A doll to redefine play time
Mattel’s new customizable gender-inclusive toys designed to ‘keep labels out and let everyone in’
Mattel released a new line of gender-inclusive dolls last week, a step in the right direction from an industry more known for entrenching gender stereotypes than breaking them down.
The “Creatable World” line of customizable dolls that can present with various expressions in hair and clothing, is billed as the doll series designed to “keep labels out and let everyone in.”
The kit sent to the Star includes a short-haired doll with a genderneutral kid physique and comes with a range of accessories including a longhair wig, Doc-Martin-esque boots, sneakers, ballet flats, skirt, T-shirt, blouse, jeans, glasses and hat. The line includes six dolls of varying skin tones.
The idea is “to redefine what a doll is and who a doll is for,” said Kim Culmone, senior vice-president of Mattel Fashion Doll Design, answering questions over email. “We want to broaden the conversation around who gets invited to play with dolls.”
“I hope that what Creatable World does is allow more children to see themselves reflected in the toys that they play with. When we get to see ourselves played back to us in media, culture and toys, it’s a really beautiful thing,” said Culmone, who is based in West Hollywood.
Non-binary activist Jeffrey Marsh, author of “How To Be You,” said it would indeed have been helpful to have access to a toy like this growing up. “If I had had something like this, I wouldn’t have felt nearly so isolated or freakish or weird, or — to be frank — alone.” Normalizing a range of gender expressions through play could help move the needle for trans, gender nonconforming and non-binary people, who despite some progress in recent years, still face a troubling amount of ignorance and persecution, as well as high rates of depression.
“Not to be bleak, but I would hope it would prevent some suicides, to be honest, and that it will prevent violence against people like us,” said Marsh, who splits time between New York and Los Angeles.
One American Academy of Pediatrics study from 2018 found that while in the adolescent population as a whole, 14 per cent reported a previous suicide attempt, that rate balloons to between 30 and 51 per cent for trans and non-binary youth.
Ottawa-area mom Amanda Jetté Knox first got acquainted with the statistics about suicide risk among trans youth when the child she knew as a son revealed at age 11 that she was really a girl. Eighteen months later, Jetté Knox’s spouse also revealed that she’s trans.
That set Jetté Knox down a path that has made her a vocal trans rights activist, and compelled her to write a bestselling new memoir, “Love Lives Here: A Story of Thriving in a Transgender Family.”
She said she was thrilled to see a new line of gender-inclusive dolls.
“The pressure we put on children to conform to gender norms and stereotypes often begins before they’re born. We decorate their nurseries and pick their newborn clothes based on ultrasound results,” Jetté Knox said. “When children come into the world being told who they are, it can be hard to push against it if their identity doesn’t line up to their loved ones’ expectations.”
She said embedding gender expectations into toys makes exploration harder for all children, regardless of whether they feel at home in the gender they were assigned at birth.
“We want to see more girls entering trades and STEM fields, but we still see many building toys and science kits are marketed to boys. We want boys to be nurturing, but they’re often made fun of for playing with dolls. By making toys more accessible to kids of all genders, we allow them the safety to explore and grow into who they really are and not what society tells them they should be.”
Like most other industry players, Mattel has contributed significantly to the gendering of toys, most notably with Barbie and her pink mobile home full of female stereotype.
Asked about this, Mattel sent a statement saying “while Barbie is not a gender-neutral brand, it is gender inclusive — all are invited to play with Barbie. Mattel is committed to continuing to explore ways to make Barbie as diverse and inclusive as possible.”
Marsh commended the company for undoing some of the damage it and other toy companies have done in the past with this new line of dolls.
“Where we are in the gender nonconforming, nonbinary and trans movement, we need all the support and help and recognition we can get. To question their motives right now doesn’t seem prudent.”
Marsh said parents have as much, if not more, to learn from the dolls than kids. That learning will happen when children ask for these toys.
“I honestly think that the youngest generation is way ahead of us when it comes to these issues. It’s mom and dad who are in the position of catching up and learning about these identities.”