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Object Lessons
Doll
Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.
The haunted doll has long been a trope in horror movies, but like many fears, there is some truth at its heart. Dolls are possessed-by our aspirations. They're commonly used as a tool to teach mothering to young girls, but more often they are avatars of the idealized feminine self. (The word "doll" even acts as shorthand for a desirable woman.) They instruct girls what to strive for in society, reinforcing dominant patriarchal, heteronormative, white views around class, bodies, history, and celebrity, in insidious ways. Girls' dolls occupy the opposite space of boys' action figures, which represent masculinity, authority, warfare, and conflict. By analyzing dolls from 17th century Japanese Hinamatsuri festivals, to the '80s American Girl Dolls, and even to today's bitmoji, “Doll” reveals how the objects society encourages us to play with as girls shape the women we become.
Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic .
The haunted doll has long been a trope in horror movies, but like many fears, there is some truth at its heart. Dolls are possessed-by our aspirations. They're commonly used as a tool to teach mothering to young girls, but more often they are avatars of the idealized feminine self. (The word "doll" even acts as shorthand for a desirable woman.) They instruct girls what to strive for in society, reinforcing dominant patriarchal, heteronormative, white views around class, bodies, history, and celebrity, in insidious ways. Girls' dolls occupy the opposite space of boys' action figures, which represent masculinity, authority, warfare, and conflict. By analyzing dolls from 17th century Japanese Hinamatsuri festivals, to the '80s American Girl Dolls, and even to today's bitmoji, “Doll” reveals how the objects society encourages us to play with as girls shape the women we become.
Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic .
- GenresNonfictionHistory
176 pages, Paperback
First published November 3, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
November 7, 2022
In this mix of memoir and informal essay, writer and editor Maria Teresa Hart draws on her own childhood to examine the cultural role of dolls. Hart focuses on iconic examples from elegant porcelain dolls to Barbie and Bratz, exploring their conception and their relationship to shifting notions of femininity. Hart has limited space to cover a great deal of ground, so her discussion can seem slightly breathless at times, and her representation of issues around gender could be sharper and more sophisticated. But she makes up for these shortcomings with a wealth of fascinating historical detail such as the origins of Barbie in a post-WW2, German doll named Bild-Lilli who was a kind of mini sex doll aimed at adult audiences, until an American dollmaker saw her potential for wider, younger markets.
Hart also does a decent job of exposing the issues bestselling brands raise around hetero-normality, and the valorisation of ideals centred on white femininity. I found her overview of nineteenth-century dolls especially illuminating: the class divides played out through expensive, fragile porcelain versus accessible, affordable, rag dolls; the use of replica dolls as stand-ins for dead infants; and the surprisingly long-lasting legacy of Queen Victoria’s notions of the perfect doll. Hart makes some interesting points too about class and race in the development of the doll industry: the use of hair taken from working-class children to adorn the dolls of the wealthy; the establishment and perpetuation of disturbing, racist stereotypes through the design of blackface dolls like the golliwog which remained popular and in production through to the late 1970s. She also briefly notes the attempts by some - like the illustrator whose work led to the Kewpie doll - to counter the impact of consumerism by associating their creations with a more egalitarian model of society and women’s roles.
I was less convinced by Hart’s overview of digital dolls in the form of the avatar, and the arguments around contradictions between symbolic forms of femininity embodied in Barbie versus more subversive forms of actual doll play were relevant but a bit underdeveloped. But overall, an entertaining piece and a more than reasonable introduction to a fascinating area. Another entry in Bloomsbury's invaluable Object Lessons series.
Thanks to Netgalley and publisher Bloomsbury Academic for an ARC
Rating: 3/3.5
Hart also does a decent job of exposing the issues bestselling brands raise around hetero-normality, and the valorisation of ideals centred on white femininity. I found her overview of nineteenth-century dolls especially illuminating: the class divides played out through expensive, fragile porcelain versus accessible, affordable, rag dolls; the use of replica dolls as stand-ins for dead infants; and the surprisingly long-lasting legacy of Queen Victoria’s notions of the perfect doll. Hart makes some interesting points too about class and race in the development of the doll industry: the use of hair taken from working-class children to adorn the dolls of the wealthy; the establishment and perpetuation of disturbing, racist stereotypes through the design of blackface dolls like the golliwog which remained popular and in production through to the late 1970s. She also briefly notes the attempts by some - like the illustrator whose work led to the Kewpie doll - to counter the impact of consumerism by associating their creations with a more egalitarian model of society and women’s roles.
I was less convinced by Hart’s overview of digital dolls in the form of the avatar, and the arguments around contradictions between symbolic forms of femininity embodied in Barbie versus more subversive forms of actual doll play were relevant but a bit underdeveloped. But overall, an entertaining piece and a more than reasonable introduction to a fascinating area. Another entry in Bloomsbury's invaluable Object Lessons series.
Thanks to Netgalley and publisher Bloomsbury Academic for an ARC
Rating: 3/3.5
March 20, 2023
This book was not the book i was expecting, but thats not a bad thing, I thought it would go over more of the history of the doll and how its been used in other cultures but this is a book about the authors experiance with dolls and can be political at times.
I enjoyed learning about the author and enjoyed her past experiances, defo a book worth a read.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All views are my own.
I enjoyed learning about the author and enjoyed her past experiances, defo a book worth a read.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All views are my own.
November 26, 2022
Maria Teresa Hart, Doll, Bloomsbury Academic 2022.
Thank you, NetGalley, for providing me with this uncorrected proof for review.
Doll is yet another fascinating title in the Bloomsbury Academic series, Object Lessons. Initially I was disappointed, the large section on Barbie seemed to me to be going over old ground. On the other hand, I must acknowledge that she has had such an impact she could not be ignored. Perhaps a more streamlined account of this phenomenon? My perseverance in reading on was rewarded as Maria Teresa Hart then opened up new aspects of dolls other than Barbie through her detailed information about other dolls - old and new productions, their political implications for girls and women, the waning of direct political aspects associated with various iterations of the same doll and the variety of dolls available in various markets over time, and in different cultural environments.
The chapters cover: Bodies The Matter: The Barbie Doll; All That Money Can Buy: The Porcelain Doll; The stories We Tell: The American Girl Doll; How To Live Forever: The Celebrity Doll; and the last, Virtual Proxy: The Avatar “Doll”. The introduction is a delight, with a weaving together of a history of dolls and the author’s recall of her dolls and attitudes toward them – with the question, that is behind the book as a whole, ‘…is she still with me, reinforcing my boundaries of womanhood today?' The Blue Book classification of dolls held Hart’s youthful interest, and the point made about the naming of such dolls by the manufacturer, instead of today’s naming by easily pronounced and remembered given names, is a comment on the role of sales based on the importance of the manufacturer or the current demand for familiarity. Hart’s commentary on doll conventions and the vendors’ selling points - age, origin, beauty, popularity, imperfections… Oh dear, recognisable by association with real girls and women? As Hart questions, reflecting reality? Establishing expectations?
Rag dolls; porcelain dolls; paper dolls; rag bodies and ceramic or celluloid heads, arms and legs; jointed dolls; expensive and cheaper dolls - a plethora of different types of doll, but mostly depicting common features that appealed to an ideal of whiteness, sweetness and compliance. The commentary on the dolls that were manufactured to meet expectations that dolls would depict a wider range of ethnicities is instructive. Only Bratz, in competition with Barbie, appears to have fulfilled any alternative view of the world of girls and women. And that too, is limited. Dolls depicting royalty, film stars, and fame such as that of the Dionne quintuplets became popular and Christmas dolls were manufactured. However, as for the earlier dolls, these had to be sweet. No stars with a questionable character, but Mary Pickford, and later Shirley Temple, made the grade – they were pretty, compliant, sweet, any of the descriptions that can be applied to girls and women who conform.
And then there were the replicas of modern-day actresses, entertainers, artists, political figures and heroines that entered the Mattel range. There is some excellent analysis of this move. American Girl is also a fascinating story – a doll based on historical events, that then changes over time to, in Hart’s view, a disappointing trend.
This book is another interesting contributor to this series. However, I felt it did not measure up to my anticipation based on my previous forays into the series. Despite a little disappointment, I enjoyed the read, and was pleased to see that Marie Teresa Hart continued to raise powerful questions about dolls and their impact on girls and women.
Thank you, NetGalley, for providing me with this uncorrected proof for review.
Doll is yet another fascinating title in the Bloomsbury Academic series, Object Lessons. Initially I was disappointed, the large section on Barbie seemed to me to be going over old ground. On the other hand, I must acknowledge that she has had such an impact she could not be ignored. Perhaps a more streamlined account of this phenomenon? My perseverance in reading on was rewarded as Maria Teresa Hart then opened up new aspects of dolls other than Barbie through her detailed information about other dolls - old and new productions, their political implications for girls and women, the waning of direct political aspects associated with various iterations of the same doll and the variety of dolls available in various markets over time, and in different cultural environments.
The chapters cover: Bodies The Matter: The Barbie Doll; All That Money Can Buy: The Porcelain Doll; The stories We Tell: The American Girl Doll; How To Live Forever: The Celebrity Doll; and the last, Virtual Proxy: The Avatar “Doll”. The introduction is a delight, with a weaving together of a history of dolls and the author’s recall of her dolls and attitudes toward them – with the question, that is behind the book as a whole, ‘…is she still with me, reinforcing my boundaries of womanhood today?' The Blue Book classification of dolls held Hart’s youthful interest, and the point made about the naming of such dolls by the manufacturer, instead of today’s naming by easily pronounced and remembered given names, is a comment on the role of sales based on the importance of the manufacturer or the current demand for familiarity. Hart’s commentary on doll conventions and the vendors’ selling points - age, origin, beauty, popularity, imperfections… Oh dear, recognisable by association with real girls and women? As Hart questions, reflecting reality? Establishing expectations?
Rag dolls; porcelain dolls; paper dolls; rag bodies and ceramic or celluloid heads, arms and legs; jointed dolls; expensive and cheaper dolls - a plethora of different types of doll, but mostly depicting common features that appealed to an ideal of whiteness, sweetness and compliance. The commentary on the dolls that were manufactured to meet expectations that dolls would depict a wider range of ethnicities is instructive. Only Bratz, in competition with Barbie, appears to have fulfilled any alternative view of the world of girls and women. And that too, is limited. Dolls depicting royalty, film stars, and fame such as that of the Dionne quintuplets became popular and Christmas dolls were manufactured. However, as for the earlier dolls, these had to be sweet. No stars with a questionable character, but Mary Pickford, and later Shirley Temple, made the grade – they were pretty, compliant, sweet, any of the descriptions that can be applied to girls and women who conform.
And then there were the replicas of modern-day actresses, entertainers, artists, political figures and heroines that entered the Mattel range. There is some excellent analysis of this move. American Girl is also a fascinating story – a doll based on historical events, that then changes over time to, in Hart’s view, a disappointing trend.
This book is another interesting contributor to this series. However, I felt it did not measure up to my anticipation based on my previous forays into the series. Despite a little disappointment, I enjoyed the read, and was pleased to see that Marie Teresa Hart continued to raise powerful questions about dolls and their impact on girls and women.
October 6, 2022
Doll by Maria Teresa Hart is an excellent addition to the Object Lessons series. Taking the doll as a starting point, we get an insightful look at what it is, was, and may become.
I am a fan of this series, taking a common item and having someone give their own nuanced view of it, from a personal as well as a cultural perspective. This volume was especially effective, I think, mainly because Hart seems more willing to accept that almost any item that has any meaning at all will likely be problematic. It isn't simply taking one singular stand that increases understanding but in acknowledging the various ways of looking at it and coming to terms with them. Hart does this very well.
In some ways this is both a love letter to dolls and a critique of some of the negative aspects of dolls, particularly children's (read girls') dolls. While I can't relate to a lot of the personal aspects in relation to dolls specifically, I found a way into her thoughts through things that, for me, are both a part of who I am but also a part of a cultural world I find less than positive. Most of us have these things. Maybe songs from our youth, perhaps a fondness for a genre of film that consistently presents negative stereotypes even while it is entertaining.
I would highly recommend this to anyone interested in cultural critique through everyday objects as well as those who simply enjoy learning about something they might know little about. I learned quite a bit about the history of dolls that I didn't know even though much of the more recent critique was familiar.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.
I am a fan of this series, taking a common item and having someone give their own nuanced view of it, from a personal as well as a cultural perspective. This volume was especially effective, I think, mainly because Hart seems more willing to accept that almost any item that has any meaning at all will likely be problematic. It isn't simply taking one singular stand that increases understanding but in acknowledging the various ways of looking at it and coming to terms with them. Hart does this very well.
In some ways this is both a love letter to dolls and a critique of some of the negative aspects of dolls, particularly children's (read girls') dolls. While I can't relate to a lot of the personal aspects in relation to dolls specifically, I found a way into her thoughts through things that, for me, are both a part of who I am but also a part of a cultural world I find less than positive. Most of us have these things. Maybe songs from our youth, perhaps a fondness for a genre of film that consistently presents negative stereotypes even while it is entertaining.
I would highly recommend this to anyone interested in cultural critique through everyday objects as well as those who simply enjoy learning about something they might know little about. I learned quite a bit about the history of dolls that I didn't know even though much of the more recent critique was familiar.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.
October 22, 2022
Read via NetGalley.
Is this book responsible for me having the only two lines that I know of "Barbie and the Rockers" stuck in my head for days? Why yes it is. And no, I haven't forgiven the author for that yet.
I did have a few Barbies as a child; I was deprived of a Cabbage Patch kid; and I had a bridal doll, inherited from my mother, with whom I never played - she was really for looking at rather than anything else. I was probably more interested in playing with the My Little Ponies, I think - hair long enough to do interesting plaits with - but I don't remember that well. I guess I played a bit with them? But dolls held little really fascination for me. This book, though, is truly fascinating - it's a worthy addition to the Object Lessons set.
Hart does a lot in a few short pages. She explores the history of dolls as objects - their uses and their manufacture; she discusses their roles in reinforcing gender norms for girls and women, as well as exploring the realities of how little girls do actually play with their Barbies (is it a surprise these days to anyone to learn that Barbies tend to have a great deal of sex?). She looks at the racial aspects - the first black Barbie was a sidekick, and it took ages for non-white Barbies to have any sort of equal billing, and they're usually still solitary examples of a skin colour rather than being the whole range of things like white-skinned Barbie is allowed to be.
Did I know that Sleepover Barbie came with miniature scales and a teeny book called "How to Lose Weight", which recommends only "Don't eat"? Heck no I didn't. This is the stuff of nightmares... and makes me wonder if I was doing sleepovers all wrong (or, more likely, all right).
I also didn't know about BINA48, "modelled after the real human being Bina Aspen, a Black woman who was married to Martine Rothblatt, a prominent CEO in there biotech industry. BINA48 was created using Aspen's memories" p26) and this is ALSO the stuff of nightmares, in my opinion. Hart goes into a discussion of avatars as part of the doll-world, which is intriguing, as well as androids.
Another spectacular part of this series. So much packed into such a small package, and yet so immensely readable as well.
Still a bit cranky about the Barbie song though.
Is this book responsible for me having the only two lines that I know of "Barbie and the Rockers" stuck in my head for days? Why yes it is. And no, I haven't forgiven the author for that yet.
I did have a few Barbies as a child; I was deprived of a Cabbage Patch kid; and I had a bridal doll, inherited from my mother, with whom I never played - she was really for looking at rather than anything else. I was probably more interested in playing with the My Little Ponies, I think - hair long enough to do interesting plaits with - but I don't remember that well. I guess I played a bit with them? But dolls held little really fascination for me. This book, though, is truly fascinating - it's a worthy addition to the Object Lessons set.
Hart does a lot in a few short pages. She explores the history of dolls as objects - their uses and their manufacture; she discusses their roles in reinforcing gender norms for girls and women, as well as exploring the realities of how little girls do actually play with their Barbies (is it a surprise these days to anyone to learn that Barbies tend to have a great deal of sex?). She looks at the racial aspects - the first black Barbie was a sidekick, and it took ages for non-white Barbies to have any sort of equal billing, and they're usually still solitary examples of a skin colour rather than being the whole range of things like white-skinned Barbie is allowed to be.
Did I know that Sleepover Barbie came with miniature scales and a teeny book called "How to Lose Weight", which recommends only "Don't eat"? Heck no I didn't. This is the stuff of nightmares... and makes me wonder if I was doing sleepovers all wrong (or, more likely, all right).
I also didn't know about BINA48, "modelled after the real human being Bina Aspen, a Black woman who was married to Martine Rothblatt, a prominent CEO in there biotech industry. BINA48 was created using Aspen's memories" p26) and this is ALSO the stuff of nightmares, in my opinion. Hart goes into a discussion of avatars as part of the doll-world, which is intriguing, as well as androids.
Another spectacular part of this series. So much packed into such a small package, and yet so immensely readable as well.
Still a bit cranky about the Barbie song though.
November 14, 2022
Doll, one of the latest entries in the ongoing "Object Lessons" series, sees writer and editor Maria Teresa Hart exploring the popular perception and history of dolls. Hart, who has written frequently about culture and the effects of or perceptions of women in culture, presents and discusses dolls "through a feminist lens, but understand them as complicated objects that can simultaneously expand and contract the realm of possibility for girls." (Last page of the Introduction).
The book is framed through a series of "play dates" where Hart introduces the focus for that section, beginning with the base of a doll, which is typically displayed as a figure in their undergarments. With that as an entry point, Hart then discusses the development history of Barbie.
Yes, they are toys, but what is it they represent? How are the used? All of these and more themes are explored, even to the extent of summarizing the development of dolls as a toy to the later cultural disparities of access. Of the 20th century, Hart specifically discusses the histories of the Barbie, Bratz and American Girl franchises.
The book represents a strong entry into the Object Lessons series, a compact overview of a topic with lots of details and interesting tangents for later explorations. One of my favorites from this volume was the introduction to the the American Girls podcast, where the two historian hosts go book by book analyzing and assessing the content.
I received a free digital version of this book via NetGalley thanks to the publisher.
The book is framed through a series of "play dates" where Hart introduces the focus for that section, beginning with the base of a doll, which is typically displayed as a figure in their undergarments. With that as an entry point, Hart then discusses the development history of Barbie.
Yes, they are toys, but what is it they represent? How are the used? All of these and more themes are explored, even to the extent of summarizing the development of dolls as a toy to the later cultural disparities of access. Of the 20th century, Hart specifically discusses the histories of the Barbie, Bratz and American Girl franchises.
The book represents a strong entry into the Object Lessons series, a compact overview of a topic with lots of details and interesting tangents for later explorations. One of my favorites from this volume was the introduction to the the American Girls podcast, where the two historian hosts go book by book analyzing and assessing the content.
I received a free digital version of this book via NetGalley thanks to the publisher.
December 17, 2022
Pretty much what you'd expect given any past experience of this humongous series – an academic survey of the title subject, one you may well have experience and thoughts about yourself, peppered with autobiographical details from the author – and all from am ultra-left, "woke? I never slept!", US academic approach. If you ever doubted that, don't worry – it bangs on about transgenderism in the introduction, proving that is even outing race-baiting as the core purpose of academe these days. The apologia Barbie never delivers for being, well, Aryan, apparently, is left to Chapter One.
Things get a lot more interesting and thought-provoking later on, however, with chapters on how asinine celebrity has turned people into dolls – and people turn their real world into one of being rather doll-like in the form of avatars. This is better work that the semiotics of historical dolls not being sorry enough for the slave trade. So although the "the straight white male is evil incarnate" lesson here is a bit strong at times, this actually isn't too disreputable an entry to the series, with the memoir aspects of it being a lot more on point than many a book before this – three and a half stars.
Things get a lot more interesting and thought-provoking later on, however, with chapters on how asinine celebrity has turned people into dolls – and people turn their real world into one of being rather doll-like in the form of avatars. This is better work that the semiotics of historical dolls not being sorry enough for the slave trade. So although the "the straight white male is evil incarnate" lesson here is a bit strong at times, this actually isn't too disreputable an entry to the series, with the memoir aspects of it being a lot more on point than many a book before this – three and a half stars.
September 26, 2022
Doll is another entry in the Object Lessons series, this time focusing on dolls and their history, cultural influence, and what they might say about society. As with other books in the series, this is a short book that focuses on a particular vision of the topic: in this case, considering what dolls can tell us about cultural history through the lens of particular kinds of dolls and the author's own history with dolls.
The book presents an interesting look at a brief history of dolls and how they are significant in society, with some consideration of the negative connotations of many kinds of dolls in terms of race, ableism, patriarchy, and much more. There's plenty to get into, with more focus on these considerations than explorations of more kinds of dolls or communities and fans of certain dolls, so it is definitely more about the relationship between the self, society, and dolls than about dolls themselves in many ways. From what I've read of the Object Lessons series, you're always left with something to think about despite the short books, and this one is no exception, though obviously it can only go so far in such a bitesize package.
The book presents an interesting look at a brief history of dolls and how they are significant in society, with some consideration of the negative connotations of many kinds of dolls in terms of race, ableism, patriarchy, and much more. There's plenty to get into, with more focus on these considerations than explorations of more kinds of dolls or communities and fans of certain dolls, so it is definitely more about the relationship between the self, society, and dolls than about dolls themselves in many ways. From what I've read of the Object Lessons series, you're always left with something to think about despite the short books, and this one is no exception, though obviously it can only go so far in such a bitesize package.
February 20, 2023
I LOVED this book! Such a great topic and written by a talented feminist writer. What was super fun for me was how well-researched it was. It also brought back memories of dolls I'd had. The earliest was life-size and looked real so I thought of her as my baby. At age six, I wrote a poem that sang her praises. By 2nd grade, I was getting kind of grossed out by her rubbery appendages. I liked changing her outfits but I remember my shock when I discovered her no-neck existence. Her bulbous head was sewn right into her flat, cloth body. However, despite my disillusionment, I remained pleased to see her in my old room whenever I visited my parents. Barbie was always fascinating but creepy. I wondered why I was so "fat" compared to Barbie. Thankfully, I moved on to play with trolls. They never made me think about what I should look like. They were funny. Their stocky legs, flat feet, and wrinkled faces cracked me up. Doll is a must-read! Hart's extensive research and ongoing commentary kept me turning the pages. Hart skillfully addresses the wide variety and high creep-factor in many of these weird inanimate companions.
nonfiction-read
October 9, 2023A quick read that is part personal essay on the author's relationship to dolls and what they mean to women as a whole. Most young girls play with dolls at some point in their lives, whether baby or Barbie dolls and this can lead to complex feelings on the place that dolls have, especially considering the motherhood training that baby dolls represent and the potential body issues that can come with Barbie. I would love to see a follow-up with the author to hear her thoughts in relation to this work and the Barbie movie. This was a quick read and part of a larger series titled Object Lessons by Bloomsbury Academic.
January 22, 2023
One of the more interesting and illuminating additions to the overall wonderful Object Lessons series. Some of them work better for me than others, and this one I particularly enjoyed, with its well-balanced combination of personal anecdote and views set against a rigorous academic and scholarly approach. Much fascinating trivia mixed with intelligent and insightful analysis makes the book a real pleasure to read.
Read
October 3, 2023I had a really great time reading this and I think the author is a great writer who has truly done her research on something she's passionate about. Unfortunately, I was reading this for an article I was writing for work, and I got laid off, so I don't think I'm going to be able to return to it for a while. But I hope to soon and wanted to share how much I was enjoying it 30% in.
August 5, 2023
This book was very nuanced and timely, especially after seeing the movie, "Barbie". I appreciated the history, the inclusion and lens of race and both positive and negative impacts of dolls. I learned a lot from reading this.
October 4, 2025
For a topic as fascinating and mysterious as dolls I was really disappointed to see an angry, biased and affected voice who has found the book as a self-venting medium. Her rage literally drips from each sentence!
December 28, 2023
one of my favorite books i read this year! super thought provoking
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews