Doll democracy

Taking a look at what others have might make us more grateful for the abundance we enjoy here. The Bold Doll sees some dolls from other places.

On a recent trip to Scotland, visiting friends and family in Edinburgh, I called into the Museum of Childhood on the Royal Mile. Situated between the big ticket tourist spots of Hollyrood Palace and Edinburgh Castle, this little gem is often overlooked. It’s a great place for grownups to re-visit their youth and be reminded of many childhood toys. There is, of course a perfectly respectable doll section too.

In a slightly unloved corner of the museum, tucked away on a bottom shelf, was a particularly poignant artifact. The section was devoted to home-made toys and the power of imagination was to the fore as playthings made from the most unlikely objects were on display. The one that really caught my eye was a doll that had been crudely made from the sole of an old, discarded shoe. It had been roughly marked with a face of sorts, and that was it. This doll resembled the sole of a shoe more closely than any doll, and yet it had clearly been loved and played with by a child in the past.

The shoe-doll made me pause for thought and think of how spoiled we are in this consumer age. Virtually any doll we desire at any price is available. We are ready to complain about the slightest thing that is perceived as a flaw, whether it’s decal eyes, or a slightly imperfect hairstyle. Yet I wonder whether, with all these sophisticated manufactured toys, we have lost something in the process. The more we have, the less we need to use our imaginations, and perhaps the less creative we are in play. I’m not suggesting that everyone tears off the heels of their Louboutins and draws smiley faces on the soles. But I do question whether we necessarily need yet another must-have doll to add to our collections and if we can’t be more satisfied with what we already have.

It’s perfectly possible to have a smaller collection that is truly reflective of our tastes. I have been trying to downsize for the past couple of years. If dolls don’t speak to me – and I don’t mean Chatty Cathy! – or if they don’t bring joy, in the manner of de-cluttering guru Marie Kondo, the Japanese organizing consultant, then out they go.

An approach which is perhaps a bit too extreme for most, is to take the starting point that every single possession has to go. You get to keep only the few items that have a purpose in your life. A completely unsentimental approach that might be hard for most doll-collectors to stomach, but an interesting place to start.

In many places round the globe, kids are lucky to own just one doll – if they have any possessions at all. Perhaps sometimes we should, despite everything that’s going on in the world, remember how lucky we are.

This story first appeared Fashion Doll Quarterly magazine in 2017.