For as long as humans have made objects, there have been baby dolls. It’s an almost universal phenomenon that young children play with dolls. Especially if they have younger siblings or see babies being taken care of in their daily life, little children want to mimic that behavior by nurturing their babies. One of my own children has even gone so far as mimicking giving birth to both Arthur the aardvark (via the leg hole of her bathing suit) and baby Jesus while playing the part of Mary in a Nativity play in the church nursery.
My children were breastfed and because our social circle when they were young included a lot of time with other families with babies, they also saw a lot of other babies being breastfed. So they breastfed their babies. And their teddy bears. And their Lego people. And Barney.
Dolls that pee, poop, cry have been around since Chatty Cathy. When my daughter got a toy dog that could follow her, bark, and roll over, I figured it was only a matter of time before there was a breastfeeding baby doll. No doubt you’ve seen this item, called The Breast Milk Baby here in the US, in the news lately. Available in Europe since 2009 as “Bebe Gloton,” it’s caused a ruckus on local TV stations across the country, talk shows, and Facebook (both “sides” have pages). Even Bill O’Reilly has weighed in, saying “I don’t like it. . . . There’s a lot of harm being done to children.”
I’m really having trouble understanding the danger people perceive. Other than the fact that it will set parents back a Benjamin, I don’t see the drawback (although I could do with out the flower-nippled haltertop). I’m not very worried about boys wanting to nurse their babies, as apparently the American Thinker is when they say this doll is a weapon in ‘the war on sex roles.’ I say anything we do to encourage nurturing behavior in young boys and girls is a good thing. And if they get it in their heads now that breasts are for babies as well as for sex play, all the better. As a lactation consultant, I work with a lot of new parents. Dad’s support is a huge factor in breastfeeding success.
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Apparently, some moms in Hoboken think it’s crazy, but they were pretty clearly moms who had bad experiences breastfeeding. Maybe if they’d had a breastfeeding doll, or just been exposed to women nursing their babies, things would have gone better. In this blog post, the author interviews her own four children about the doll after they watch the ad. Pretty fun!
I was contacted by the local NBC affiliate this week to be interviewed, and I was game, so I got gussied up and drove down there (it’s nearby). Out of 10 minute interview, they chose one sentence, in which I allude to the fact that little children play-feed their babies- or even their Thomas the tank engine toys. The question they asked that surprised me was to respond to accusations that this doll ‘sexualizes’ little girls or encourages teen pregnancy. Only in America would people decry little children breastfeeding as sexual- there hasn’t been any uproar in Spain. If anything, it will discourage teen pregnancy, I figure. And any argument about awakening the maternal instinct would apply to taking care of any doll, breastfeeding or not.
Totally not getting the argument that this “sexualizes” little girls. Breastfeeding and rocking a baby and changing a doll’s diaper . . . those all seem like totally normal things for a child to do with a doll. Not sexual at all.
Wrote about this same topic at my blog today! With crazy talk about breastfeeding being “sexual,” it is no wonder so many women choose not to breastfeed.
April–post a link!
http://aprilreigns.blogspot.com/2011/07/breastfeeding-doll-controversy.html
Oh Bebe Gluton…The uproar this has caused is truly laughable. Of course my 3 year old can play with Barbie, examine her perfect breasts (surely never nursed upon) and anorexic waist, but do not under any circumstances allow her to pretend… nurse a baby! I would never purchase said doll b/c my children, like the authors’, nursed everything from trains to puppies to teddy bears (and I’m poor) but the idea that imitating breastfeeding is a sexualization of our children is simply wrongheaded. Allowing children to imitate their mothers is how all young mammals learn, and as much as we would like to forgo our mammalian roots, they do keep raising their ugly milk-filled fists to protest don’t they?… All that said, if people don’t force me to buy my boys army toys and guns, then I won’t force you to buy nursing dolls. Problem solved.
*****applause******
Discouraging young girls from pretend breast feeding is what sexualizes them, by sending the message that breasts are for male enjoyment, not for nourishment of offspring.
AAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
Word.
I thought it was amusing that several of the Hoboken mother’s were quoted as saying that they didn’t think three-year-olds needed to be “trained” or “worrying” about such adult activities. Nevermind that a great deal of imaginative play — pretending to have a shop, playing house, dressing up as a fireman or nurse, feeding a baby with a bottle — is exactly that. Also, nevermind that some of the most popular toys — Barbie comes to mind — are highly sexualized and all about pretending to be grown-up. This is just squeamishness with the unfamiliar, in general, and breastfeeding, in particular.
BTW, all of my children have pretended to nurse dolls, stuffed animals etc. at one point or another. My little nephew used to pretend to nurse his special blankie.
Oh, Heidi–I loved reading about your nephew nursing his special blankie. Love love love.
Thanks for this, Claire! I’d heard about the doll and it seemed kind of odd at first, but the more I thought about it, I realized people just go crazy with new things.