To be shocked with what I found in mothercare

[Lehman]

Im from the uk but have recently moved to Brisbane. I was pleased to find they have mothercare over here but shocked to find they are selling gollie dolls. I thought they stopped doing these years ago.

My cousin who is black has a golly dolly, she loves it as all the other dolls when growing up was Caucasian.

There was a thread about these objects a while back. On it, I mentioned my shock at seeing them in an Early Learning Centre in Australia. I didn't know till I read the other Mothercare thread yesterday that ELC and Mothercare are owned by the same company. Maybe that is why they have the same offensive stock in Australia.

IIRC they got banned - or discontinued - in the UK because people did find them offensive. Part of the name for them was a common term of racist abuse when I was a child.

There are not a lot of immigrants of African origin in Australia so perhaps there are not enough people to protest about them there.

Alinta if your DD's Maori doll is parodying Maoris, emphasising physical characteristics - real or imagined - for comic effect, then yes it is racist.

The second half of the "golly.....* term means something quite different in Australia.

They haven't been banned or discontinued in the UK

However, most major shops won't sell them.

There are not a lot of immigrants of African origin in Australia so perhaps there are not enough people to protest about them there.

the indigenous people of australia certainly are among the most abuse people on earth, they weren't even consider human until recently by the incoming population,you didn't even have to report it if you killed one, they didn't get the vote until 1967.

I find them offensive

Oh balls. I had a golly as a child and I loved him. I would love to get DS one too. They're not in the slightest bit offensive, any more than a white rag doll. The term 'wog' was taken from them and misused by racist idiots.

I'm black by the way, if that makes any difference to the people who will now point and accuse me of racism.

To Baloon Slayer in particular (who has found it very offensive that my child has a Maori doll). My child also has a grandmother from Scotland who has given has a Scottish doll. Is this offensive too?

I am very confused.

I wouldn't buy one for my children because of the way they're now viewed (the Gollis...not my children!)

But I have fond memories of Paul...the Golli that was handed down to me from my cousin when I was a kid.

I taught him to swim in the paddling pool

They are offensive and they are shite.

My OH is the most laid back bloke I have every met.
Unless you try and tell him a Gollie is just a toy.

Wog is an acceptable term in Australia, I may be wrong but I think it refers more to Lebanese or Greek immigrants. We were really shocked at the casual racism everywhere and that was in Sydney, rather than out in the sticks

alinta that is NOT what ballonslayer said and you know it.
If you didnt understand her answer the first time, try reading it again slowly.

I had a golliwogg when I was a kid too but I don't really see the relevance of that argument. My mother smoked 60 marlboro a day when she was pregnant with me and there was a smoking room on the maternity unit! Times change thankfully.

I think the point about golliwoggs is that most black people I've heard speak about them do find them deeply offensive. I'm white myself (cringing left wing libertarian Guardian reader! all the cliches) so if there are any black people out there who want to tell me they're not offended by golliwoggs, I'd be interested to hear and perhaps modify my opinion. But until then I don't see the point in needlessly causing offence to people because of some stupid point of principle about having a 'right' to purchase a particular soft toy.

"Wog is an acceptable term in Australia"

No it isn't!!!

Dias
They are extremely racist in Australia however the Aussies use of the word wog means something completely different from that of all the people on this thread. A wog in Australia means someone from Greece as far as I know.

It is a commonly used and acceptable term...there was even a mainstream tv show called "wogs out of work"

The Australians I know who have worked in London are horrified by the casual racism of their normally kind middle-class colleagues. So pot, kettle Mavis.

d wog boy I believe

if there are any black people out there who want to tell me they're not offended by golliwoggs, I'd be interested to hear and perhaps modify my opinion

Read my post then.

I am originally Australian but have lived in the UK nearly 20 years. Growing up I never encountered the kind of appalling racism that I do in the UK almost every flipping day. You lot have hypocritical blinkers on.

I agree with doninkillerheels .

I don't really remember these dolls, never had one.

Just wondering though did calling someone a "wog" [shudder] come about because that's what the doll was called or was the doll called this because the word was already out there?

What came first- the offensive term or the doll iykwim?

I didnt know the term wog referred to people of afro carribean origin until I came to UK

Well I am black and I do find them hideously offensive...

You know something. The more I think about this "racist" thing, the more clear it becomes.

We like people to be like ourselves. Usually that means think and behave, have the same manners as ourselves. I suppose that's how I quantify my friends.

Personally I don't care what colour, race, religion anyone is. That doesn't mean I don't have preferences of colour of religion etc (same as I have preferences when buying shoes)

Personally I prefer people of a beige/wishy-washy kind of appearance and those of a kind of wish-washt religious bent. My best friend loves big black, dominant men. Viva la difference.