Cracker: Of Tweets and Twats
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Danielle,
The re-done versions of the Milly Molly Mandy books are still in print, some books last through the generations. Pippi Longstocking lasted a while too. Haven't seen a MMM book for 12 years but can still remember the essence of them, especially the black ink village illustrations.
Re the lolly people/animals surely the question is which end (head or feet/tail) to eat first.
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eeny meeny miney mo-
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eeny meeny miney mo-
You got it. My preference as a kid was for edible transport, such as aeroplanes. No biomorphising, therefore no dilemma about which end to start with.
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We have one of these as a family heirloom
onto its 3rd generation now. I loved it when it was mine.
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and shock, horror, there are patterns for mambo, picaninnie and ESKIMO dolls here cloth dolls
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I truly know that no-one was corrupted in the manufacture or loving of
the golliwog Millymollymandy
except maybe the original sheep? -
And what of golliwogs, Dyan?
I only ever read about Golliwogs in English stories - I never heard of it except in Engish stories, ironic as it was an American doll.
Maybe it was because because of Canada's pride in the "Freedom Train"
Underground Railwayand the famous explorer
Sir James Douglasbut what eventually became called "political correctness" was rife in Canada by long before I was born. When I was little things had already become post-modern and ironic - I played in a teepee, had plastic tomahawks, bows and arrows, wore war-paint instead of a t-shirt in the summer. Actually I have a fringed buckskin jacket now, though I bought it at Neiman Marcus.
These won't link as they're from a legal PDF. please excuse the length, but it should give you an idea of what Canada's mindset was like in the 50s and 60s.
Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman. Published in 1899 and republished over the years ... Banned from Toronto public schools in 1956 The library moved it to a restricted area, available upon request.
The Georgia Straight was a hippie magazine, or "underground paper" as they used to be called in those days. Bob Geldof was a music reviewer for them in the 70s, but in the 1960s the Straight carried a lot of cartoons that were not allowed to be published in the US. They did a roaring trade in T-shirts of the comics, like Fat Freddy's Cat, Acid Man and The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, Harold Head.
In October 1967, the City of Vancouver suspended the Georgia Straight's business license "for gross misconduct in selling issues at city schools", and because it was felt to be obscene. The business license was later reinstated. (The City Cannot Stifle Dissent, The Province 30 September 1967) -
Kerry. I had an upside down doll just like the illustration - even the same material. But it was just a black hair and brown felt version of the yellow hair and white felt doll at the other end. So not a gollywog with exaggerated features. I still have my very black walkie talkie 1960s doll called Momo (after a character in Pippi Longstocking). And can recite the story of Little Black Sambo which was a popular book with us and which I remember most for the pancakes and the ghee.
But my daughter has a black Barbie (from the 1980s). Now I'm not sure about that. -
Our upside down doll is 1940s vintage, I think. The Black doll is very Mambo, with a red frock, headscarf and brass ear rings and embroidered features, both dolls are made out of thick stockinette type material, the white doll has a print dress and bonnet - they were beautifully made. Incredible they have lasted this long. Dolls and other rediscovered toys instantly recall childhood, don't they.
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And what of golliwogs,
They too are collectable nowadays (sorry Emma, I'm old).Saw a wee lad with one at the pub once,(the golliwog.) His father said a gran had given it and he felt well aware of it's connotation and squirmed more so when the golliwog ventured out in public. His comment of "but what are you gonna do? It came from the mother in law" and I guessed she must of had one of "those" stares.:)I also remembered I had a collection of Little black Sambo and others books, which I collected because they were evidence of another era.
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I had a collection of Little black Sambo and others books, which I collected because they were evidence of another era.
Just to bash the threads together harder, there was a guy on Antiques Roadshow recently who collected representations of Black people in art - including pickaninnies and nigger dolls, right back to the romanticised turbanned Turks, because it was important to him that those representations, that history, didn't get lost. He said it was getting harder and harder to find them as people just throw them away.
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Interesting. Investing in "dying" cultures would surely be a self defeating fallacy, no?
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Shock ? Horror ?
And now some confusion
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My upside down doll was like Cinderella - it turned from a poorly dressed girl with plaits into a princess-type girl with an up-do. No color change or anything - it was clearly meant to be "the same" person. (My mum made it for me. Yay mum.)
I'm not sure how old I was when I found out golliwogs were actually supposed to represent people. Pretty old, though. It made sense to me to interpret them as a fantasy species. After all, nobody actually looks like that.
With no evidence whatsoever, I feel inclined to believe that this is/was actually pretty common in kids who saw golliwogs in Enid Blyton books (or even in their own toy boxes) but did not grow up in a time where that style of racist representation was common in other media. Without that context, you're not necessarily going to make the connection at all.
Meaning what? I dunno. That parents should make a point of explaining context to old-enough children?
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Amy, I thought that because my doll had big brass ear-rings, that meant she was a gypsy. For years I made up stories around her travelling in a brightly painted gypsy caravan with horses, possibly telling fortunes. Then I saw some old movie, a Gone with the Wind type possibly, where there was a housekeeper who dressed just like my doll. That changed my picture, then pretty quickly I learnt about the South and slavery and I was extra nice to my doll after that, she got to be the lady of the house and boss the other one around.
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