Playing with Gender Dolls

  

"One day in 1915, as the story goes, Johnny Gruelle’s daughter Marcella brought him an old rag doll. He drew a face on the worn fabric and called the doll Raggedy Ann. Gruelle, a cartoonist and illustrator, wrote a children’s book about Raggedy Ann in 1918.

 In 1920, Gruelle introduced the Raggedy Andy Stories. In them, when humans weren’t looking, Raggedy Ann and Andy came to life and embarked on many adventures. Gruelle averaged one new book each year for twenty years. The books and dolls have remained popular for the past century. "

(source. Museumofplay.org )

This beloved brother and sister rag doll pair was the closest children ever got to gender issues.

Then in 1976 when I was ten years old (Oops❗️🙊 Accidentally outed my age on the internet again), on the sitcom, "All in the Family", Archie Bunker became the Grandpa to Joey Stivic and the Ideal Toy Company started selling the first "Anatomically Correct" doll. History sources make it sound like it created a few raised eyebrows from those who were too conservative and progressively backwards, but no major stir, which is FAR from the truth. Parents and Grandparents were appalled, citing that it was "sexualizing children", but to no avail. Anatomically correct dolls were here to stay.

Dreadfully, they gradually became an absolutely essential tool when dealing with the rising numbers of sexually abused children who were much too young to verbally articulate what had been done to them.

NOW, we continue to have dolls for children that reflect the times we are currently living in and they are used for ...

Uh.......

You know what,  I don't even want to know what their teachers and parents use them for. 😖

Moving right along to my next topic ... 👉

The Truth with Love,

Always Laura-Lee