So What Are Dollies Even For?

Once, back in the mists of recent history, there was a small girl-child, who had a very young mother and father.  You may be confident that she was gifted each Christmas with a dolly of some sort.  Her Mama was a great believer in and lover of dollies. Unfortunately, she does not remember those very early dollies well at all.  But there is a wisp of memory.

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As I became older, my essential character emerged and I began to customize any doll still in my possession.  I seem to remember a couple that were designed to look like young school aged girls.  I glamorized their faces with ballpoint pen I am afraid to say.  I also made clothes for them, of course.

I did a lot of babysitting, which gave me a chance to observe younger children with their toys. Many small girls were very domestic with their baby dolls.  They tended, dressed, "fed" them and put them to bed, most seriously.  I have seen my own granddaughter pull up her little shirt and "nurse" her baby doll. Back then they didn't give boys dolls.  GI Joe showed up later, I think.

I have also observed girls who had Barbies at very young ages, before they were really interested in the glamour aspect of Barbie.  I am not kidding when I say I have seen them digging in the backyard dirt using a poor dirty naked Barbie!  Years later I thought it might be funny to market a Dibble Stick Barbie for that very purpose.  I am so funny.  You know, I assume, that a stick used for making holes for seeds is called a dibble stick.  I think I learned that in anthro. classes.

By Junior High years I was in full production mode.  In 9th grade I made doll figures of a certain boy for a certain girl, if she wanted, a few times.  They were sort of boyfriend totems.  I don't think they were already couples. I believe it might be seen as a kind of magic wishing.  I wonder if any of these figures survive to this day.

I made bears and such for my own children.  I even knit a wolf for one of the grandkids, out of yarn I had spun of grey wool.  I made a lot of various figures.

Unfortunately, I can't seem to find the photo of the doll I made my youngest girl. It was a cloth doll, her own size, which came out looking a bit like Hillary Clinton!  Oy!  The child took one look at the doll, who was big enough to share her wardrobe, and without taking another breath named her "Cheese".  Weird kid.  But she and Cheese had a great time.

This is a hat meant to look like a chicken.  Also, a sort of doll thing.

What Is A Doll For?

When we give a little girl a baby doll, we are giving her a toy, but also something else.  We are passing down some basic understanding between the generations.  Little girls don't always have a younger sibling to observe the care of.

It seems to be instinctive in parents to do this.  It also seems to be instinctive in little girls to mother something.  This is a good thing.  The race depends on the mothering instinct. To encourage it is honorable.

We know that the ancients had dolls for their children also.  They came in all materials and types.  Simply put, they could be seen as a type of child care practice article.

This is an American corn husk doll of course.

A glamour doll, such as a Barbie, is also a kind of modeling.  It seems to me to be an object for setting the mind toward a certain type of beauty that is unobtainable for most girls.  What is the end result of that?  I don't know.  Perhaps the fantasy aspect is ok and they can just have fun with it.  

Medieval Toys