dolls

dolls As miniatures of human bodies, dolls have had many meanings. Across cultures, dolls have served as religious or magical icons for adults, thought to contain the power and personality of a god, an ancestor, or even a personal enemy. Because they were often made of perishable materials, few children's dolls have survived from earlier than 3000 bce, but these figures abound in ancient civilizations, presumably used to act out adult roles and to learn skills. Archaeologists sometimes find it difficult to distinguish an icon from a children's doll, and in some societies, like ancient Japan, adults passed religious dolls down to children as toys after their ritual use. Similarly, fashion dolls, used by adults from the fourteenth century to display the latest style, were gradually transformed into girls' playthings. Miniature silver soldiers and self-animated figures were first made for medieval aristocrats and entered boys' playworlds in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as lead soldiers and wind-up toys. Replicas of the male body had many descendents — the rubber and plastic toy soldier from the 1930s; the dress-up military doll (GI Joe or Action Man) from 1964; the action figure popularized by Star Wars in 1978. But the term ‘doll’ has been associated primarily with the female form. Despite secularization and the separation of children's from adults' culture, dolls still retain associations with powerful personalities and are closely linked to the imaginations of adults.

In the twentieth century, innovations in the doll's body and face reflected changes in the culture of childhood. Late Victorian dolls assumed the proportions of adult women and were used to imitate women's household and society roles. Others were plain cloth figures used as manniquins to help teach girls the essential art of sewing. From about 1900, dolls were increasingly portrayed in the bodily proportions of children (chunky torso and short legs) and with sweet and impish faces (Campbell Kids and Kewpie dolls). They fostered a positive image of childhood, increasingly favoured by parents encouraging girls to be affectionate and to retreat into a playful world with their companion dolls. Baby dolls also appeared in large numbers from 1900, encouraging maternal feelings at a time of popular concern about decreasing fertility.

The Barbie doll of Ruth Handler's Mattel Toys (1959) marked another major change. Barbie's distinctive grown-up face and exaggerated shape (long legs and pronounced breasts) invited the girl to anticipate the freedom of young womanhood. Despite adults' dislike for this disturbingly sexual image of the female body and threat to the play patterns of the old companion and baby dolls, girls embraced Barbie. Mattel exploited the little girl's association of the woman's shape with entry into a wider world of adults. Barbie's body and face has remained relatively unchanging, symbolizing growing up to the little girl. Yet Barbie's clothing, playsets, and friends (siblings, boyfriend, and playmates) change yearly, reflecting a modern childhood of fashion and an ephemeral consumer culture.

Gary Cross

See also manikins and mannequins.