Ooh great, a Daily Himmler subject to excite my wrath early in the New Year. The BBC has announced that it will bring out an Upsy Daisy doll around Easter which has darker skin, apparently better reflecting the character in the TV show.
Well, what a relief this is! Phew and thank the stars!
I shall spend the rest of the day beating by breast and hating myself for my eminent racism I have demonstrated in buying my daughter one of these dolls without even realising that there was any difference. I shall then go home and berate her for not noticing any difference either, the callous child!
Oh the tragedy that one so young could be so vicious and insensitive as not to notice any difference at all and to play happily with a well loved toy which has surely caused riots on the streets of European capitals and war to break out in Bolivia! Shame on her and shame on all children who are happily playing such racist games completely oblivious to any problem whatsoever and, er, not displaying any inkling of prejudice whatsoever.
And shame on the gittish, imbecilic pillocks who think this is in any way a problem at all. It’s a f***ing doll and 99% of people with half a brain won’t have noticed any problem either. It’s. A. Doll.
Monday, 5 January 2009
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10 comments:
I didn't notice either - I just saw 'Upsy Daisy' (voices in my head suddenly singing 'here I come, I am the only Upsy one, I am the only Daisy too, Ipsy Upsy Daisy do')
Thanks!!!
I am really pleased that they are changing the Upsy Daisy doll back to the color she is on screen. I think it seems a little rude to refer to people who have requested that this happen as gittish, imbecilic pillocks.
The point is that no one noticed for all this time as it was a doll made from a fabric which did not exactly match the fabric used for the character on TV. It simply didn't matter until now.
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Actually a few people noticed when the dolls first came out in 2007 and there was an article about it in the Scotsman. I think though it was just when the Daily Mail and Guardian decided to take it up as a story at the begining of January that the BBC changed its mind.
Probably more people were starting to notice because they were making the dolls ever lighter. The last version of Upsy Daisy with her bed which was in the shops for Christmas was the palest yet.
I very much doubt that the change in the dolls color was an accident. The merchandising of toys like this is a very big business, more so than the programs themselves and the marketing department will have done lots of research. They probably took the view that parents (entirely subconciously in the vast majority of cases) prefer not to chose dark colored dolls for their children.
I totally agree that this isn't the most important issue in the world by a long way. Still I think it is a small change for the better that Upsy Daisy is going to look the way she does on the program.
I shall bow to your clearly superior knowledge of dolls and dolldom :-)
Sounds like the commercial imperative to me: doll sales were to be encouraged at any cost.
Make the face paler to appeal to more customers; satisfy the obsessive fans who notice a change; gain publicity from the ensuing controversy.
>Yawn<
You can always make a doll instead of buying one.
I'm staggered that there is so much judgement' obbsessive fans' 'gittish imbecilic pillocks'. I am neither. I have been in email contact with BBC since begining of last year. We compained from the begining. I assume you do not have black children. It means something to have ONE character in tv that is the same skin colour as our children, to dilute that is insulting. Upsey daisy is based on a ragdoll, tradionally black and with locked hair, as her is shown too. Please do not insult those who seek to blanance and make fair the world for thier children however small that issue may be. Misrepresenting a child colour sends subliminal messages that somehow to have a dark colour is wrong and you must be lightened. This has far reaching implicaitions.
You're right I don't have black children: I have normal children who couldn't care less about the colour of the characters on the TV.
I always thought In the Night Garden didn't have 'black' characters, just characters and that's the view I will hold to.
The whole point of my post is that I - and I assume countless other parents - simply didn't clock this simple aspect of the programme.
its very racist to think this doesnt matter.
its people like you wit and wisdom who ensure inherent and institutional racist beliefs continue to exist in this country.
I thought I'd publish this anonymous comment so that I could respond 'rubbish'.
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