i hate polly pockets

mcdonald's and the manufacturers of polly pockets can suck my left one.  i hate them. 

you see, desperate for something to shush my daughter's incessant chant of 'aaah dun, aaah dun, aaah dun' on our one hour and forty-five minute trek from the midwestern city where my sister resides to the town of 6,000 where i was raised, i discarded the option of turning the music up really loud and instead pulled into the only food option en route.  i figured it was the lesser of two evils.  boy was i wrong. 

not really knowing what else to do, i ordered her a happy meal.  that's what you're supposed to get kids, right?  they asked 'girl or boy?' and having a brain fart, i said girl.  i so should have known better.  if i had thought, i would have of course said boy.  boy toys (don't get me wrong, i still have issues with this one.  i mean, every family needs to support the war on oil, no?) are so much cooler than girl toys, anyway, but my regret turned out to be way bigger than i thought it could have been over a stupid free-with-meal toy.

here is the toy zade received.

oh how i loathe her.  let me count the ways: 

1.  the first thing my eight-year-old niece said to me about her polly pockets dolls when i told her i hated them?  'her outfit makes her look fat'. 

2.  five out of five purchases of happy meals that i've personally made have contained the exact same, blond haired, blue eyed, skinny ass white doll.  out of the five dolls they make (that i've been able to find) only one has any pigment in her skin. but i was still stunned that it appears mcdonald's gives out only the blondie.  my kid's got enough white baby dolls. 

so we're telling our girls that they should be blond, blue and white, and eat mcdonald's while remaining a twig?  oh, and also... plastic? if i were cool i'd quote some stats here and tell you all why this is so sucky when raising a girl and how the monoliths unite to keep down the feminists and the people of color.  unfortunately, i cannot make myself go look for any. 

so, up soon - rainwater collection system dreams and a co-op home repair club, and on where i live - with pimp action.  i'm barely getting any sleep still.  soon also a photo of the pink hair.  i need to find one that doesn't make me look beat-to-shit-exhausted. 

Comments

[MomSquared]

Oh my..she looks so FAT!!

Ugh.

I remember growing up and not being able to find a barbie with freaking brown hair.

At our kids' daycare there are black baby dolls and asian baby dolls and all that. Very cute when my half-asian half-white kids pick up their black babies. But the head teacher said they had to special order them.

Crazy.

[wavybrains]

We are a member of a home-repair co-op here in Salem. It rocks. Let me know if you have any Q. We want to do rainwater collection to this year, but are a bit lazy for the implementation.

[Kohana]

This is so funny. We don't eat at fast food chains and I had a dream (nightmare) this week that I took Small Sun to one to play in the play yard. Then, the whole place was so creepy I couldn't handle it. Haha.

[PinkPoppies]

That's one of the things I really liked about my son's little tikes school bus -- there were kids of all kinds -- black, white asian, and even one using a wheelchair. i wont get started on dolls, because I could go on, but what really really burns my butt is all the camouflage wear for young boys and all the tarty clothes for girls -- ewwww! What are we doing to our children? Boys/men kill people and girls/women are sex objects? Don't get me wrong -- I think a woman should wear what ever she wants without men (or women) seeing it as an invitation for violation, but I can't deal with belly pants and spaghetti straps on three year old girls. My two cents. Pink

[Christine]

From what I gather, parents with boys are now having just as many problems as parents of girls--who would have guessed that it would take so much effort to find clothes and toys that reflect a parent's values. My partner and I have wondered how we will convey to our family members what we do and do not wish our future child to receive as gifts. Any ideas for expressing the values of our family without stepping on too many toes?

**I have a feeling that Polly might get lost when Z goes down for a nap.

[KimN]

At least they asked you boy or girl. Gabe has already donated two unopened Polly Pocket toys to the trash already.

No more Happy Meals for him.

[orrielynn]

i am a white woman, so i guess ive benefited from this kind of thing. ive frequented macdonalds for happymeals for my dd9 cause she loves them. (i prefer going elsewhere cause i dont think the foods the best-too fatty among other things.)
anyway, unlike you, i have had different ethnic dolls come with my happy meals. (im talking about other than polly.) i have found that they change toys weekly, so i try to avoid going twice in a week.

[orrielynn]

i am going to take the liberty of posting further.
i do so reluctantly, cause i may be making un-pc thing comments.
i can understand why you feel the way you do. on the other hand, we can make efforts to counter what you feel are the results of mcdonalds actions. purchase books and dolls of different ethnicities. i have, and they were readily available. and of course try to arrange for your child to have exposure to different people. (i havent, but its happened anyway.)
and of course, avoid frequenting the establishment and write letters.

[Mandy]

Wow, when I read "Polly Pockets" I was envisioning something like Holly Hobbie--you know, not quite so...slutty. Yikes!

[afrindiemum]

christine - i hear you. i've often thought of what a conundrum it would be to raise a boy within society today. i have so many issues with society raising boys to be 'the man'. i'm hoping it will help that dh is pretty anti-man. as my friend says, he's practically a lesbian. we can cross our fingers and do what we can for both our girls and our boys.

kimn - yes the trash has already been blessed with polly et acoutrement. i wanted to draw a mustache or unibrow on her to make her more true to life, but i held back. and i couldn't find a sharpie small enough for that freakishly small face of hers.

orrielynn - somehow i just can't see how any white woman would benefit from this particular doll.

i'm glad to hear that they do provide dolls of ethinicities other than caucasian.

i don't really frequent mcdonalds whenever i can help it (we prefer our local burger chain - burgerville - they do all natural meats and use local ingredients whenever possible) i just didn't have much of a choice this particular trip. subsequent visits were mainly to feed my increasing curiousity regarding the race of the dolls handed out in the meals.

we do have dolls of multiple ethnicities in our house and our friends, naturally, happily are a diverse group of lovelies.

and - i don't get what you mean by "of course try to arrange for your child to have exposure to different people. (i havent, but its happened anyway.)"

[mamitalinda]

They had run out of "boy toys" when I brought my (Latino) son to Mickey D's. They gave him a brown Polly Pocket. Maybe your Mickey D's is racist. ;-)

[orrielynn]

by benefited, i meant, the doll is caucasian, as i am. so im represented. i thought that was one of your concerns, that the dolls youve rcd are always white. and that you wd like to see dolls of other ethnicities.
------------------------
my dd has gone to religious schools
for six years now. the first one was picked cause of its proximity.
and then second cause of its competitive cost. i made no consideration of dd's exposure to
ethnicities other than caucasian. it just so happened that she has befriended an asian and african american girl, while at school.

[Green]

About twice a month my parents used to take me to McDonalds (I am/was anemic and it was the only meat I'd eat as a toddler). I have never had a happy meal in my entire life.

[AmericanFamily]

It may be too late for you, as McDonalds Happy Meal/Pandora's box has already been opened but we just decided to not let M have the toys. She has no idea that toys can come with food. On the rare occasions that she gets a happy meal, I take the toy out before I give it to her. If I feel like the toy is appropriate, I give it to her later. That polly is creepy.

[Moxie]

So *that's* where that doll came from! We were traveling two weekends ago and the boys were playing with 7 different kids over the course of three days, and that exact doll ended up in my purse.

I never paid a lick of attention to her hair or skin, because I was so freaked out by her arms. What can she possibly be doing? It's kind of a cross between the "touchdown!" sign and the arm-swaying that goes on at a Journey concert.

El P keeps trying to chew her head off. I think it's good use for her.

[Moxie]

Oh, and PinkPoppies, i'm soooo with you on the chamo. WTF? It's disrespectful of our troops in uniform, and absolutely ghastly to dress children in military wear.

[Carrie]

I love the idea of eating at McDonalds every day and ending up looking like a plastic twig- perhaps a non-organic offshoot of the Atkins Diet, no?

Crush this doll with the heel of your boot-

[Alisyn]

We happened to go to our local McDonald's a couple of weeks ago, to play for an hour at the nasty playplace, because it was *air conditioned*, and we were in the middle of a NASTY heatwave here in Cali, and my 3.5 year old got a happy meal with a brown Polly in it.
Her arms are in that weird position and she's dressed like a total whore, but she's brown! I giggled when my daughter said, "Mama, my little baby (Polly) is brown like you and Nane (my mom)!"
We "lost" her on the way home...

[Jenna]

I just want my kid to play with animals. That seems easier. Yes?

[orrielynn]

i dont know what you all have against this poor doll. look at her. shes terrified. to me, she kinda looks like a 1960s doll. shes thin. so what. all dolls are.
do i prefer there be wider dolls. (well im a very fullfigured woman. need you ask.) but i wdnt, and didnt throw the doll out cause of that. is it cause shes caucasian.
im afraid i dont get it.

[afrindiemum]

orrielylnn -
i think my big issues are that too many toys these days portray a way of being that i don't like my daughter being bombarded with left and right at such a young age. i have issues with this doll because it's the 'american beauty' of blond hair, blue vacant eyes, peaches and cream skin. don't get me wrong - i'm not against people that have those traits (z's best buddy and one of my all-time favorite kids around is exactly that). i just have issues with a society that offers many images like this polly pockets doll and very few that look like my daughter. so, yes, it's a white thing for me to an extent.

i also have issues with the fact that my niece covets these toys and said that the outfit made her look fat. it's really sad that she thought twiggy polly looked fat. this, of course, extends well beyond the scope of this toy to touch on issues i won't go near right now. but i think i'd like my eight-year-old niece to be preoccupied with things other than dolls she thinks are fat. polly doesn't really represent what a true woman looks like. you're right that most dolls don't. it's just a sad thing.

so it's more what polly represents/reinforces to my daughter that i take issue with. these are issues that go well beyond one particular doll.

[afrindiemum]

ok. i just realized i said z's best friend has vacant eyes. she does not. i do not think of her in this way. sorry fifi! it's just that i wanted people to know that i don't hate blond haired blue eyed people and ban my daughter from them. you get me - right?

[pixie sticks]

Totally relevant point. Does it make you feel any better that my 16 month old son picked up someone's polly pocket doll at a party a few weekends ago and is currently obsessed with chewing on her in his carseat (I swear, I look behind me in the car and only her little whitey legs are sticking out of his mouth).