Maya said the dreaded B word today. You know the word I hoped she would never say. The toy I hoped she would never ask for, let alone notice. Should I be glad we made it to just over 2-1/2 or mourning the fact that she mentioned this word so young. I blame preschool!
What word did she say: Barbie.
She was talking to Mike. Thank God. So I didn't have to react. He reacted perfectly. He said: What's Barbie?
She said something about playing with Barbie at school. I don't think she actually has played with Barbie at school. But they do have some dolls there, and she is into dolls. So maybe one of the kids referred to the doll as a Barbie. And then she dropped the subject. And least she didn't directly request a Barbie, not yet anyway...
I guess it is inevitable she would notice Barbie. Kind of hard to avoid, especially since she does have some girlie girl tendencies. Afterward, Mike and I were debating whether, if she demands a Barbie, we should just buy her a Fulla doll instead. (That's the Islamic Barbie knock off that's available here, although Barbie is also available and mega popular in Egypt. But not really sure that it's any better, except in the fact that it is NOT BARBIE).
And FYI just in case anyone gets any big ideas, Barbie (and Fulla) are NOT NOT NOT NOT on our Christmas, birthday or Hanukkah lists. So don't even think about it!!
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Maya in Cairo
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- CINDY...
- Is mother to Maya, a wild and spunky preschooler with an amazing somersault and a superfab sense of fashion. Cindy and Maya live in Cairo with Maya's daddy Mike and Maya's favorite little bunny, Lalla.
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2 comments:
Okay, so I totally get the objection to Barbie dolls... the unrealistic portrayal of the female figure, etc. But I have to say, as a kid, I spent hours and hours and hours playing with Barbie and Barbie-like dolls. I can definitely trace my evolution as a writer back to those early days of creating doll villages and lives and families, and stories for them to enact. I spent far more time thinking about the characters I created using the dolls than I ever did thinking about body image issues (though, of course, those did come up sometimes). So I wonder if there are alternatives to Barbies, other than the one you mentioned and obviously dislike, that would serve the same play purposes but without the negative messages. Little action dolls of different colors and sizes and genders. And then, even if Maya one day demands an actual Barbie, hopefully Barbie can just exist alongside all the other dolls, as one image of a woman, not THE image of a woman. Just a suggestion. Because I think if you demonize Barbie altogether before she's old enough to even begin to understand the larger issues... well, she's probably just gonna want it all the more, and be all the more fascinated by what Barbie represents.
:-) Cat
I'm digging that M likes cars, trucks and her brown baby dolls. There is something about Barbie that well...is just plastic :) I know she has been a part of many a girl's childhood, but I hope for M to find another route to connecting to her femininity.
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