Okay, so I was aware that I come from a fairly liberal-minded, Westcoast kind of a background, and therefore have been fairly sheltered, but I honestly had no idea that dolls like these could ever be viewed as something other than an arcane bit of history, even if there was no shame involved, as I know there is out there.
I have since discovered there are a LOT of people in the world who love golliwogs, and think they are just harmless nostalgia. Yeeks. So not my style. I mean, I can sort of let it slide when I find it in a vintage kids book I bought from a book sale, from another era(geez, redskins, even):
But when there are golliwog conventions, fanclubs, etc etc, and people are still making them in mass quantities, I kind of blink a little. Or a lot. I just don't understand these. I know there are a lot of others who share my feelings, but I am just a little boggled that it is not universal, you know?
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Urgh, I can't figure out where the credits bookmarks went, and I have a massive migraine...I'll put them in later.
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5 comments:
Have you seen the golliwog biscuits in Woolworths?!!!!!!!
first off thanks so much for visiting and leaving such lovely comments on my blog.. as for gollys (apparently its taboo in England to add the wog bit) they are every where at all the tat filled holiday type shops... the first time I saw them in York my jaw hit the floor, and my mother-in-law told me she once had a sewing kit for making one... very strange world.
To A-M:
Ack, no! Thanks to a diabetic son, I don't frequent the cookie aisle all that much, and when I do, it's usually for milk cookies or Tim Tams...they really have them there?? Ugh! I seriously don't understand how people can look at that caricature, and think it is totally benign. :( It's one thing to make a funny looking doll, it's another thing to specifically highlight very recognizable characteristics in an unflattering way. Just not something I understand at all.
Yes, I hear it's a very big thing in the UK (and so, by extension, I guess) and Australia.
In the US these dolls are very un-PC because we don't have the happy little story that goes along with them. I'm very on the fence with these... on the one hand I know they're not meant to offend. But on the other hand, they do offend many people, so I don't think I could collect or admire them myself.
I guess I'm on the same page as floresita. They are just dolls but in the US would definitely ignite bad feelings because of what that image represents here. I lived in Europe for many years and found that each country had it's own racial flash points. ie: France was much more open to interracial relationships than the States (perhaps because of it's long history with it's colonies) but at the same time I found different racial groups much more segregated in Paris than, say New York City.
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