16 Responses to “WTH? Malia and Sasha Dolls”

1. Lynne_C on January 25th, 2009 7:19 pm

   I don’t know what’s more insulting; that they have combs stuck to their hair (the way many black people did in the past), or that they resemble Dora more than they do Sasha and Malia. This is just plain ridiculous. A nice combination of capitalism, objectification, and racism gone out of control.

2. Nick on January 25th, 2009 7:41 pm

   they just look like dark Bratz dolls. they don’t look anything like any Obama family member.

3. CharlieMcMenamin on January 26th, 2009 5:55 pm

   I hope its OK with you that I’ve nicked this story for my own blog to give it a (very small) bit of publicity in the UK. I share your feelings entirely.

4. Ruby M. on January 26th, 2009 6:44 pm

   I’m sorry, but I know for a fact that Sasha and Malia aren’t twins. So why in the world do the dolls look just alike??!! Ok, makers of Beanie Babies, just stick to what you know…Beanie Babies!!!

5. Katie on January 26th, 2009 11:46 pm

   Those aren’t combs stuck to their heads, those are the hang tags. I work at a toy store that sells those horrid Ty Girlz dolls. They have little tags with a code that lets you play with them online: take them to the mall, do their hair, and so forth. I’m not defending the dolls, just saying that those aren’t combs stuck in their hair– it’s how they’re packaged.
   These dolls are ridiculous and shouldn’t be sold. If my store’s owners order these, I’m sending them back and refusing to sell them…

6. jael54 on January 27th, 2009 3:55 am

   Good Point)

7. lilspark on January 27th, 2009 3:17 pm

   Those aren’t combs in the dolls’ hair; they are plastic tags/hooks shaped like the Ty logo, used to display the dolls on racks in the stores. The Malia and Sasha dolls have the exact same face, body shape, and hair material as all the other dolls in the Ty Girlz brand, of which there are about 40 I think. The only thing that is different about each doll in the line is the hair color, skin tone, eye color and dress.

8. MALIA AND SASHA OBAMA DOLLS FROM THE COMPANY THAT BROUGHT YOU THE ‘BEANIE BABIES’ « BEAUTIFUL, ALSO, ARE THE SOULS OF MY BLACK SISTERS on January 27th, 2009 8:10 pm

   [...] http://www.rachelstavern.com/blackafrican-american-issues/wth-malia-and-sasha-dolls.html [...]

9. SB on January 27th, 2009 10:12 pm

   what does ‘black’ look like?

10. Adam on January 28th, 2009 3:34 pm

    I was told that there was a “Caroline” doll in the early 60’s with red hair when Kennedy was in office.

    I remember when SNL did a skit on the Clinton family when they were first elected back in 1992. They dressed up a 35 year old man as Chlesea. Even the jaded college student in me thought that was poor taste. It was bad.

    I noticed that they sold these two dolls as part of a larger collection to make it look less conspicuous, but, yes, these dolls do not even look like the Obama girls.

    This is unfortunate, but this may spark a new cultural tug-of-war over what is appropriate and market-worthy.

11. Rachel on January 29th, 2009 4:18 pm

    SB, that’s an excellent point because there certainly is diversity in the category of blackness, but I’d say in this case the dolls don’t look like Sasha and Malia. They look much lighter, and like a poster said above they look a lot like Dora.

12. Rachel on January 29th, 2009 4:18 pm

    Ruby, love the twin comment

13. Ann on January 29th, 2009 7:53 pm

    Rachel.

    Am I the only one who saw that these people made Malia Ann and Sasha look like little big-chested girls?

    Correct me if I am wrong, but, aren’t Malia and Sasha 10 and 7? Girls this age DO NOT have mammary protuberances rising from their thoraxes.

    Why make dolls using their names showing them with “Dolly Parton” chests?(No offense meant to Dolly

    This makes me think of the sexist/racist stereotypes of Jim Crow memorabilia that imsulted Black girls and women:

    …already grown up and ready to be…..well…..

    I also agree with SB. There is no “One Size Fits All” Black American phenotype. But, you are right: the company DID NOT make dolls that look like Malia and Sasha. I also agree with Lynn_C: these dolls look nothing like Malia or Sasha.

    That this company called themselves creating dolls that supposedly looked like Malia and Sasha (they do not), and that this company used BOTH girls NAMES, then had the temerity to say the dolls are NOT the girls. . . .

    I guessed they smelled lawsuit.

    Ruby…..could call on the twin comment. I saw that too.

14. ronnie brown on January 30th, 2009 3:42 pm

    Obama’s rise to the Office of the President only spotlights to a greater degree the inherently condenscending/exclusionary/racist character of white supremacy in the form of advertising. Now that a Black man is the head of the most powerful nation on the earth marketeers have to scramble to find out how to make Black people “mainstream”. After keeping black folk and other people of color outside the tent of what is “All-American”, companies are stumbling to try take advantage of new playing field…since white corporations have no idea how to market to appeal to our sensibilities, we have to put up with these “beanie babies”

    Hell, you might as well say “any ol’ Black will do”…we got the same skin tone, nose, lips, hair texture, etc.

    expect to see more of this down the line…

15. lilspark on February 10th, 2009 3:42 am

    All the dolls in the Ty Girlz line look the same — the Malia/Sasha dolls were merely named after the Obama girls and were not meant to look the like the real girls. Go to http://www.ty.com to see the full line-up of the product. If the dolls were Barbies, no one would question the “stock” Barbie face and body.

16. kate on June 16th, 2009 7:52 am

    why do dolls have bottles and not a breast isnt this influencing bottle feeding when breast feeding is meant to be beast practice???

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