Girls can choose for themselves between a superhero doll or pink princess

Toy makers are now producing action dolls. But what girls really need is play diversity, writes Áilín Quinlan.

WANDER through the girls’ aisles of any major toy shop and you’ll be met by rows of buxom, scantily-clad dolls with huge eyes and plump, sexy lips.

It’s a wearisome sight, but one which is about to change thanks to a new range of superhero dolls. Designed with creative input from young girls who wanted stronger, more heroic looking, and, yes, less ‘girly’ dollies, the new team of six action heroes are set to get out there and kick ass in Toyland.

Maybe the sexism, which has traditionally surrounded girls and their toys, is finally beating a retreat.

The end of October saw the first Sky One broadcast of the US comic series Supergirl — based around a feisty costumed super-heroine who is related to Superman, and one of the last surviving Kryptonians.

This all looks like somebody’s taking a giant step away from Barbie who for generations has dominated our definition of doll-like femininity — blonde, tall, curvy, beautifully dressed and, if you choose to close your eyes to those inhuman body proportions, even scarily attractive.

And just maybe, it also signals a big move away from traditional girl-play, which, for more generations than we care to count, has emphasised the tooth-achingly pink and sweet.

The accepted social conditioning around girls’ play doesn’t encourage them to be loud and boisterous or physically active — in fact, says child and adolescent psychologist Dr Patrick Ryan, some girls may not even be aware of their capacity for loudness, robustness or physicality because of the way they are traditionally expected to play.

“What we want to foster is experiences that allow for the natural expression of whatever play works for the child. So an introverted boy might want to sit and read, while an extroverted girl might want to play soldiers with the boys next door.

“We don’t need to value-judge this — just to see it as an expression of personality rather than a ‘girl’ thing or ‘boy’ thing.” Instead however, we often unthinkingly expect girls to want dolls and boys to want soldiers.

There’s nothing wrong with that if it’s their natural inclination, says Ryan. But the behaviour of a girl who wants to express herself otherwise — by climbing trees or playing football with the boys next door — may be met by disbelief or even disapproval if we insist on stereotypical toys and games.

Which surely means that we should all be applauding the arrival of the new SuperHero Girls early next year — a new breed of sisters-doin’-it-for-themselves-style toys and, probably, the next generation of comic-book heroines of the Wonder Woman or Supergirl genre.

The dolls, which have already received a positive response from commentators, are clearly more athletic.

They are tall and fit, wear action-gear rather than ball gowns, and their raison d’etre is to get out there and get things done — a little in the style of the new movie Sicario, in which Emily Blunt plays a tough but idealistic FBI agent recruited for a black-ops border mission in the war against the Mexican drug cartels.

It’s a long way away from Mattel’s Barbie concept, and perhaps one of desperation for the toy-maker, whose profits have declined significantly — last January it reported a 59% fall in fourth quarter profits, partly thanks to a decline in sales of Barbie.

Added to that, it is set to lose the licence to make Disney Princess and Frozen figures to rival Hasbro early next year.

So, yes, Mattel desperately needs a game-changer and SuperHero Girls could be it.

Mummy blogger Alison Curtis, radio producer and presenter on Today FM feels that the dolls may well be a step forward: “I like where people are going with this because they are assigning good, robust characteristics to these dolls — they have a purpose, they are making their own stories so to speak, whereas Barbie is like a consumer — she likes to buy things.”

However, she observes, the SuperHero dolls still look “pretty unrealistic”, pointing to “the long necks, the skinny waists, the big eyes and the luscious hair.”

The emphasis is still on physical attractiveness.

“Their legs are more athletic but in general they have long luscious hair and are not dissimilar to Barbie,” says Curtis, who is mother to a four-year-old girl and blogger for MummyPages.ie.

And you can see her point — after all, the first female member of the Irish Defence Forces bomb squad will hardly be wearing a lacy green jumpsuit with matching rose-bud belt and hair-piece when she flies home this month after a six-month tour with the UN in Lebanon.

In their defence, the new SuperHero Girl dolls do promote a different sort of ethos, says Laura Haugh of MummyPages.ie.

The dolls, says Haugh, also a mother to a four-year-old girl, portray a world “where girls are brave, are confident, are not overtly sexualised in clothing or make-up and have special powers with a focus on helping others — a much more positive message for a developing young girl.”

They are, she says, “a welcome departure from the super-skinny, oversexed dolls of Barbie and Monster High.” But Haugh believes that the toy manufacturers missed a beat by not being more gender-inclusive with the range:

“A complementary range of compatible boy superhero dolls marketed with the girl dolls in a gender-neutral way, would more fairly reflect the reality of society and could have promoted more play and enjoyment between siblings and friends of the opposite sex,” she says.

Mega toy-chain Smyths doesn’t take sides in this debate. “We don’t gender-distinguish toys so selecting toys is always based at our buyer’s discretion,” says spokesman Rob Guckian.

Meanwhile, Curtis feels another new doll, the Super Lottie doll — designed by a six-year-old girl called Lily from Ohio — is attractively realistic.

“It looks like a little kid,” she says Curtis, who says as children, she and her sister were “quite tomboyish”.

“Our parents went along with that — they let us lead the way on play and we weren’t girly-girls.

“We were encouraged to go our own way on things and once when we were picking bikes, we chose the boy models because we preferred the handlebars and the feel of them.”

Pinkification can become a problem if girls are only being given pinky-girly toys, she says.

“It will shape what they like. I think that girls should be able to lead the way. Little girls and boys should be exposed to a whole range of different toys and perhaps we should stop genderifying toys and stop with the pink and blue aisles and let children choose what they like from a wide selection.”

If, given the option of choosing from a wide range of toys, girls still want to be girly, that’s their choice, she says. “It should not be automatically assumed that little girls will love Barbie. You don’t want to give them negative messages about being female because that is valid — we should give them the choice of expressing themselves more robustly than in pink and with Barbie.”

The IamElemental toy range, which is carefully designed to look like fit healthy women, is another option for parents wary of pinkification.

But says Dr Ryan, parents really need to “butt out” of play altogether and let kids express themselves as long as it’s healthy and safe.

“Play should be about freedom and about the liberty to expression and to engage in activities both real and imaginary that causes joy and it should not be rule bound.

“If girls want to be superheroes or Barbie girls, from an internal desire to express themselves, “ he says. Let them at it, he counsels.

“What we don’t want to do is make play another project. We have got to keep a space that is very free and freeing so that kids do naturally whatever they know how to do.

“Kids know how to play so we as parents we constrain them if we get involved and start deciding what they should and shouldn’t do.”

Follow the kid’s lead he says. Some little girls may want to be super heroes, others aspire to be pink princesses, no matter how may trucks and trains you throw at them. “You can shape how a child plays by deliberately doing something — telling them what to do — or by not doing something such as not inviting daughter to play football with sons.

“Let them create the lead and you follow it. Get out of their play space.”#

Alternative toys

Noah’s Ark comes with a removable handmade cabin and roof to find a handmade Mr and Mrs Noah and 20 pairs of handmade and hand-painted animals.

Crafted in Co Tipperary by Steve Martin. €199.99. Visit handmadetoys4u.ie

T-Rex Jigsaw Puzzle made by Co Mayo company Alphabet Jigsaws, handmade wooden jigsaws suitable for three to 10-year-olds and included in the price of each model is a brightly coloured cotton bag in which to store the pieces after opening. €19.99 visit alphabetjigsaws.com

Stripy soft 25cm X 18cm cotton elephant

with special cuddly ears and hand-sewn eyes made by Irish company Little Green Dot

€29 www.littlegreendot.ie

Celtic Puzzle Cube, made by Cork company Gosling games, Colourful cube decorated with images of 18 Celtic animals. All 18 images have to be formed correctly for the puzzle to be complete.

From age seven upwards.

Price €11 visit www.goslinggames.ie

Lego monster-themed mini-figures – crazy scientist, tiger woman, werewolf, wacky witch, spider lady, fly monster etc. €2.99 each visit www.shop.lego.com