Mattel’s genderless Creatable World doll line splits opinions on gender identities and children
- The toy giant’s ‘gender inclusive’ dolls have both fans and detractors, with experts weighing in on both sides
- Most agree the best thing is to let children play as children
With its new line of genderless Creatable World dolls, Mattel is embracing and mass-marketing a new world in which identity can exist outside pre-existing gender norms. But will children, and more importantly, parents follow suit?
Experts have weighed in on how parents should encourage children to explore and play and whether this new direction in toys could spell a bigger shift in acceptance.
Since its release on September 25, the Creatable World line has been commented on by consumers and experts alike, who both praise and malign the toy’s gender inclusivity. But according to experts, the most important thing parents should do is let their kids play as kids.
Stefanie Goerlich, a sex therapist and guest lecturer on minority sexual communities at Northwestern University, based in the US state of Illinois, notes the existing benefits of playing with dolls as well as the possibilities for including gender fluid toys – toys that don’t ascribe to a fixed gender – in play.
“One of the benefits of imaginative play is that it lets kids experiment with different kinds of world building. For the first time, trans identities and gender variance can be included in the imaginative worlds that all kids build through play,” Goerlich says.