Not exactly a Golly thread?

[smoggii]

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My little girl received Lois (but in a different dress) in the above pic for her 1st Birthday yesterday. Grandad bought her because she is a lovely hand made dolly in a beautiful dress. PIL said that these dolls come in all races and are just lovely.

I held my tongue said thank you for the gift and decided to do some googling before making my mind up what to do.

I am fundamentally opposed to Gollys, they enforce racist stereotypes from a bygone era and i don't care how nostalgic people feel about them, i don 't think we should return to a time when they were considered acceptable.

So i've looked at the website and they appear to do a range intended to depict different races but, all seem to be enforcing racial stereo types and one of the black dolls is called Golly.

I'm happy for my little girl to play with all types of toys (providing they are not offensive) and none of the dolls are a true representation of what humans look like but it's the fact that this one is so much like a Golly that you immediately think of them when you see it.

AIBU to hide it away. I don't want to chuck it because I think PIL bought the dolly because of the quality and didn't think about it. They are not remotely racist (unlike my own parents who say they're not but are).

Or should I accept that this is not a Golly but simply a black rag doll?

Why is wearing traditional dress enforcing a racial sterotype? The only ones not in a smocked dress are the geisha dolls. They are just dolls, ugly ones and very reminiscent of cabbage patch.

melandsteff.com/catalogue_pages.html

I don't like these dolls. There is even one called Golly. Three of the black male ones have bow ties. WTF?

is a bow tie offensive too now?

Im not keen on them but not sure what I would do in your situation. I think I would put it away but that would upset gps. I must say however I am very ignorant as to why golly wogs are offensive other than the name, I dont know the history of what they represent, I would look into that a little further aswell before making a final decission.

Oh dear how awkward! The doll looks just like a golly to me! The chinese and Indian dolls look far less offensive! It looks nothing like a black person. How misguided of them! I would not want my child to play with it. Such a shame to have to put it away when it could be exchanged for something far more appropriate! What does dh say? To be honest, if your dd carried that outside the house, goodness knows the response you would get from the public! I would be shocked. My pils randomly started hanging a golly wig from their Xmas tree! Mil had picked it up from a jumble sale! God knows what was going through her head! Dh was equally shocked and explained to her that the golly to many is offensive. She explained part of her childhood... But dh explained that just because it made her feel 'nostalgic', was no excuse to hang an doll that is in most peoples opinion, a racist depiction of a black person!

Theres nothing wrong with a bow tie per se, but on a "golly" style doll, it is reminiscent of the black minstrels, etc.

How many black men do you see wandering round in bow ties I think all the black males I know would be a bit at those male dolls.

I would treat it as just a black rag doll.
Which is exactly what it is.

And yes, the female dolls don't look like any black females I know.

To be fair you dont see many people black or white in bow ties these days. But neither do you see many in kimonos or in vile floral pinafore dresses. The are not modern dress dolls.

They are vile. Not because of any racial issue but because they are creepy. Dolls are vile.

The female dolls dont like like any females that I know, black, white, or any other bloody colour. They are dolls, nothing more than that.

I don't think you have to judge the doll in the context of the whole range. It looks like a black rag doll, I don't think that's offensive (or not any more than the white ones are). Rag dolls are not an accurate representation of people, or the clothes that modern people tend to wear.

Lose it immediately in the park bin.

Exactly, bloodymary

Also, my little girl has a golly, and when she was younger she did carry it outside the house, she loved the feel of its hair.
The only response from the publicwas 'ah, I used to have one just like that', or 'ah, how unusual, you do not see many of those these days'.

I don't know what to think as I have a mixed race dd called Lois

Looks like a golly. I wouldnt be happy about my children playing with it.

And it is easy for people to say 'they are just dolls'.

My DH (black) grew up in a very white area in the 60s/70s where he was called 'golly' as a an insult and cast as the gollywog in the school play

Come the fuck on. Gollywags are extremely offensive to many people. Just because you arent personally offended doesn't mean they aren't offensive.

BloodyMary, where do you live? You would have been annihilated in my area!

Of course it's a golly. It's more or less identical to the golly but wearing a dress. I would also conveniently lose it in the dog poo bin in the park

South east coast. I freely admit that I would not have allowed her to carry it on our rare trips up to London.

The 'white' dollys on that website look human - the Black ones, on the whole look like Gollys - I don't like them - YANBU - hide it in a cupboard

there are plenty of black dolls out there that don;t fall back on the stereotypes

If I saw some of those dolls on their own I would like them. They are nice little rag dolls.

But there are some well dodgy ones on that site. All the Uncle Tom ones and the Golly

I am not sure you have to give black dolls such googly eyes either

It seems as if they have made the sterotypical/golly type ones on purpose. They are perfectly able to make nice black rag dolls without making them in that style. They have examples on the site that are just the black equivelent of the white ones.

Why not?@BloodyMary

If you know people are offended by it, why have it>?

Gollys are offensive as they are a crude caricature of black people. The word 'wog' is an offensive racial slur directed to black people and has now been dropped from the dolls name. Often gollys were depicted in children's literature in a negative way. Enid Blyton in Noddy depicted a golly being a character who befriended Noddy and then stole his car. In the seperate stories she wrote about gollys, they were characters who stole and lie and were not to be trusted. The golly is believed to have derived from a rich white girls family making her a doll to represent the servants black little boy, who the girl found fascinating, as she had never seen a black person. However, it clearly was a caricture of a black boy and not a true representation. Lots of children have black and white dolls today and they are a far more accurate representation of each race. Many argue that the golly is not a racially offensive doll. However many members of the National Front have adopted it as a symbol of racism.

I feel those who say it is an inoffensive doll are very naive! The word wog derives from it; is that also not an offensive term?