While white holiday Barbie sells, black doll languishes on shelves

Langie, C. (1995, December 21). While white holiday Barbie sells, black doll languishes on shelves. San Diego Union Tribune, p. E3.

OVERVIEW

This year, Mattel, Inc.’s Caucasian holiday Barbie doll sold out so fast that the company had to offer vouchers to those who missed out. Meanwhile, the African-American holiday Barbie doll stayed on the shelves. Linda Holt, a Northern California doll dealer, said she had been getting calls for the holiday Barbie from all around the country, but that most callers were not looking for a black doll. "(The black dolls) are just as pretty as the white ones...(but) black dolls are usually the last to sell and not many people are buying them for their children," Holt says.

Mattel makes about 90 versions of Barbie each year, including American Indian Barbie, Japanese Barbie, Mexican Barbie, and more. This year, Mattel is reported to have made 60 percent white dolls and 40 percent black dolls. The year before, the company produced the dolls in a 90 percent white to 10 percent black split. The stores ran out of the black dolls that year, so Mattel boosted its production of black dolls this year. However, in most stores the black Barbies have not been selling well this year.

Buyers complain that the black dolls that are currently available are either too generic or too ethnic. The fact that the black dolls often do not look like the children they are marketed toward does not help, say psychologists. "Black Barbies don’t look like black children. They look like white dolls tinted brown and that doesn’t fool black kids," says Brenda Wade, a family psychologist. Wade suggests that black parents find a non-mainstream doll that resembles someone the child knows and inspires creativity.

Wade says she is not surprised that black girls favor white Barbie. According to studies conducted from the 1960s to today, black girls still associate white dolls with beauty, purity, and goodness. Gwendolyn Goldsby Grant, also a family psychologist, says she gets letters from parents complaining that they cannot get their children to like black dolls. She says it is not surprising that black children prefer white dolls. "In our society, dictionary definitions of good and bad tell us what it means to be black and white...it stays with (kids) for life," she says.

Doll collector Zoli Nazaari-Uebele says black Barbies have not been widely accepted because the doll has not made it into the mainstream. "You don’t see black Barbie on the clothing packages. You don’t see black Barbie on the doll-house box or the box with the car on it...She’s there as an option for black parents, but she’s still trying to make it into the mainstream."

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

IMPLICATIONS

• What do you think about the general lack of interest in black Barbie and some other African-American dolls?
• Are you surprised that studies that began more than 30 years ago are coming up with the same findings about black children still associating white dolls with beauty and goodness?
• What more could doll manufacturers do to make their non-Caucasian products more interesting and inspiring for ethnic children?
• In what ways do you think dolls are important in a child’s life?

1. Doll manufacturers in general have not succeeded in producing dolls of varying ethnicity that are really appealing to kids. Customer complaints that available dolls are either "too generic or too ethnic" indicate that manufacturers need to work toward gaining an understanding of various cultures in order to find out what kids really want.
2. Barbie has long been an American icon. The blond bombshell has generated controversy in recent years because she has been considered a poor role model for children. Many wonder about the doll’s influence on young girls, who may come to see a slim waist and flowing blond hair as the mark of the ideal woman. Even though Mattel, Inc. has started making Barbies that reflect different races, careers, and interests, it is hard to get past the doll’s buxom blond, all-American image.