Guilt-inducing dolls

~ MaryG
Daily writing prompt
Do you have any collections?
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As a kid, I had numerous collections—shells, rocks, stamps, glass animals, and dolls…lots of dolls.

I’ve purged the attic of all my old collections (I think), including my vinyl record albums. (That one was sad, but they were warped and I don’t own a turntable anymore.)

The last collection to go was the dolls. I had a few specialty dolls, along with a large collection of Madame Alexander dolls, which were very popular gifts for girls in the 70s. I loved their pretty costumes representing the nations of the world. These weren’t dolls you played with (like Barbie), they were meant to be displayed and admired. They lived on a shelf in my room. Of course, I did play with them sometimes, but I felt badly for doing so. Thinking back, I already felt enough pressure to be perfect and not commit “sins” (as defined by the Catholic Church), so I really didn’t need those dolls tempting me too!

In the end, they were basically worthless. Even though they were in good shape (with their original boxes), a doll dealer gave me less than $50 for the whole lot. I should have played with them all along.

They sat on the dining room table for about a week, creeping out my husband, before I sold them.

The child bride doll (talk about creepy!) was the one I played with the most.
I’m pretty sure some of these costumes would be considered stereotypical or even racist now. You can’t see them in the photo, but the Dutch girl had real wooden clogs. And the Scottish girl had bright green eyes like emeralds. Spain was cool with her black veil. The Indian doll had a red dot on her forehead.

Related post:

I’d rather laugh with the sinners

12 thoughts on “Guilt-inducing dolls”

  1. My mother had a few of these, kept in a chest and never touched. My sister loved dolls and wanted so much to play with them but was never allowed because of their value. I wonder about the international dolls. I’m very much on the fence about stereotypes of this sort, because in a way, it is a first opening for a child to expand their mind beyond their own culture. I had Barbies that were ‘from different countries’ and while they were limited and a bit heavy-handed, the intention wasn’t bad and I do think they gave me the opportunity to play with black and brown dolls, imagining I was them.

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    1. I think the “value” of Madame Alexander dolls was a popular suburban myth! I never had anything other than traditional (Margot Robbie looking) Barbies. I know what you mean about the international dolls. I did dream of Thailand, etc because of the dolls. But if they weren’t all in pointy golden hats there, I probably would’ve been disappointed!

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      1. It’s true. Several years ago we went to see The King and I, after my not having seen it for many years. It was a stark contrast to the idea I had in my head about it from childhood memories, so my kids and I kept looking at one another and raising eyebrows. It was a good talk on the way home.

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      2. I think my reply to your comment disappeared. It was just that we went to see The King and I as a family years ago and were all surprised at the distance between our idea of the musical and how dated it actually was as we saw it on stage. So many things are like that now. We raised a lot of eyebrows during the show, surprised it hadn’t been updated at all, then talked deeply on the way home.

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      3. Musical theater is so problematic! I saw an un-updated production of “Thoroughly Modern Millie” a few years ago and was mortified. Thankfully, Broadway seems to have “gotten the memo” after George Floyd and made some actual progress. Not so sure about touring and local productions.

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      4. That’s the only one we really had that experience with, outside of Book of Mormon which was a whole different ballgame because it was supposed to be as offensive as possible Still, I let the kids bring along someone I’m sure was more upset by it than they let on or wanted to talk about.

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      6. I mean, the whole thing was smartly done and yes, meant to push inappropriateness entirely over the edge, but it also had heart. 🙂 And yes the Orlando number was super fun.

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