Hamsa and Reya
(Two dolls in my collection)
Instead of just talking about how much I loved the 3rd season premiere of
"True Blood" last weekend, I thought I would tie this blog into another nice little political discussion on media and race. There were so many hilarious, provocative scenes and lines from that show I can't even begin to list my favorites right now but they hit the ground running in the opening scene when Sookie runs out into the night screaming for anyone who will listen that her boyfriend Bill The Vampire has been kidnapped. The only young woman who happens to hear her expresses concern at first and then when she learns Sookie is talking about a Vampire, she just turns on her heel and walks off shouting something like "These vampires! It's always some shit!" in French! Oh Alan Ball! SCORE!!!
A few scenes later police take down Arlene the waitress' account of events ending in the death of one out of two of the only other black male characters in True Blood's previous season. Tara who sits a few feet behind her being comforted by her cousin Lafayette, is angered by what she feels is Arlene's total lack of sympathy for the fact that the man killed was someone she was deeply in love with. This causes Tara to explode in anger. Tara feels that Arlene's apparent lack of compassion. is directly race related; he was black and another dead black man doesn't matter. Tara storms off after Lafayette keeps her from ripping Arlene from limb to limb and Arlene gets angry as well. "Why do they always have to make it about race?" she yells. Cut.
Somehow, this is a notion I think that still permeates the minds of most white people whether they are aware of it or not. Just as many Black people sometimes tend to pull the race cards in situations that don't actually merit it, Whites often pull the "Why does it always have to be about race?" in situations of clearly overt racial bias. I suppose it's a part of the whole plan to spread the lie that a post racial society actually...exists. It does not.
Some of you know that I'm a photographer with a passion for collecting Blythe Dolls, which were originally released by Kenner in the 70s. After an unsuccessful year on the market they were all pulled. A few years later, Blythe was picked up by a Japanese company, Takara and marketed in smaller releases to a growing niche market of collectors as Neo Blythes and became a cult phenomenon. I started collecting them almost 2 years ago. When I first saw a Black Blythe doll while browsing through
flickr, I flipped! I had never seen one before and loved the ones I saw! I immediately made all the necessary inquiries to find out who made them and where I could find one. There were none to be found. They don't make them. The ones I saw were custom made. How, I thought in thirty five years had they not seen fit to manufacture even one doll that reflected the worlds peoples of color? Even Mattel has in the recent years released a line of black dolls that are more diverse in color as well as facial features if not body types for young girls. If no other reason than the lucrative saleability of "difference" they could make just one Black doll. But far be it for me to seek brown faces in Japanese culture whose media historically has been severely whitewashed for years.
Heather Sky
Ah yes, but Takara does make an offensively nondescript looking doll of indiscriminate color, called Heather Sky. But the fact is, no one would really call her black. It's all very "safe" and sickeningly suggestive of an intense reluctance to pin down an ethnic identity associated with African American culture. So I decided to find out how to make one myself. I decided to find out how others had made their own Black Blythe dolls. And I made one, then two, then three and and I'm finishing a fourth
one now which is due to hit the market (and by market I mean ebay) in a few weeks. There is such a high demand for black Blythe Dolls in the niche market of collectors that you would think Takara would take advantage of that and get on the fucking ball but I'm not waiting for that to happen anymore because I'm having way to much fun making my own, creating a line where there is none. See, this is one of the many hundreds of reasons why it really is about race a lot of the time.
Today I was invited to join an
Etsy African American Sellers group on Flickr by a woman who had commented on one of my photos and sells African fabrics. I was thrilled to join and couldn't help noticing that I was, at present anyway, the only member besides herself. All comments and invites on photos on flickr are public and I found myself thinking about a white person's reaction to it. The fact is, and I haven't researched any actual statistics on this, but judging from my contacts alone, Blythe Doll collecting appears to be a predominantly white hobby. I can count on one hand the Black females collectors I am in contact with on flickr. If any more of you are out there, don't be shy! Look me up! LOL!
See, this is one of the many effects of media representation that disproportionately represents "Whiteness" only. I'm not say I think that media can accurately represent reality with complete accurateness at all. We have to find unique and diverse ways to do that for ourselves. I do know that the media creates many very dangerous and false ideas about what beauty, power, gender roles and race mean and that the faces we see in the media most often, even when they resemble our own are controlled by a white power structure. There's more to all of us than that. But to those who believe that Blacks are always making issues about race, please consider that everything we have seen in the media for hundreds of years has been about race; the white race. I don't ever have to make any White Blythe Dolls do I? I doubt I will never have to make any.
