The best-known toymaker in France is seeking to counter the spread of video
games by encouraging boys to play with dolls.
Corolle has launched a campaign to persuade les filles to return to a product
that they are abandoning and les garçons to join them.
The company says that it hopes to prepare toddlers for an adult life as New
Men — caring, sharing and looking after babies.
It also wants to boost flagging sales by tapping into an untouched market for
its poupées.
Mathilde Gailly, marketing director at Corolle, said:“Today fathers spend a
lot of time taking care of their babies, so there is no reason why boys
should not start with dolls.
“We get a lot of requests from parents and grandparents who want to buy a doll
for their son or grandson.” She said that the company, a subsidiary of
Mattel, the US company, was considering the development of a range of
products to meet this demand.
“We have a lot of dolls dressed in pink. Why not some dressed in blue?” Mrs
Gailly said that boys were happy to play with baby dolls, although not with
Barbie-style toys.
“They like giving bottles and changing nappies but not brushing hair and doing
make-up.” Although dolls have been in existence for the more than 4,000
years, the company says that the modern child, female and male, needs help
in understanding them. So it is setting up workshops in Paris this autumn
where two nursery nurses, a man and a woman, will offer advice on how to
feed, clothe and bathe them.
“The point about dolls is that although there are no electronics involved,
they offer an emotional apprenticeship,” Mrs Gailly said.
One of Corolle’s aims is to halt the spread of high-technology toys, which
helped to drive down the doll market in France by 10 per cent last year,
according to a recent study.
An initial workshop was organised yesterday to prepare for the campaign. “We
have noticed that boys under 3 behave just like girls and place themselves
in the role of the mother, giving bottles and changing nappies,” said a
spokeswoman for Corolle.
“After 3 they start identifying with the father, and the way they play with
their dolls changes. They put them on toy trains and send them down slides.”
Edwige Antier, a leading child psychiatrist, said that boys who played with
dolls would have no trouble establishing their sexual identity in later life.
“It’s not toys that influence sexual orientation,” she told Le Figaro. “But a
boy will not manipulate a doll in the same way as his sister.” She added:
“Fathers carry their babies around, why shouldn’t young boys push prams?”
Corolle, bought by Mattel in 1989, sells two million dolls a year and had
sales of ¤21 million (£14 million) in 2006. It has been exporting to Britain
for three years.
Play history
2000BC Excavations of Egyptian graves reveal dolls made of flat pieces
of painted wood, with hair of strings of clay or beads
1840s The heyday of the china doll. Most represented women and were
dressed in the latest fashions
1850s A French doll called bébé subverted trends by depicted young
girls rather than adults. They became hugely popular
1880s Dolls began to be made from pulped wood or paper moulded under
pressure, signalling the beginning of mass production
1950s Doll makers began experimenting with vinyl. Dolls could now have
hair rooted to their heads, rather than painted hair or wigs
1959 The Barbie doll was invented by Ruth Handler, designed as a
teenage fashion doll and named after her daughter Barbara
Sources: The Connecticut Doll Artists; www.dollreference.com
