It’s tough to write about paper dolls right now. There’s a lot going on in the world- protests, some violent, a pandemic, economic uncertainty… It’s a lot, but it would be disingenuous of me to just post another paper doll, because to do so would be to suggest that this tiny niche hobby I participate in (I sometimes call it the niche-ist of niche hobbies) is somehow insulated from the structural white supremacy that pervades the rest of the culture of the United States. It is not and that is what I am going to talk about today.
To demonstrate it’s insidious presence even in paper dolls, I am going to discuss something I have never spoken about publicly before. I want to talk about three things I have been told in regards to paper doll skin-tone and how I see these things perpetuating white supremacy.
I have heard all of these more than once, both in conversations, comments and through emails. Let me begin by saying that I am a cis white woman. I know that I do things and think things that perpetuate racism. I try very hard to fight this tendency, but I know it is there. This is not an attempt to suggest my experiences are in anyway comparable to those of a people of color. Benefiting from the system of white supremacy means I am insulated from many harsher realities. Having said that, I hope sharing this will help illustrate how insidious this is.
1. That I should do more white paper dolls, because I have fewer white paper dolls and it should be even.
What this highlights is a tendency of people to lump diversity into a binary- white folks, all other folks. That’s really not accurate. Why should a person who has red-brown skin have to play with a paper doll that has yellow-brown skin? Why does society treat those as the “same”? They aren’t. There are hundreds of skin tones. All deserve to be depicted. Two white dolls, one black doll and one asian doll isn’t equality of depiction. White supremacy teaches that white is the logical default skin tone and other skin tones should be grouped together as one. This in turn creates an normal vs abnormal mentality which reinforces structural racism.
2. That my historical paper dolls aren’t accurate if they aren’t white.
This highlights the tendency of people to perceive the historical past as white. This isn’t true. There have been people of African descent in Europe since Roman times. History is a lot more diverse than school taught most of us. It feels off to many to see a brown paper doll in Regency dress, because structural racism tells people that history was white. Anything which violates the narrative of white skin being the historical default is automatically suspect.
3. That it’s nice that I draw so many brown paper dolls, but maybe I should stop for my own good.
This is usually phrased as a helpful suggestion. “Have you considered how much more popular your site would be if you did more white paper dolls?” Or “It’s great that you value diversity, but have you thought about how much better your work would sell if you made X paper doll white?” The message is- if you want to be popular, make more white paper dolls. White skin is the gateway to gains and benefits.
I do want to note that the vast majority of the feedback I get is from happy people who are over joyed to have found a paper doll that looked like their grandchild/niece/daughter/friend. Those comments are lovely, but today I wanted to speak about these. I doubt anyone who has written to me in the last ten years was intentionally perpetuating white supremacy. That’s what makes it scary and that’s what makes it hard to fight- internally and externally. It’s so insidious.
So, let me close with this, I can do better. I am trying to do better. I believe anyone can learn and do better. Below are some of resources I have found really useful. Maybe some of you will find them useful, too.
- So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo which I haven’t read all of, but what I have read is great. I wish this book had existed when I first was trying to work out these issues in my head, because it is such a useful roadmap. And each chapter is very digestible.
- White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo was life changing for me. While not an easy read, this book helped me understand some of my discomfort when dealing with these topics.
- Just Mercy by Brian Stevenson (and this great interview with him about current events). Also, if you happen to end up in Montgomery, the Equal Justice Initiative Museum and Memorial are amazing, transformative experiences- at least they were for me and my parents.
- I Can’t Talk About the Trees Without the Blood by Tiana Clark is an amazing book of poetry, much of which deals with race. For pleasure, I read a lot of poetry. I decided last year to try to read mostly books published within the last two years written by women of color. This one is my favorite of them, so far.
Am I perfect about all this? Nope, not at all. Am I working on it? I am trying.
Meanwhile, if you want to learn more about how paper dolls have depicted black people over time and how these depictions reflected culture then Arabella Grayson’s work on black paper dolls is excellent.
And if you want to follow some amazing black illustrators doing wonderful work who deserve attention, I would recommend the following on Instagram (where I get most of my art these days): @renaldo_barnette (he also does paper dolls!) ; @asieybarbie; @melmadedooks; @gdbee and @artofedge.
Lastly, I know these are scary times. I’ll still be creating and sharing my paper dolls and I’ll still be thinking about these topics as I go through my life. I believe society can get better, but the first step is identifying and speaking openly about the problem.
I have neither the skill or mental capacity right now to moderate a discussion on this very complicated topic, so I am closing the comments. Stay safe everyone!