Barbie Maker Mattel Creates ‘Gender Neutral’ Dolls for Transgender Kids (VIDEO)

January 28, 2020 Patrick London

Toy maker Mattel is releasing a gender-neutral doll to stores, bringing the culture wars to a toy aisle near you.

The line of dolls, called the “Creatable World” collection, are now available in stores and online. They can be found on Amazon by clicking right here.

In a story on the Time website, Mattel executives admit the doll is a deliberate attempt to introduce transgender and gender neutral culture to children.

The article profiles several “gender fluid” children who were used as consultants on the project. Their input helped to influence the look of the doll. In all, Mattel consulted with 15 children who identify as “trans,” “gender-nonbinary” or “gender-fluid.”

One of the children featured, an 8-year-old boy named Shi’a who calls himself “gender fluid,” admits that he thinks his sister’s dolls are “girly, princess stuff,” but he likes the Mattel gender neutral doll, which looks like him. He tells Time that “The hair is just like mine,” as his parents have cut his hair in short, bleached-blond bangs, a style common with many older women.

Mattel says the doll can be “a boy, a girl, neither or both,” and even includes different wigs, to change the look. According to the article, “Carefully manicured features betray no obvious gender: the lips are not too full, the eyelashes not too long and fluttery, the jaw not too wide. There are no Barbie-like breasts or broad, Ken-like shoulders.”

Promotional videos created by Mattel feature kids – many of them gender-non-conforming, using pronouns like “them” and “xem.” Creatable World Dolls feature the slogan “A doll line designed to keep labels out and invite everyone in.”

Cultural Trend or Social Agenda?

The dolls come at a time when some companies and retailers are ending the identification of gender for toys. Mattel has eliminated their “Boys” and “Girls” toy divisions in their company. Now, they are identified by their specific product, like “Doll Division” and “Car Division.”

In 2015, Target eliminated “boys” and “girls” toy aisles. Even Disney has stopped labeling their children’s costumes, so boys won’t feel “marginalized” if they want to dress like Cinderella. Girls who want to dress like The Hulk won’t have a “boys” label to contend with.

Monica Dreger, head of consumer insights at Mattel, claimed “There were a couple of gender-creative kids who told us that they dreaded Christmas Day because they knew whatever they got under the Christmas tree, it wasn’t made for them.”

Parents, however, have told Mattel that they think “gender-neutral” toys were pushing an agenda. Richard Dickson, the president of Mattel, disagrees. “We’re not in the business of politics…our job is to stimulate imaginations. Our toys are ultimately canvases for cultural conversation, but it’s your conversation, not ours; your opinion, not ours.”

However, Dickson also claims that innovative companies “have to have a combination of social justice along with commerce.”

Dreger states that the resistance to the doll line comes not from kids, but adults who don’t want to explain the sexual implications of the dolls. “Adults get so tied up in the descriptions and definitions,” she said. “They jump to this idea of sexuality. They make themselves more anxious about it. For kids it’s much more intuitive.”

To ensure they met the expectations of the “gender-neutral” community, Mattel consulted with Rob Smith, an LGBTQ+ activist and founder of the Phluid Project, which sells gender-free clothing in New York City. Prior to the dolls’ release, they gave LGBTQ+ influencers a first look.

While the Creatable World line is only available online for now, Mattel wants to eventually sell the dolls in brick-and-mortar stores. They say that store workers will likely have to be trained to use the “proper pronouns” while discussing the dolls with shoppers, so as not to offend anyone.

Dickson claims “If we could have a hand in creating the idea that a boy can play with a perceived girl toy and a girl can play with a perceived boy toy, we would have contributed to a better, more sensitive place of perception in the world today.”

Here’s video from Time Magazine featuring Mattel’s creative team behind the dolls.