Because I’m on the internet all the time, I have been aware of the boy You & Me doll that has caused some people to get their chonies in a bunch because it is anatomically correct. Yes, mi gente, the boy version of the You & Me doll has an actual penis just like how actual baby boys have penises.
As a person and a parent, I’m totally okay with a doll that has a penis. I consider it a lesson in anatomy for children and I find it weirder that I went through my entire childhood without ever coming across a boy doll that had a ding-a-ling, but I have to tell you that I found it hilarious that my mother “accidentally” bought this doll for my youngest daughter because if my mother had known that the doll has a teeny tiny penis there is no way she would have bought it. Of course I can’t wait to tell you the story.
My youngest daughter is about to have a birthday and my mother who does not live near us excitedly mailed her the You & Me boy doll that makes cute baby noises, drinks water and goes pee pee from a cute little plastic penis. She picked a boy doll because she correctly assumed that my littlest wouldn’t have any boy dolls in her collection already.
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Now, my mother told me she was going to buy this doll before she actually bought it and I knew the doll would have a penis, but I chose not to tell my mother. When the doll came, I showed it to both my girls, they examined it, played with it and noticed that it has a penis, but didn’t make a big deal about it. They are both aware that girls have vaginas and boys have penises. Also, they’ve both been at a preschool where the bathrooms are coed so they’ve seen little boys drop trou to go the potty. The doll wasn’t teaching them anything that they didn’t already know.
Anyway, evil daughter that I am, I call my mami and thank her for the gift and let her know how much it is appreciated and then say to her in Spanish, “You know the doll has a penis, right?” She kind of laughs and I tell her I’m not kidding. She says, “Qué, qué?!” She doesn’t really believe me that she sent us a doll with a penis so I send her a picture and she responds with, “Well, that leaves nothing to the imagination!” Now, my mother is NOT in any way shape or form a prude, but she still wouldn’t have knowingly bought a doll that has a penis on it for my kid because she thinks that’s weird. I told her that we are fine with it and she laughed some more and moved on.
The only thing that I think is weird about this version of the doll is that it has screws in the testicles. OUCH!!! That seems like a rather unfortunate place to stick screws and I don’t want my girls growing up thinking that all testicles should have screws in them. Should I write a letter to the makers complaining about how they are screwing my daughters up with those testicle screws? I’M TOTALLY KIDDING!
So what do you think? Doll with penis: totally fine or too much?
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Cute story. I don’t see anything wrong with it, I think it is good for them to know about a boys penis.
Okay, I was about to get high and mighty about all the dolls being blonde haired and blue eyed, how this sends the wrong messages to brown and black girls, self-image, internalized racism, etc. But I do see that these dolls have ‘Hispanic” and “African American” versions. And I found this:
http://www.amazon.com/You-Happy-Together-Family-Dolls/dp/B00MW7OE74/ref=sr_1_10/182-9254722-7124628?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1422905489&sr=1-10&keywords=you%26me+doll&pebp=1422905514143&peasin=B00MW7OE74
The screws were the first thing I noticed! “I don’t want my girls growing up thinking all testicles should have screws in them.” Now that would make an awkward “first time.” So…um…why don’t you have screws in your testicles??
Oh thank you for that laugh!
Having grown up with one myself, I could not help but notice metal things located in those sensitive areas. So they are screws? Well better than my first thought – piercings. It’s an ok doll but I’m not convinced we need anatomically correct dolls. I’m not against it but don’t see any big benefit. Dolls and other toys should encourage imagination, story telling and fun play. They don’t need to be training devices for future med students. Most of the animal toys don’t provide the detail you need to be a vet but can still provide fun play.
Hey you know you do those wishes every week – well the wish you added to the end of this post has been granted by at least my blog. I just wrote a shout out to this post in my latest post.
http://afcsoac.blogspot.com/2015/02/bits-pieces-whatever-and-doll-with-penis.html
You are the awesomest. On my way to check it out.
This is the norm in other countries. In Spain most dolls have a gender and a penis or a vagina. Nobody bats an eye, and the kids don’t either. I only discovered this was not the norm here only when my eldest, then 3, brought her black baby doll with a penis to the U.S. and would take it to the pool, naked, as kids do in Spain. So, it was a good lesson for me to teach my kids how different cultures view nudity and even dolls! it was a little hard to explain why she had to cover up her doll (a DOLL) to take it out, but …
That’s pretty funny to think that you had to cover up a child’s doll.
Sooooooo, that “Detachable Penis” song now makes complete sense!
If only mother nature made us all like that, then people such as Bruce Jenner could do-it-themselves.
I do have slight concerns about the large size of the opening (the “urinary meatus”, or the “eye”). Could drink a thickshake through it