Dolls - Creepy or Cute?

As I walked through a store the other day, finishing up some Christmas shopping, I found myself in the toy aisles with all the dolls. I confess, I felt a little exposed, and tiny bit creeped out.  With all those eyes on me, and those unnatural smiles, it felt eery and uncomfortable, like maybe I was a character in an episode of the Twilight Zone.

As a little girl I had my favorite doll, but I never really thought about the eyes. There's something about the eyes that freak me out.

Brandon was recollecting the other day about a time out room in our house when he was little which was filled with Anne Geddes Dolls. We collected them because like many collectibles we expected them to have value in time. In the end, I bagged them all up and donated them to the Goodwill. I just couldn't take the creepiness of having them in the house anymore and without my ex-husbands fascination with collectibles and their potential but never reliable value, I simply purged. 

What is it about dolls that makes us think they are the proper toy for little girls? Is it the traditional need to direct their development as nurturers and caregivers? Are they supposed to care for the dolls as little mommy's and then grow into good mommy's someday? Has this changed with the evolution of the working woman and women who now elect to forgo motherhood?

There are crying dolls, eating dolls, dolls that talk, dolls that wet themselves. There are dolls filled with with sand, or jell, or water which are meant to move and feel like real babies. There are dolls made to look like the little girls they belong to. There are premature dolls, cancer dolls, dolls who are mechanical and dolls who are not.

There seems to be a different need, intent, and purpose for every doll out there, and yet I find them simply creepy and uncomfortable. Its the eyes, always the eyes, and the mouths.

They remind me of something from a nightmare or a horror film. I don't know, even if I have granddaughter someday, that I would ever buy a doll for her.

Perhaps, I am overreacting, overly sensitive, but I'm sure there are other who would agree with me.

While were on the topic, clowns, alive or toy, provide me with the same creep factor.

So Pennywise or Talking Tina, either way, I'm out. And I think I'll avoid that aisle in the future.