American Girl: Bitty Baby

By: Kameron Evans

The Baby Doll as Well as the Book

American Girl dolls are extremely popular in not only America, but worldwide. These dolls have been around for quite some time now as the first dolls were put on the market in 1986. Therefore, over the years, the dolls have evolved to try and relate to many girls and their stories as girls’ stories and experiences in childhood differ. This gave American Girl the chance to create dolls that girls of all ages could play with and enjoy as well. During the early 1990’s, the company came out with a new line to please a younger audience of girls for ages three and up. These dolls are known as the Bitty Baby dolls (Schild 2020). Bitty Baby dolls are like classic baby dolls, but they are unique because every company that produces these dolls does so differently (Kirshner 2020, 99).

Furthermore, American Girl did not stop there. In 2013, the company released a new line of Bitty Babies that they deemed “newly enhanced” (Meet American Girl’s New Arrival 2013). But what exactly made this new line enhanced? This was because the dolls, released in 2013, had more skin tones and hair and eye color combinations that girls could pick from. Also, the line paired each doll with a picture book. Finally, the line created new accessories that could be paired with each doll such as “new premium play sets and plush animals, as well as online activities for girls and parents” (Meet American Girl’s New Arrival 2013). Ultimately, this line was released with the goal of giving all young girls the ability to “find the Bitty Baby dolls that’s just right for her” (Meet American Girl’s New Arrival 2013).

With the new picture books being paired with each Bitty Baby doll, American Girl was now associated with the picture book market. These books were created by Kirby Larson who is a Newbery Honor Award author along with Sue Cornelison who has received many awards for her illustrations (Meet American Girl’s New Arrival 2013). There were five books written and illustrated by Larson and Cornelison. Each of them had a similar theme of, “the narrator’s doll comes to life within the narrator’s imagination while she grapples with a real problem or challenge that would be common to a child this age” (Kirch 2013). To get a glimpse into one of the five books titled Princess Bitty Baby, “the narrator learns patience while waiting for her father to read her a bedtime story by telling Bitty Baby a story” (Kirch 2013). Both the doll and the book are tools for teaching young girls’ specific information.

Beyond the teachings taught by the doll and the book, both were created with intended goals in mind. First, the 2013 Bitty Baby line was created to produce baby dolls that young girls could relate to. This was done by allowing girls to personalize their Bitty Babies in many ways. Secondly, the doll was created to “encourage nurturing play” as baby dolls give girls the opportunity to practice taking care of someone else and in this case, a baby (Meet American Girl’s New Arrival 2013). The book was created with the goal to “inspire fun ways to play” (Meet American Girl’s New Arrival 2013). Since each book relates to the Bitty Baby doll itself, both reinforce nurturing play. Bitty Babies as well as the book can be analyzed through a girlhood studies lens.

An Examination of Bitty Baby Dolls

To begin, the can-do girl vs the at-risk girl ideology is a major concept in the field of girlhood studies. The Bitty Baby doll is closely linked to the can-do girl ideology. Through this ideology, girls are taught “they must pursue careers and at the same time factor in children before it is ‘too late’” (Harris 2004, 23). To be viewed as a can-do girl, girls must become pregnant at an appropriate time deemed “appropriate” by the society. But they must also manage both their work and domestic responsibilities at the same time. Bitty Babies reproduce this ideology because it teaches young girls how to fulfill domestic duties such as taking care of children.

Playing with Bitty Babies keeps girls interested in these kinds of duties at an early age too. Young children have a huge imagination and because of this, enjoy imaginative play as they are growing up. Therefore, young girls enjoy playing with baby dolls, such as Bitty Babies, because doing so allows them to use their imagination to play. Since Bitty Babies and imaginative play are tied together, taking care of baby dolls is fun for girls. Ultimately, this kind of play can spark girls’ interest in domestic work at a young age. Girls might keep this interest into the future as they get older as well.

Additionally, Bitty Babies introduce girls to motherhood. This is because “dolls are made to be fed, have diapers changed, are in need of strollers, bibs, high chairs, and more” (Lipkin 2009, 19). These are all actions that mothers typically take care of. Baby dolls teach young girls what being a mother will likely be like in the future, if they decide to have kids. This is true even when the intended audience for baby dolls are young themselves meaning that motherhood is extremely far in the future for these girls. Not to mention, some girls might not even have children when they are older. But playing with baby dolls still introduces girls to motherhood and teaches them about this too.

To summarize, Bitty Babies reproduce the can-do girl ideology by teaching girls how to fulfill domestic duties. Also, these dolls get girls interested in these domestic duties. Lastly, they introduce them to motherhood. Thus, these dolls teach the gender stereotype that girls and women are better suited to be involved in domestic work. Historically, “dolls have long been understood as tools to prepare girls for their roles within the domestic sphere” (Zaslow 2017, 43). But it is clear through examining Bitty Babies that dolls are still tools to teach girls how to be nurturing beings that are meant to take care of others. This is because as a company, American Girl, “encourages normative gender roles” (Schalk 2016, 36).

Why Take the Time to Analyze Bitty Babies?

It is important to analyze Bitty Babies because they connect with girls’ culture as these baby dolls are centered around girls and their lives. Also, they are made specifically for girls as everything related to these dolls are highly gendered towards them. Bitty Babies teach girls knowledge about how Western societies expect girls to act too. Although, the teachings taught by Bitty Babies are problematic because they reproduce the gender stereotype that girls are supposed to be interested and involved in domestic work.

Gender stereotypes, along with other stereotypes, hold a lot of power. Gender stereotypes can negatively impact girls and women and boys and men. These stereotypes start in early childhood as soon as babies are born. This is because “babies are identified by their bodies, and then sorted into two simple categories— blue for boys, pink for girls—within minutes of their entrance into the world” (Lipkin 2009, 11). After being identified as either a girl or boy, gender stereotypes are placed on each. One gender stereotype for girls is the stereotype that Bitty Baby teaches and therefore, emphasizes as well. This can truly harm girls though. Gender stereotypes are generalized meaning that they are said to be true about every girl or every boy. But that is not always the case which causes harm.

Not all girls are nurturing beings. Also, they might not have any interest in taking care of others. If this is the case, girls can be discriminated against or treated unfairly for not conforming to this gender stereotype. On top of that, they may feel alienated from girls who do conform to this stereotype. This can cause girls to feel devalued as well because when people do not conform to stereotypes placed on them, they are typically seen as abnormal. After understanding and educating people about the negative impacts of gender stereotypes, most want to stop reproducing and reinforcing them. Clearly, American Girl and the people involved in this company are not aware of the gender stereotype that is taught by Bitty Babies or do not see a problem with this. By analyzing and examining Bitty Babies one can become aware of the problems that follow these dolls.

As mentioned above, American Girl is a company that stretches far and wide to countries other than just America. This is understood when author Sami Schalk (2016) explains, “while American Girl is based in the United States, the brand now sells products via catalog and retail outlets in both Mexico and Canada, and online orders can be shipped internationally to most countries” (37). Even though American Girl dolls have been on the market for many years now, these dolls are still popular today. Since the company is very popular, Bitty Babies are well known too. This is noteworthy because with American Girl’s popularity, the teachings of these dolls reach to many girls around the world. As a result, many, many girls are being taught about this problematic gender stereotype.

Still, Bitty Babies are on the market along with baby dolls that are even more life-like. Such as the Baby Alive doll that eats, drinks, and is not potty trained. The more life-like the baby doll, the more this gender stereotype is reinforced. This is because these dolls need to be nurtured to correctly play with them. This shows how deeply engraved gender stereotypes are into Western societies. It is time that we, as a society, rethink and examine toys that are on the market. This will hopefully get more people to understand and become aware the dangers of gender specific toys and what they teach children. By doing this, we can also begin to eliminate the gender stereotypes that many individuals in our society sadly still believe in despite how harmful they truly are.

References

Harris, Anita. “Chapter 1: The ‘Can-Do’ Girl versus the ‘At-Risk’ Girl.” Future Girl: Young Women in the Twenty-First Century, 13-35. Routledge, 2004.

Kirch, Claire. “American Girl Enters the Picture Book Market.” PublishersWeekly.com, July 25, 2013. https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-book-news/article/58422-american-girl-enters-the-picture-book-market.html.

Kirshner, Mirah Jennifer. “American Girl: A Critical Inquiry into Dolls, Childhood, and Consumer Culture.” (2020).

Lipkin, Elline. “Chapter 1: Learning to be a Girl, Learning to be a Woman.” Girls’ Studies, 1-39. Seal Studies, 2009.

“Meet American Girl’s New Arrival: The Brand-New World of Bitty Baby!” Business Wire, August 27, 2013. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20130827005271/en/Meet-American-Girl%E2%80%99s-New-Arrival-The-Brand-New-World-of-Bitty-Baby%21.

Schalk, Sami. “Ablenationalism in American Girlhood.” Girlhood Studies 9, no. 1 (2016): 36-52.

Schild, Darcy. “How the American Girl Toy Empire Has Changed over Time, from Its Iconic Historical Characters to Dolls with Modern Stories.” Insider. Insider, September 21, 2020. https://www.insider.com/american-girl-dolls-history-evolution-brand-2020-1.

Zaslow, Emilie. “Chapter 3: Situating American Girl: Tools of Socialization in a Changing Culture.” Playing with America’s Doll: A Cultural Analysis of the American Girl Collection, 35-70. Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.