Please read Dana’s posting Dearth of Black and Hispanic Dolls? for a great analysis from a doll consumer/collector point of view.
My question… so obviously, nobody is worried about “white” dolls being scarce… “black” and “hispanic” dolls are apparently harder to find… how about ASIAN dolls?
Related article – The Dearth of Black and Hispanic Dolls March 11, 2009 by Jennifer 8. Lee for the New York Times.
The strangest part? Jennifer 8. Lee sounds like an Asian name (I did think at first maybe this the English surname “Lee” but then I noticed the 8 in the writer’s name, 8 is linked to good luck in Chinese)
Tags: D7ana, jennifer 8 lee, new york times
More interesting, Therese! It would not have occurred to me that the author of that NYT article about the Dearth of Black and Hispanic Dolls was Asian. My guess is that since the dolls were gathered for an AIDS exhibit, the perception of the exhibitors may have been that Blacks and Hispanics are the main AIDS victims.
Holds hands up. I don’t think AIDS skips races or ethnic groups, but the people involved in the AIDS exhibit may have never encountered an Asian person with AIDS or there may not have been an audience to appreciate the inclusion of Asian dolls or the exhibitors may have altered (koff, koff) the White dolls to “look” Asian. Curious omission.
Or the omission could be due to the “invisible Asian” factor. Now that would be scary.
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