Is controversial breastfeeding doll
‘over-sexualizing’ our children?
7-year-old Maggie gently picks up her brand new baby doll and swaddles her tightly in a warm, fuzzy polka-dot blanket. She tenderly kisses her baby’s tiny forehead and serenades her with a sweet lullaby. Continuing to affectionately tend to the comfort of her make-believe newborn, Maggie lovingly removes the infant doll’s soiled diaper and replaces it with a fresh clean one and proceeds to her miniature rocking chair, where she patiently and tenderly attempts to comfort her baby doll. Realizing that her brand-new baby must be hungry, Maggie carefully lifts her baby to her specially designed halter top, which has nipples covered by petal appliqués and sewn-in sensors to simulate suckling sounds, and begins to “breastfeed” her infant doll.
Maggie’s new doll, The Breast Milk Baby, is creating quite the controversy and has received intense criticism since its introduction into the U.S. market. Many retailers are refusing to place the Spanish toy company’s product on their shelves even more than a year after its initial release. Critics claim that the doll “over-sexualizes” young girls and “forces them to grow up too quickly.” Bill O’Reilly declared on his show, The O’Reilly Factor, “I just want the kids to be kids. And this kind of stuff. We don’t need this.”
Berjaun Toys’ US representative, Dennis Lewis, says, “We’ve had a lot of support from lots of breastfeeding organizations, lots of mothers, lots of educators. There also has been a lot of blowback from people who maybe haven’t thought to think about really why the doll is there and what its purpose is. Usually they are people that either have problems with breastfeeding in general, or they see it as something sexual.”
Is The Breast Milk Baby an inappropriately precocious toy for our young daughters to be playing with? Or is the backlash swirling around this particular baby doll grossly misunderstood and just another symptom of how far off track we have ventured in relation to who we really are? We walk past a mother cat nursing her kittens and smile at its sweetness; yet we exile new mothers to their cars, we usher them into private rooms, out of the public eye, covered up, to breastfeed their newborn infants in an effort to avoid offending others around her.
Is it heartwarming to stand witness to a young female, 7 years old, emulating one of the most beloved relationships of all, a mother and her baby, a nurturing Maternal Being providing life-sustaining nourishment to a tiny new life, and appreciating her body’s remarkable ability to be the source of that? Or is it premature and inappropriate to draw attention to our daughters’ bodies so boldly and unreservedly, encouraging them to express this aspect of their physicality so freely and perhaps in a manner that is too provocative or too sensual?
If it is the avoidance of “over-sexualization” of our children that we, as a society, are leveraging for, then why are the scantily clad Bratz dolls flying off the shelves and landing in the homes of so many young girls? If given the choice to purchase a Fashionista Barbie or The Breast Milk Baby for your daughter, which would you choose? And why?
The answers to those questions invite a conversation to begin around the issues we are not talking about (sex, intimacy, and love), affording ourselves an opportunity to take a closer look at what it is we are really afraid of and how those fears may be distorting our thoughts and influencing our choices.
Why do we fear our children learning about, talking about, and embracing their bodies, and understanding the purpose for which they were created? Why are we attaching the same thick layers of shame and stigma to something so natural and meaningful as breastfeeding that we’ve sadly used to suffocate our own sexuality?
Dysfunction thrives in an environment of restrictions and conditions, where the essence of who we are is stifled, unexpressed, forgotten. Love unexpressed mutates into a “conditioned” version of love. Sexuality ignored mutates into shame and confusion, rendering ourselves unable to appreciate and celebrate each aspect of our divinity fully, blurring the lines between who we think we should be and who we actually are…and what we imagine is happening and what is really going on.
What will YOU do if this particular toy finds its way to your child’s Christmas or birthday “wish list”?
(Lisa McCormack is the Managing Editor & Administrator of The Global Conversation. She is also a member of the Spiritual Helper team at www.ChangingChange.net, a website offering emotional and spiritual support. To connect with Lisa, please e-mail her at Lisa@TheGlobalConversation.com.)
