Defining Baby Dolls

   In the article “Dolls” Elizabeth V. Sweet analyzes the societal value of the baby doll as a pinnacle of childhood innocence and its importance in the development of complex ideas concerning culture and social norms in the minds of children. During adolescence, children gain most of their personal identity from their cultural surroundings which influences their prospective roles in society.  Specifically, “children do not just absorb culture like sponges, but rather are purposeful social agents who actively interpret and contribute to it” (Sweet 20). Children are in turn allowed to process their cultural identity by using the baby doll to directly reflect on their personal observations and experiences.  Baby dolls define childhood as a time for transitional objects that act as an outlet for child expression, specifically as a means of digesting the more complicated concepts involved with maturing past childhood like empathy and responsibility. 

The use of the baby doll emphasizes a distinctive facet of childhood innocence which is the ways that children interpret and experience the world around them. As described within the article, an element of doll play that is unique to childhood is the “dreamlike consciousness in which children can shape their own reality based on their imagination.” (Sweet, 25) As children see the world through a dream-like lens, they surpass the established bounds of society and the limitations of life. Most children have yet to experience the dimming traumas of adulthood, so the baby doll retains its innocence because as a vessel, it becomes a direct reflection of the child that holds it. 

        Baby dolls have given children the means to “interpret cultural messages, create social meaning, and actively carve out resistance from adult culture (Sweet 10).” Generally, most children are introduced to cultural and social norms fairly early in life. This may be reflected in the interactions seen during doll play such as what role they take and how they respond to certain “imaginary” situations. For example, within the Latin community it is very common for women to take on the responsibilities such as caretaking and housekeeping while men are expected to provide by entering the workforce. This cultural norm is usually reflected by young girls playing with baby dolls while young boys typically have an imaginary occupation. Thus, dolls allow children to connect to the world around them by “interpreting, and sometimes contesting, these messages through play.” (Whittier 30) The baby doll creates learning opportunities that grant a child the power to decide their role and create their own story. 

            In the early stages of life, most children lack two things… empathy and responsibility. Not to say that it’s entirely absent but children lack a sense of personal awareness that is necessary to be fully empathetic. At its core, childhood has such a positive connotation because it is the only time in which the deficit of these things is acceptable. Baby dolls give children the unique opportunity to unintentionally practice both empathy and responsibility by inviting them to care for something other than themselves. They use their personal observations of the world around them, specifically their parents, in order to reenact caring for a child. From feeding them to giving an imaginary bath, children are able to understand the weight of their actions, and especially how they can affect those around them.  It is particularly special because as mentioned before, children possess a “dreamlike consciousness” so to them that baby doll is as real as you and I. This rare quality of childhood is found within the baby doll in which one teeters on the line of fiction and fact.

Hence, the baby doll remains a staple of childhood as they represent purity, the understanding of the world, and of oneself. As children have limited forms of credible communications, it is imperative for them to have a creative outlet to express the trials and tribulations of childhood. As a mechanism of child play, the baby doll is more than a toy but rather a useful means of personal development in children. 

 

Work Cited

Sweet, Elizabeth V. “Dolls.” Oxford Bibliographies. 28 April 2017.

Whittier, Karen. “Why Playing with Baby Dolls is (Very) Important.” Play and Grow,
Accessed 1 October 2016