Kelli Conway
Kathy Rowley
English 201
7 January 2012
Argumentative Essay: Dyes and Dolls
“… Think those who write about adolescent self image, raising African American
children and various aspects of multiculturism and diversity” (Ducille 459). Think about what
has been said and ponder it. Throughout my article, “Dyes and Dolls: Multicultural Barbie and
the Merchandising of Difference” by Ann Ducille, it discusses all about culture and diversity
throughout the toy industry and within cartoons that children watch. The main ideas that are
presented the most would be the mythologies of race and gender, culture differences within the
toy industry and the various aspects of multiculturism and diversity. Throughout this essay I
have developed all of these issues and will further explain more from my perspective as well as
others.
With talking about the topic of the mythologies of race and gender, all I can think about
is false information. After looking through the Oxford English Dictionary, they state that
mythologies are “The exposition of a myth or myths; the interpretation of fables; a book of such
expositions”. (OXFORD) After analyzing this, throughout our world there are many myths to the
gender and racial image. In our world there are many people that act as if they are a different
race to just fit it, or act as if they are the opposite gender to fit in. From my perspective everyone
should be their own person and not have to try and be someone else. Having so many cultures in
our world today is such an amazing aspect of life. As for children growing up, they should
always live carefree lives and not be worrying about things like gender and culture differences.
“The adults who surrounded me were all white as were the teachers who taught me, and the
neighborhood children who called me nigger one moment and friend the next. And when my
brothers and I went our separate ways into properly gendered spheres the dolls I played with like
almost everything else in my environment were also white” (Ducille). After expressing how she
is feeling, Ducille explains how all of these things that are revolving around her are so different
from what she is like. Nothing or no one resembles her own self image. She questions, if being
African American is okay in our society. As a child, she should not be thinking on this note. Just
because her skin color is different from others, shouldn’t mean that she is categorized different
from others. Because this was happening to Ducille, she was feeling disconnected from her own
culture. Children and people in our world should not be calling someone of the opposite race
names like Ducille was being called. In my perspective it falls somewhat in the mythologies of
race to categorize people just because they are African American or a person of color. On
another note, people seem to think unrealistic about race and gender in our world especially
when it comes to the toy culture. In Ducille’s article, she states, “Barbie’s body type constructs
the bodies of other women as deviant and perpetuates an impossible standard of beauty”
(Ducille). I completely agree with this. Thinking about the image that is portrayed within the
innocent cartoons and Barbie dolls presented to children all have the common myths of race and
gender encoded in them. Barbie’s body type; blonde, blue eyed, big boob, and curvy plastic body
type is a whole myth. That is not what a typical woman in our world today looks like. This is
portrayed as an unrealistic image on our society, which concludes to the idea of the mythologies
that occur through race and gender.
In the whole article, “Dyes and Dolls” it discusses all about culture differences revolving
in the toy industry. Toys and games play a crucial role in helping children determine what is
valuable in and around them. As a young girl, I used to love to play with toys and dolls. “Barbie
allows little girls to dream” (Ducille). With all of the accessories, huge houses, and beautiful cars
that you can buy they really allow girls to dream in that aspect. When Barbie dolls first came out
they only released the white, blonde, blue eyed doll. For the African American children or the
children with color this was a struggle. From the article, “Ethnically Correct Dolls: Toying with
the Race Industry” by Elizabeth Chin, she states, “Embodied in these children’s activities is a
profound recognition that race is not only socially constructed but has the potential to be
imaginatively reconstructed”. She continues to go on… “The problems that have been posed for
the assertions of the ethnically correct toy makers who argue that children of color play better
with dolls that “look like them”” (Chin). In this article, a case study has been done on children to
see what toys they choose to play with. Chin noticed that with the toys, the racial factor was a
huge impact on the children. After reviewing this source, I think that children really reflect off of
the image of their toys. For children of color, before the 60s, they only had Caucasian dolls to
play with. But closer to the 70s, they came out with black dolls that resembled a lot more of the
children. Looking at the problems of culture difference back then, it seemed to really take a huge
affect on the toy industry. Today they have a ton of multicultural dolls; like the Jamaican Barbie,
Nigerian and Kenyan Barbie, Malaysian Barbie, Chinese Barbie, Mexican, Spanish, and
Brazilian Barbie. If they would have came out with all of the different cultured Barbie’s when
they came out with the first one then I think that there would have been a lot less struggle and
stress put on children that played with those toys.
After decades our society goes through transitions and changes throughout education,
families, and life in general. The article “Schools and the Diversity Transition in the Wealthy
Societies of the West by Richard Alba states, “The transition means that these societies will
depend increasingly on individuals who have grown up in immigrant homes to maintain
economic, social, and cultural vitality” (Alba). He discusses immigrant children growing up in
schools and the transitions that they go through with the education systems. There were many
examples of how schools do things differently. Also Alba discussed how societies are going to
depend on the older generations to step in, maintaining the cultures and diversity. In my
perspective, our society influences huge contributes to the making of culture through the way we
produce and consume things in life. Involving the children in education systems, even though the
schools might go through diverse transitions, the fact that some immigrant families put their
children through school is an amazing opportunity for them.
Throughout culture there are many different aspects that can be looked at as well as in
multiculturism and diversity. When thinking of diversity within cultures it doesn’t necessarily
always appear to be negative. Diversity can be a good thing today. In the article, “Dyes and
Dolls”, Ann Ducille discusses multiculturism in a couple different ways. Ducille states, “Some of
the most blatant and simplistic representations of white as good and black as evil are found in
children’s literature. Where black witches and good white fairies- heroes in white and villains in
black- abound” (Ducille). She explains in this part of her article how there is an extreme amount
of diversity throughout children’s cartoons, children’s toys, and even in the seemingly innocent
fairy tales. All of those three have the same aspect of diversity within them.
The article, “Commodity Cultures” by Peter Jackson argues more on the complexity of
people’s relationships in the world within the culture aspect. There were a lot of diverse
responses from this research. The whole thing is focusing on what is happening today in our
world with commodification of forms of culture difference, and what can be changed in future
research. He explains “the problem that has been occurring is that there has been a tendency to
equate culture with consumption” (Jackson). This relates to what Ducille brought up with
cartoons and everything that children consume. All of these toys and shows that children watch
have an underlying message of culture difference and diversity within them. If that is all they are
consuming then there will be an increase of multiculturism and difference in their lives which is
not what children at a young age need to be thinking about.
“I grew up believing that I was ugly: my kinky hair, my big hips, and the gap between my teeth”
(Ducille). In “Dyes and Dolls”, Ducille talks about how different she felt from others. This
resulted from her playing with dolls that didn’t resemble her, and being around people that
physically looked different from her. As a child, all she is going to see is the physical
appearance, and notice that she does not resemble anything that she is consumed with. “Mattel
reaches halfway around the world and gives little girls- black like me- Nigerian Barbie’s to play
with” (Ducille). Thinking from this, it seems that they are improving the sense of difference and
diversity. She goes on and explains how even though that brought the “Nigerian Barbie” out,
they still sell it like the traditional blue eyed, blonde. These Barbie dolls have no imperfections to
them. They give little girls a dream, and not what actual life is all about in the physical aspect.
In the article, “Global Encounters: 'Barbie' in Nigerian Agbogho-Mmuo Mask Context”
by Chinyere Okafor they discuss the Barbie doll image that represents the beauty image
throughout our world. In America people look at this image and want to be identical to it. But
beyond that, this article discusses how and who it affects globally. They specify with Nigeria,
and how it affects women and their health. The article goes further and discusses the multiple
types of images represented by Barbie dolls. “In Nigeria, we appreciate this so that the flaws
with her can be acknowledged” (Okafor). Nigerians shouldn’t need to look at a Barbie doll to
feel accepted, while also struggling with their own health just to be portrayed like someone else.
This is a perfect reflection of what the unrealistic image does to innocent people in our world
today and shows the culture differences and diversity through something that is a piece of plastic
named Barbie. People need to be themselves and not worry about others.
In the article, “Ethnically Correct Dolls” by Chin, from the case study two girls were
asked to talk about Barbie, and tell about her. They reply, “You never see a fat Barbie. You
never see a pregnant Barbie. What about those things? They should make a Barbie that can have
a baby” (Chin). When young girls like this realize these things, I think that it is alarming. They
can see the multiculturism and the difference through the dolls that they are playing with. Why
doesn’t the company Mattel create a Barbie doll that resembles every single type of person in our
world today?
Our world has become so incredibly separated with culture differences and race and
gender. “Have we progressed to a point where “difference” makes no difference? Or have we
regressed to such a degree that “difference” is only conceivable as similarity” (Ducille). Having
all of these different aspects and responses to the diversity, the culture differences and the myths
towards race and gender in our world is shocking. Ducille has made an outstanding argument
towards it all as well as the other authors that have been presented throughout this essay. I
believe we need to have some change. It doesn’t have to be huge, but just within our toys,
cartoons, and even fairy tales. Since back when Ducille was a child, our world has made some
changes with the multicultural Barbie’s, and having the different racial dolls you can buy. But,
there could still be some change that would bring our world even more together, and not
segregated into categories of race, gender, and culture. Children should not be consuming these
issues that are presented in the cartoons they watch in the morning, or the fairy tales they read
before going to bed. “Is Barbie bad? Barbie is just a piece of plastic, but what she says about the
economic base of our society- what she suggests about gender and race in our world- ain’t good”
(Ducille).
Works Cited
Alba, Richard. "Schools And The Diversity Transition In The Wealthy Societies Of The West."
American Behavioral Scientist 55.12 (2011): 1616-1634. Academic Search Complete.
Web. 23 Jan. 2012.
Chin, Elizabeth. "Ethnically Correct Dolls: Toying with the Race Industry." American
Anthropologist 101.2 (1999): 305-21. JSTOR. Web. 23 Jan. 2012.
<http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.library.ewu.edu/stable/683203>.
Greene, Stuart. "Dyes and Dolls: Multicultural Barbie and the Merchandising of Difference."
From Inquiry to Academic Writing. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008. 458-77. Print.
Jackson, Peter. "Commodity Cultures: The Traffic in Things." Transactions of the Institute of
British Geographers 24.1 (1999): 95-108. JSTOR. Web. 23 Jan. 2012.
<http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.library.ewu.edu/stable/623343>.
"Mythology, n.". OED Online. December 2011. Oxford University Press. 7 March 2012
<http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/124702?redirectedFrom=mythology>.
Okafor, Chinyere G. "Global Encounters: 'Barbie' in Nigerian Agbogho-Mmuo Mask Context."
Journal of African Cultural Studies 19.1 (2007): 37-54. JSTOR. Web. 23 Jan. 2012.
<http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.library.ewu.edu/stable/25473377>.