Are Non-White Children Not as Important? Where are the Brown Barbie Dolls?

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Brown barbies

Being part of a family where we each have a unique skin tone and hair type has made me really think about the images my children are bombarded with every day, through adverts, toys, games, clothing, etc. Although it is clear there is a widespread and concerted effort to represent all different looks these days when you actually start to pay attention, you soon realize we have a long way to go. Nearly every t-shirt, backpack, lunchbox, or greeting card that features a child, features a white child. Where non-whites are represented, they are often the token nod to non-prejudice, a friend or relative of the main character, shown only in a supporting role.

I think it is extremely important that non-white children see images of children who look similar to themselves, so they are not left wondering why non-white children are sidelined or ignored. “Are non-white children not as important?” is a question they may well ask themselves. I find all of this especially important when it comes to images held up as an ideal of beauty, as in the case of Barbie or Sindy dolls.

brown barbie dolls

It is now fairly easy to find so-called ethnic baby-type dolls in all complexions and we’ve had a brown-skinned baby doll, as well as a gorgeous brown-hued rag-doll since Schmoo was small. However, one type of doll is harder to track down – the fairy or mermaid doll. For some reason, when it comes to fantasy, people lack imagination! Nearly every fairy or mermaid doll (or picture of a fairy or mermaid) is white. Luckily, Disney has come to the rescue, and Iridessa, one of the fairies from the new cartoon, Tinkerbell & the Great Fairy Rescue, is black, which means lots of great tie-in fairy merchandise!

Schmoo actually received a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Barbie doll for her fourth birthday, but luckily she took no interest and I quickly snuck it out of the house! Today, to my horror, she received a replacement, as a take-home gift from a party. This time it was love at first sight and she has spent the evening playing with it before taking it to bed with her. I mentioned that I had been about to buy her such a doll (true, but Princess Tiana rather than the Aryan doll she was lovingly clutching!) and tentatively suggested that perhaps we could make an exchange when her new doll arrived?! This suggestion did not of course go down too well–she said she would prefer the doll I bought her (bless her) but that she wanted to keep both dolls.

When she went to bed, I rushed online to see what the possibilities were and found to my delight that there is now a whole range of brown-skinned Barbies available. I went a bit bonkers and bought nine dolls!

Brown Barbie Doll Collection

Disney Moana Adventure Doll

Buy Now on Amazon

brown barbie
Image Credit: Pinterest

Buy Now on Amazon

Buy Now on Amazon

I partly bought so many because I wanted to have the whole range of different skin tones and hair types (I even found one on eBay with an afro—a very rare thing in Barbie world), though each has beautiful brown skin and gorgeous dark eyes.

Trichelle & Chandra Barbie dolls (Trichelle with afro)

 

Most have “African” features too, rather than the “white doll painted brown” look of the first black Barbies. I think Schmoo’s nine new brown-skinned dolls (which include a ridiculously cute little sister doll:

 

 

and a boy doll to represent her brother:)

[amazon_textlink asin=’B0037XA2LE’ text=’Grace Barbie doll & Darren’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’US’ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’b66b3b5e-99ae-11e8-9717-7f58a12dc81b’] (Ken-type doll)

 

Princess-style Barbie doll (for a bit of glamour)

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I hope these will be enough to balance out her white Barbie, so I will be happy for her to keep it after all.

So, these are some of the Best Brown Barbies Dolls I found for my kids. If you have more suggestions, do comment below.

4 COMMENTS

  1. Yes-they are getting much closer with the hair and facial features. But one thing has not changed-the body type. The proportions of bust to waist to hips is unnatural.

  2. i would also encourage you to make your own dolls for your children. i did so for my daughter and was therefore able to match the skin tone exactly with the fabric and she loves it! she got to help decide the hair style too.

  3. This is exactly like my situation when I was younger. I had a barbie birthday ( one of the princesses) and my sister received the black version and I the white version dolls. Then, at the table, an older child saw me carrying both and told me that the white one was ” way prettier” as she fixed the long blonde hair. I ( aside from how stupid this sounds to those who don’t know the mixed kid life) was stunned. I then thought that this older child must know something , and by declaring the white doll prettier , I felt like a part of me wasn’t pretty. I never forgot that small yet influential exchange. Later, my mother made a bigger effort to make our toys diverse AND teach us not to listen to others for definitions of pretty. Carry on miss Omma!

  4. I think it’s good to teach and educate children about how racism can affect how they view other cultures, ethncities and children of all backgrounds. Damming as it can seem, even though kids young as for what I’m about to say (6) years old can have the basic comprehensive understanding and learn the quotas of how someone of a different race can face prejudices and discrimination from a another kid of a different race. But from my standpoint and perspective we need to gather and collect that, not all children are going to have a 3.12 percent of chance of becoming more racist then 48.890 percent of their non-racist peers at school. We need to just let every parent in the US and the rest of the globe teach their kids to learn and understand, just because a stranger whom you’ve never have met looks different from you. It doesn’t mean you have to express your prejudice but have more consideration of the kids feelings. “Actions can have consequences.” Thank you very much if you’re reading this counterclaim.

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