The Good in 'Sweet Sasha' and 'Marvelous Malia'

washingtonpost.com

Let Them Play
The Good in 'Sweet Sasha' and 'Marvelous Malia'

By Ruth Marcus
Tuesday, January 27, 2009; A17

About "Sweet Sasha" and "Marvelous Malia," the newly issued dolls that just happen to share names, and skin colors, with the Obama girls: I understand why Michelle Obama is bristling, mama-grizzly-like, about the commercialization of her children. I'd bristle, too. But I think she should reconsider.

(snip)


I say: Embrace them. It's impossible to read about "Sweet Sasha" and "Marvelous Malia" without being reminded of the famous psychology experiment cited in Brown v. Board of Education. Offered dolls of differing skin tones, black children overwhelmingly chose to play with the white doll; they picked the white doll when asked to identify the "nice" doll and selected the brown doll when asked which was the "bad" doll. "We interpret it to mean that the Negro child accepts as early as six, seven or eight the negative stereotypes about his own group," psychologist Kenneth Clark testified.

When a high school student named Kiri Davis repeated Clark's experiment with 4- and 5-year-olds at a Harlem child-care center for her 2005 documentary, "A Girl Like Me," she found heartbreakingly similar results. In the video, a little girl in a lavender sweatshirt identifies the "bad" and "nice" dolls. "Why does that look bad?" Davis asks. "Because it's black," the girl replies. "And why do you think that's a nice doll?" "Because she's white." Then comes the real gut punch. "Can you give me the doll that looks like you?" The girl touches the white doll. Her hand lingers on it for a few seconds. Slowly, she slides the dark-skinned doll across the table.

If anyone understands the debilitating power of these internalized messages, it is the new president. In "Dreams From My Father," Barack Obama describes how, as a child in Indonesia, he ran across a Life magazine story about a ghostly looking black man who had tried to chemically lighten his skin. If the photograph he remembered can't be found, the trauma of the event -- his recognition of "a hidden enemy out there, one that could reach me without anyone's knowledge, not even my own" -- seems all too real. "I imagine other black children, then and now, undergoing similar moments of revelation," Obama wrote -- and it is no coincidence that one of his examples was "the frustration of not having hair like Barbie no matter how long you tease and comb."

So it may be, as my daughter Julia pronounced, that it is "disgusting" for Ty to try to make money off the Obama girls. Then again, if hawking "Sweet Sasha" and "Marvelous Malia" encourages children of any hue to want an African American doll, or to admire two African American girls whose father just happens to be president, maybe that's not such a bad trade-off.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/26/AR2009012601873.html

"Can you give me the doll that looks like you?" The girl touches the white doll. Her hand lingers on it for a few seconds. Slowly, she slides the dark-skinned doll across the table. (That was so sad!)

Michelle has of course absolutely NO say in the matter, but hopefully she'll see it in that manner.

pnotman

Why does everything have to be sexualized?

Do they have breasts?

Or dolls in general?

what their other dolls look like. Sasha and Malia shouldn't be portrayed as older than they are.

I understand the argument, but as a parent, I would never open the door that would give the media an excuse to have a field day with my kids. I understand Michelle.

uplfiting. Although I also understand Michelle's perspective not to want to media attention to her daughters and keep them grounded and would respect her wishes on that foremost.

because of DU guidelines and because I did not think were the most important, is that the Obamas have paraded their daughters to the media - on People Magazine, on "Access Hollywood" and other venues. Of course, they want to preserve their rights and when and where, but they have.

in any revolution, no matter how well-meaning or forward-thinking.

is that they lose all aspects of privacy. For themselves and for any remote family member and friends.

All you can hope is to rely on the generosity of strangers, that the media would respect your boundaries. It worked in the first half of the 20th Century, when most voters were not aware of FDR's crippled legs and of JFK's affairs. Not any more

Sad, but this is reality.

Enough!

Yes, there have been dolls of other President's children, like the Caroline Kennedy doll.

That doll looked like a little girl. No breasts.

It was also made in upstate New York by the he Alexander Doll Company (Madame Alexander), not in a sweat shop in China.



(If the photo doesn't show up, here is an eBay link to one of these dolls.)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130279517820&indexURL=1#ebayphotohosting

or

http://cgi.ebay.com/MINT-IN-BOX-MADAME-ALEXANDER-CAROLINE-KENNEDY-DOLL-NR_W0QQitemZ130279517820QQcmdZViewItemQQptZDolls?hash=item130279517820&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A0|293%3A1|294%3A50

as the Obama girls. They are meant to be teenage dolls that are a sweeter counterpart/answer to those horrific Bratz dolls.

before issuing these dolls and the idea it's not the Obama girls is ludicrous.

or a Barbara Jordan doll or a Tina Turner doll

These two are just kids and should not be exploited even for the good.