Are these dolls totally inappropriate?

[Itsbeen84yearss]

Just seen the ad for these on channel 5 (in between peppa episodes). Marketed as ‘opposites’? I might be being bad minded but these look highly sexualised to me. I bought my dd an lol doll once but I think it had a school uniform on. Didn’t look like these at all. Why are they like this now?? Surely it’s sending all sorts of bad messages to kids

Would never buy these, especially the red one. DD has Lottie dolls.

Yes, they do look like hookers. So do the popstars they are made to resemble - e.g. Little Mix. If the media keeps feeding our girls images of femininity like this as successful and aspirational, is it really any wonder they want to be part of it?

Depends on the fetish club considering there are so many different types of fetishes. I used to go to some S&M clubs, that everyone entering had to wear normal clothes and get changed once inside. Others were you could walk in wearing your latex or whatever.

Same with prostitution. There isn't a one type fits all, and if they are wearing latex it's either because they are into Dom or the client has requested latex.

@User5490453456 interesting thank you. Blind boxes remind me of the gaming loot box principle - by making it random and unknown it's effectively gambling, or at least getting children into the mindset of chasing a win.

What could be more normal and natural for a small girl than a doll got up to look like it should be working the street? YANBU.

[quote Clarefromwork]I saw this video last year showing what happens if you put the small LOL dolls in water as it reveals hidden underwear in some. Like stockings etc

[/quote] Except that when I tried it with our LOL dolls, I discovered that one was a secret Frida Kahlo doll. This made them go up in my estimation.

@takehomepay

Why are these sexualised dolls never aimed at boys.

Boys get violence instead of sex. So, soldiers, guns...

YANBU

I completely get what you mean OP.

It's weird isn't it how they're now dressing them. I do think they've gone a bit too far as the doll in red isn't appropriately dressed for a young girl to be playing with imho.

I know, I thought it was a false video at first. If anyone in here’s kids have the little LOL dolls they should try it and see. It might only be on older ones now.

I think the packaging maybe said about putting in cold water for a surprise or something but not many people read that and you definitely wouldn’t expect fish nets and stockings to be the surprise !

I think they're awful. My girls had a couple and the ones they had weren't too bad but fortunately they never really got into them. My niece was obsessed and had hundreds of them. She was about 5 at the time, so definitely not aimed at older girls.

I don’t like the thing about them being marketed as ‘opposites’ either. One is ‘spicy babe’ and one is ‘sweet babe’. How do you explain to a child the connotations of the word ‘spicy’ without actually misleading them?

They are so obviously sexualised. These were like Bratz, which all ended up in the bin in our house.

I find it just as discomforting to label women hookers/slutty/street workers just because of the clothes they wear

Bizarre. Left one is the Lolita look (even worse than the fetish gear IMO!)

Grim.

Lol dolls are so sexualised and totally inappropriate. They are banned in my house. My dd was begging for them for her 7th birthday but I refused. I told her the over packaging is bad for the planet and that the clothing is not how children's toys should be. She was upset for a bit but hasn't mentioned it again, fortunately. It does my head in that other parents think they're acceptable.

I think the dolls look awful, and I wouldn't want any young dc in my family playing with them. They just look gross and inappropriate.

It's grooming on a massive scale, and the fact that so many people think there is nothing wrong with it shows it's working.

Aiming these at children watching peppa pig is crazy. I'm hating that they call them opposites as well, what's that about!

I played with Barbie. I LOVED Barbie! Poor girl looks dowdy by comparison but she's been out there for 56 years.

I used to think the panic over fashion dolls was hysterical but then...Bratz. They were huge. They were everywhere. And their bizarro aesthetic lives on. Look at social media, look at reality tv. The filler lips, the dead-eyed 'sexy' make up. There's no way Kylie Jenner didn't play with Bratz. Are dolls to blame for all the evils in society? Of course not. But they do make an impact. You can see it so clearly.

There's a lot of dark stuff on the Internet about LOL dolls, I steer clear of buying my kids these. Even if it isn't true they still look awful and not suitable for the peppa pig target market.

They're hideous - really sinister with those big eyes.

Oh these are indeed very grim.

Check out Tree Change Dolls and Lottie Dolls to see how it can be done without the sexualised overtones.

On seeing the picture, I thought they were inappropriate on race grounds TBH. Opposites?

To be fair though having necked Amazon, not all these dolls are so grim. There’s some quite sweet and colourful ones there too,

Tbh I'm less comfortable with the fact that one is black and one is white and they're being sold as 'opposites' than the clothes (which obvs are less than ideal).

That's the last thing little children need to pick up from these dolls!