and when needed. I still have him in the loft with all my other dolls and teddies.

Niether my mum or I are racist at all and I grew up knowing that it could be offensive because my mum regularly discussed issues such as racism/sexism etc with me but it has sentimental value to me, as it did to my mum so I will not get rid of it. However I will admit that I have never researched the history behind it, to me it's just one of my old toys.

edam · 14/04/2011 09:57

Shiny - I believed my toys came alive at night too. Apparently gave my sister nightmares by sharing this with her. She didn't tell me until years later... how was I to know she was some kind of freak who didn't realise toys are good, not evil?!

grovel · 14/04/2011 10:02

YABU. Keep it.

2cats2many · 14/04/2011 10:04

Chuck it. They're racist and horrible. They were 30 years ago and they still are now.

illgetyoubutler · 14/04/2011 10:09

Enid Blyton.............
"Unlike Florence Upton's, Blyton's Golliwogs were often rude, mischievous, elfin villains. In Blyton's book, "Here Comes Noddy Again", a Golliwog asks the hero for help, then steals his car. Blyton, one of the most prolific European writers, included the Golliwogs in many stories, but she only wrote three books primarily about Golliwogs: The Three Golliwogs (1944), The Proud Golliwog (1951), and The Golliwog Grumbled (1953). Her depictions of Golliwogs are, by contemporary standards, racially insensitive. An excerpt from The Three Golliwogs is illustrative:

Once the three bold Golliwogs, Golly, Woggie, and Nigger, decided to go for a walk to Bumble-Bee Common. Golly wasn't quite ready so Woggie and Nigger said they would start off without him, and Golly would catch them up as soon as he could. So off went Woggie and Nigger, arm-in-arm, singing merrily their favourite song - which, as you may guess, was Ten Little Nigger Boys.
........Ten little nigger boys went out to dine;

One choked his little self and then there were Nine.

Nine little nigger boys sat up very late;

One overslept himself and then there were Eight.

Eight little nigger boys travelling in Devon;

One said he?d stay there and then there were Seven.

Seven little nigger boys chopping up sticks;

One chopped himself in halves and then there were Six.

Six little nigger boys playing with a hive;

A bumble bee stung one and then there were Five.

Five little nigger boys going in for law;

One got into chancery and then there were Four.

Four little nigger boys going out to sea;

A red herring swallowed one and then there were Three.

Three little nigger boys walking in the zoo;

A big bear hugged one and then there were Two.

Two little nigger boys sitting in the sun;

One got frizzled up and then there was One.

One little nigger boy left all alone;

He went and hanged himself and then there were None?

The Three Golliwogs was reprinted as recently as 1968, and it still contained the above passage. Ten Little Niggers was also the name of a 1939 Agatha Christie novel, whose cover showed a Golliwog lynched, hanging from a noose.

Yes yes, Enid Blyton, what golly jolly good harmless fun, eh?

Fucking hate golliwogs.

ShinyMoonInAPurpleSky · 14/04/2011 10:10

Oh god I'm remembering Toy Story 3 now, pass me the tissues....

seeker · 14/04/2011 10:11

How can anybody with a brain not see that a doll made to represent a crude racial stereotype (fuzzy hair, thick lips, staring eyes) and called a gollywog is potentially offensive?

illgetyoubutler · 14/04/2011 10:12

Melly19MummyToBe Wed 13-Apr-11 13:21:17

I bet no-one slated Enid Blyton for writing a book about three golliwogs. I used to love that book

Wrong! people have slated Blyton with regards to her Golliwog books/characters.

See above...
Hardly pleasent.

Tanith · 14/04/2011 10:19

"Given what her children say about her, I think it's fairly obvious that E Blyton, was at minimum, strange. (I would be so harsh as to say pretty damn horrible, but I didn't know her and cannot verify obviously.)"

Given what one of her children says about her. Gillian, the older daughter, actually fell out with Imogen over their differing memories of their mother and I don't believe they were ever reconciled.
Unfortunately, Gillian is now dead and couldn't comment on the recent TV film, but one of her friends went online to say that her memories of Enid were not as portrayed in the film.

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