»18 month Little Mommy
Fisher Price is known for its emphasis on growing and learning. The website itself has tips on parenting, pregnancy, grand parenting and fun and family time. Fisher Price’s marketing aims to convince parents that their products are not just enjoyable for your children but they are an integral part of their healthy development. Fisher Price is different from Mattel (It’s Parent company) and many other doll manufacturers in that it advertises itself as a service which, “offers products and services consumers can trust to improve their family’s lives” (taken from “Our Values” on Fisher Price website).
On the Fisher Price website dolls are sold by type along with age group. Dolls and accessories are pitched to parents starting at the toddler ages of 12-36 months. Focusing on the “Little Mommy” Doll sold by Fisher Price, the ages in which this doll is seen appropriate starts at 18 months. As a marketing ploy “Little Mommy” dolls are described as being, “perfect for your child’s first doll”; and when they speak of your child they specifically talk about girls who, “will love playing mommy with this sweet baby doll” (taken from “Little Mommy Doll” Fisher Price website). All of the dolls are female although their gender is not specified it is implied in their dress and names. The dolls are marketed as being available in multiple races consisting of Caucasian, African-American, Asian and Hispanic; as if these are the only races in the world. The dolls are “adorable, soft and cuddly, and wear adorable sleeper and bib with a matching headband” which implies that they come from a well to do class, taken care of and given all necessities.
Looking at these “Little Mommy” dolls I see a very young population of girls being brought up in a heteronormative manner with expectations of taking care of their children and being taught how to do so early through “play” and “growth”. While Fisher-Price emphasizes an improvement to family lives along with a healthy development to children’s learning and growth, they reinforce at an extremely young age many of the restrictive stereotypes which I seek to deconstruct. Growing up playing and learning children should be allowed to come up with their own games, their own expectations, their own roles in this world. This doll is marketed exclusively to girls and this brings up the discrimination of boys playing with dolls and the gender divide with toys and societal roles. The question which arises for me is what harm is there in a girl playing with trucks and a boy playing with a “little mommy” doll? Feminize the girl early enough on and toughen the boy early on with trucks and society will continue to grow and thrive and be homophobic, heteronormative, oppressive and restrictive in its stereotypes. While a “little mommy” doll may seem “natural” to most there is something extremely unnatural about it to me.