For a long time now, there has been an uproar about Barbie Dolls being bad for little girls. Barbie “they” said promotes unreachable beauty goals. Whether that is true or not is debatable. With all the uproar, I have never seen empirical data included in the complaints against Barbie.
The Mattel Corporation makes Barbie. Now, Mattel makes a potentially gender queer doll that exceeds current standards of diversity. The doll is called the Creatable Worlds Doll. It can be male, female or in between.
The Creatable Worlds Dolls are sold as a sort of “build your own doll.” According to Mattel,
Creatable World™ gives kids a blank canvas to create their own characters. Switch long hair for short hair—add a skirt, pants or both. It’s up to you! Mix and match, swap or share.
What Mattel is offering is choice, choice, choice…
Creatable Worlds is “a doll line designed to keep labels out and invite everyone in.” As such and ironically, the kids on the Mattel website pretty much all weird.
From a business standpoint, it may be better for Mattel to sell a line with a fewer number of dolls that have the potential to appeal to more kids. That is so long as the customer base is progressive enough to accept the product line.
It seems like being a child is getting harder and harder. I hardly see any kids around. Toys R Us went out of business and children are targeted more and more for all sorts of politicization. Creatable Worlds Dolls are priced at $29.99. They are sold at at least Target, Walmart and on Amazon.
For the most part, the media loves these dolls.