Ho! Ho! Toy Discrimination

Playing Santa is certainly a new fun twist to the holidays. Lydia will be about 3 1/2 months by Christmas and has already started her letter to Santa. Kidding of course, but we are trying to be sensible first time parents knowing that we can't buy everything on the planet for a baby that won't be quite able to play with things yet. Nevertheless, we have some things hidden in the closet (which should be a safe place since she can't even roll over yet.) We are looking at some toys that she can grow into, mostly those marked 6 months and up since no one around here is getting any younger, which leads me to discuss the plethora of catalogs that arrive at the house and are a real treat to look through. I have no idea how every toy making company on the planet has been notified of our precious little package arriving but they must have a summit with a pretty powerpoint of sucker new moms and dads. Let the record show that we have not purchased anything via catalog for our baby girl just yet mostly because some of the items are ridiculously expensive and she is a tiny baby and doesn't know how to grab things intentionally yet so it seems a bit premature. As I browsed I saw a culturally sensitive choice of dolls.

Now, I appreciate the concept that little children should have dolls that look like them. It is important for kids to be able to identify and then participate in imaginative play. But, if you notice these dolls are only diverse by name not by look, with the exception of the black baby there is virtually no difference in these baby dolls. Perhaps this catalog was progressive enough to have an agenda in mind thus attempting to claim there are no true differences among us; all people are the same at heart. For some reason, I am willing to guess that they are not that culturally evolved rather ignorant enough to the believe that dolls with the exact features with the slight change in color is enough to represent the richness of cultural identity. The only comforting is the "latino" baby looking at the camera saying, "Really?"