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Original poster

Are these dolls totally inappropriate?

284 replies

Itsbeen84yearss · 09/09/2021 08:00

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

Are these dolls totally inappropriate?
OP posts:
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7
TrueCrimeWave · 09/09/2021 10:43

What a depressing thread.

Let’s tell all girls that if they dress in XYZ they’ll look like “hookers” or as if they’re off to a “fetish club”.

How about “wear what you fucking like in your own time & to hell with judgemental pricks. They are only clothes”.

No little girl will look at these dolls and think “hooker”. It’s YOU teaching them that.

SoupDragon · 09/09/2021 10:45

How about “wear what you fucking like in your own time & to hell with judgemental pricks. They are only clothes”.

And you can't see the difference between that and presenting a 3 year old with a doll dressed in sexualised clothing. Would you let your 3 year old dress in latex like the doll?

5128gap · 09/09/2021 10:45

@Motherofmonsters

Theres loads of different career Barbie's - entomologist, marine biologist, astrophysicist etc. Barbie's are more than care giver dolls. I also don't think I've seen a sexy barbie
Barbie is an impossibly tall, leggy, huge breasted blonde with a minuscule waist. Whatever her outfit, the doll itself will always be the embodiment of idealised unobtainable femininity. Far more insidious imo than these fashion dolls, whose clothes are only inappropriate when seen through the eyes of adults who associate items of clothing with things children know nothing about.
GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing · 09/09/2021 10:46

Beyond anything else, I’m not sure how they’re the opposite of one another!

Lovinghannah · 09/09/2021 10:46

Each is based on a specific celebrity

aSofaNearYou · 09/09/2021 10:49

Barbie is an impossibly tall, leggy, huge breasted blonde with a minuscule waist. Whatever her outfit, the doll itself will always be the embodiment of idealised unobtainable femininity. Far more insidious imo than these fashion dolls, whose clothes are only inappropriate when seen through the eyes of adults who associate items of clothing with things children know nothing about.

I think this a good point tbh. There are dodgy things about both examples but overall I'd say that unrealistic body ideals are more of a worrying issue for young girls than these outfits.

guerrillagirl · 09/09/2021 10:50

Love those Sindy dolls! Someone needs to market some cool retro dolls like them instead of the trashy Lols

TableFlowerss · 09/09/2021 10:51

No worse than barbie and her mates with figure hugging swimming costumes and massive boobs!

DoormatBob · 09/09/2021 10:52

@5128gap

Fetish wear? That made me laugh. And what child of the age to be playing with these dolls would know what a fetish was? To a child its a doll in red trousers and a matching jacket. Neither doll looks remotely 'sexy' in those clothes. Again, with the horror of a doll in fishnets. Why on earth would your children associate fishnets with sex? My DD would have thought they were ballet tights. And fishnets are very fashionable.
The age rang of children playing with these dolls have no knowledge of sex/fetishism etc but the objection is that it's normalising this style of dress for later on such as teenage years.

How do you tell a 13-14 year old that clothing is not appropriate when their favourite pop stars wear it and their dolls all wore it.

Since becoming a dad to a DD I've only just realised how from birth most things female are primarily orientated towards looking pretty.

FuckingFlumps · 09/09/2021 10:54

@TableFlowerss

No worse than barbie and her mates with figure hugging swimming costumes and massive boobs!
I'll grant you her boobs were disproportionatly large but of course the swimming costumes she wore were figure hugging, all swimming costumes should be figure hugging whether for a doll or real person.
TableFlowerss · 09/09/2021 10:57

I'll grant you her boobs were disproportionatly large but of course the swimming costumes she wore were figure hugging, all swimming costumes should be figure hugging whether for a doll or real person

Why could she not have come with a school uniform on or clothes that don’t show off as much skin s possible.

It was always bikinis, tiny shirts, tingly belly tops and clotted that weren’t appropriate for the kids she was targeted at.

TableFlowerss · 09/09/2021 10:58

We’ll I made a mess if that 😂

I mean tiny shorts tiny belly tops 🤣🤣

FuckingFlumps · 09/09/2021 10:59

Why could she not have come with a school uniform on or clothes that don’t show off as much skin s possible.

It was always bikinis, tiny shirts, tingly belly tops and clotted that weren’t appropriate for the kids she was targeted at.

Barbie came with loads of outfits that were not swimming costumes, skimpy shirts or belly tops... Confused

TableFlowerss · 09/09/2021 10:59

Oh ducking bell it says clotted, I meant clothes 😆

Whinge · 09/09/2021 11:00

Why could she not have come with a school uniform on or clothes that don’t show off as much skin s possible.

It was always bikinis, tiny shirts, tingly belly tops and clotted that weren’t appropriate for the kids she was targeted at.

It really wasn't. I had plenty of Barbies who wore clothes I would wear today. Dresses, jackets, jeans etc. I'm not saying those outfits didn't exist, but to say she always wore outfits like you describe isn't true.

Lifeisaminestrone · 09/09/2021 11:00

These dolls are hideous.

I don’t like Barbie but she seems to have more ‘substance’ than these!

No way would I buy for my child.

TableFlowerss · 09/09/2021 11:00

@FuckingFlumps

Why could she not have come with a school uniform on or clothes that don’t show off as much skin s possible.

It was always bikinis, tiny shirts, tingly belly tops and clotted that weren’t appropriate for the kids she was targeted at.

Barbie came with loads of outfits that were not swimming costumes, skimpy shirts or belly tops... Confused

And????

Still can’t with cloths that were suitable for adults rather than children…..

Lorw · 09/09/2021 11:01

How do you tell a 13-14 year old that clothing is not appropriate when their favourite pop stars wear it and their dolls all wore it

Surely we should be teaching teenage girls that it is okay to dress however they like?

LittleMysSister · 09/09/2021 11:02

@EmeraldShamrock

I also don't think i've seen a sexy Barbie. I'm sure there have been some over the years, but my Barbies as a child were vets, horseriders, babysitters etc. Barbie was sexy no matter how she dressed Hugh Hefner type Most white adult movie stars looked like barbie in the 80's, big breasts, tiny waist, blonde hair. Young girls couldn't wait to grow to be like barbie in her tiny bikinis.
Yes I agree with this. By design, Barbie was a 'sexy' doll, regardless of what she was wearing. The breasts, the legs, the pointed feel for heels, the hair, the tiny waist.

Also you have to remember the time when Barbie was made and how sexual she actually was likely seen as then, which is more of an accurate comparison with these dolls...obviously she is seen as fairly tame for today but I bet she wasn't back when she first came out.

TableFlowerss · 09/09/2021 11:03

@Whinge

Why could she not have come with a school uniform on or clothes that don’t show off as much skin s possible.

It was always bikinis, tiny shirts, tingly belly tops and clotted that weren’t appropriate for the kids she was targeted at.

It really wasn't. I had plenty of Barbies who wore clothes I would wear today. Dresses, jackets, jeans etc. I'm not saying those outfits didn't exist, but to say she always wore outfits like you describe isn't true.

Yeah she had other clothes but there we’re definitely clothes that could be considered sexualised.

The whole concept of her was based on an adult, not a child…. She wasn’t meant to be a child…

FuckingFlumps · 09/09/2021 11:04

Still can’t with cloths that were suitable for adults rather than children…..

But you're implying every outfit barbie dolls came with was sexy or skimpy or showing too much flesh. That's simply inaccurate. Some of her outfits were possibly a little more grown up but the vast majority were pretty normal clothes similar to those the children playing with her would have owned. Which is a distinct difference with the dolls the OP is talling about.

dudsville · 09/09/2021 11:05

I wouldn't like it and wouldn't buy/allow it. It reminds me of the first time I saw someone wearing a neglige (sp?) As a dress with a tee shirt under it. She was about 13 years old and just thought it was a pretty dress. Times are changing.

IvyTwines2 · 09/09/2021 11:06

Have some of the commenters actually looked closely at the image? The doll on the right is wearing a studded dog collar, studded pony tail bands, a skin-tight red PVC catsuit with printed thonging up the legs and crotch - the latter not a region normally highlighted on dolls! - and ultra high fetish boots. You don't even see this sort of gear at 'alternative' clubs (punk and goth dog collars are not usually combined with a red pvc cat suit - that combination sends a very different signal). It's fetish gear. And children do know that some clothes are 'adult' and 'sexy'. They pick up social cues easily from the media, but it's a very different order of things when those adult, sexy clothing styles are presented to them as something it's considered appropriate for them to engage in imaginative play with too.

5128gap · 09/09/2021 11:07

@TableFlowerss

*I'll grant you her boobs were disproportionatly large but of course the swimming costumes she wore were figure hugging, all swimming costumes should be figure hugging whether for a doll or real person*

Why could she not have come with a school uniform on or clothes that don’t show off as much skin s possible.

It was always bikinis, tiny shirts, tingly belly tops and clotted that weren’t appropriate for the kids she was targeted at.

School uniform, on a doll that looked like Barbie who was clearly an adult woman? The problem with Barbie is not her outfits.
GUPIGUPI · 09/09/2021 11:10

Makes me think of the scene in Love Actually when Emma Thompson is wrapping the Christmas presents.