The Berjuan Toy Company, located in Spain, has developed a toy called the "Breast Milk Baby", the purpose of which is to help "...young girls express their love and affection in the most natural way possible, just like mommy!"
Are you kidding me? Is there no end to what a toy company will do to sell merchandise?
Call me old-fashioned, call me short-sighted, or call me a prude, but there is no way I could ever deem this to be an appropriate toy for my daughter.
Young girls these days, it seems, are being brought up in a world where motherhood is glorified. And while I have no problem with the message, I do have a problem with the timing of its delivery—could we please allow our daughters to be little girls before we start teaching them how to be mothers?
The ability to love and nurture another is a lesson that can be learned without props like this one, and it's past time that we, as consumers, start drawing the line on what should and should not be appropriate entertainment for our children.
I, for one, would not encourage the purchase of this item for any girl/woman who is not an expectant mother—I see some value in this item as a teaching tool for expectant/new mothers who want to learn some of the fundamentals of breast-feeding—as, again, I find little value in it.
That said, I am certain there are many who will buy this item without a second thought because it's "just a toy" and, while I can respect that perspective, I feel a need to reiterate the point of the impressionable minds of our young girls.
Don't allow them to grow up too fast. Let them enjoy being babies before they start learning how to care for one.
Just my two.
2 comments:
The outrage this dumb doll has inspired leaves me gobsmacked. It's not a big deal in Europe. Just like BREASTFEEDING isn't a big deal in Europe. But in the U.S. boobs are for sexy time so something natural- i.e. breastfeeding- is deemed dirty or perverse or whatever. I'd rather have my daughter (she's 6) imitate breastfeeding than play with a hyper-sexualized, scantily dressed, doll that undermines everything I'm trying to teach her about what it means to be beautiful and the concept of a healthy body image. Breastfeeding is natural. Thigh high boots and a faux leather mini skirt on the impossibly long and skinny legs of Whore Barbie, is not.
Look, would I buy that doll for her? No. Why? She already pretends to nurse her baby dolls (as does her two year old brother)...right before taking them outside, leaving 'em on a table and grabbing a shovel to dig for worms. And I think playing with her dolls doesn't "force" her to grow up any more than playing Mario Kart on the
Wii...which is to say it doesn't.
My issue isn't with breastfeeding, my issue is with a doll that is meant to teach breastfeeding to young girls.
I have a 3-year old daughter and if, through mimicking me, she began "nursing" her other dolls, then fine. Mimicking mommy isn't a problem—particularly when she has no concept of what's actually going on in the first place.
That said, I don't need a doll to prompt a conversation between my daughter and me on the merits of breastfeeding—it seems out there to me.
While I understand your POV, I think you've taken my stance on the doll as a condemnation on the act of breastfeeding. On the contrary, I feel breastfeeding is a beautiful experience.
However, it's an experience that needs to be left for those mature enough to do so—not a toddler or preteen girl who has no clue what she's doing or why.
That's just my opinion—thanks for weighing in with yours.
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