Abstract
Baby dolls have been in the toy market for more than a hundred years, since French firm Jumeau entered the toy industry in the 19th century and started producing ‘bébés’, considered the greatest phenomena of the toy market (FLEMING, 1996). The aim of this analysis is to shed some light on the multimodal properties provided by the aural, verbal and visual texts of the packages of Brazilian baby dolls through a careful look at their textual and contextual meanings, anchored on Kress & Van Leeuwen’s (2006) subsystem of modality (reality value), within the interpersonal visual metafunction. The analyses of the baby dolls’ packages point to roles suggested to young girls from very early age, varying from parenting roles they are asked to fullfill later in life as future mothers to medical abilities they are encouraged to master in order to care and nurture for their “children”.
Highlights
Baby Dolls he history of baby dolls dates back to the late nineteenth century, when the French toy irm Jumeau took the leadership by introducing the irst Bébé Jumeau, whose physical features were quite distinguishable from those ubiquitous in the twnty-irst century
The origins of the baby doll are core to provide a better understanding of the history of the fashion doll boom, as the “the French bébé as a genre proves a rich prehistory to the issues of branding and marketing” (Peers, 2004, p. 71) nowadays experienced by fashion dolls
I will approach the concept of playing afordances in order to check out how the values elicited by contemporary baby dolls are related to the roles society expects them to fulill
Summary
Baby Dolls he history of baby dolls dates back to the late nineteenth century, when the French toy irm Jumeau took the leadership by introducing the irst Bébé Jumeau, whose physical features were quite distinguishable from those ubiquitous in the twnty-irst century. Be that as it may, the truth is that throughout the nineteenth century the baby doll Bébé Jumeau was virtually everywhere: in pamphlets, engravings, lithographs, children’s stories as well as in adult’s print media (Peers, 2004). He most important public service of such doll, as Peers (2014) contends, was possibly the regulation of womanhood, as young girls’ negotiation to be given a bébé as a reward for their “appropriate feminine behaviour”, encouraged them to comply with certain pre-established social roles and “permitted a pre-industrial revolution division of gender roles within the family, where female labour (...) made a positive and necessary contribution to the overall economic viability of the family unit” He most important public service of such doll, as Peers (2014) contends, was possibly the regulation of womanhood, as young girls’ negotiation to be given a bébé as a reward for their “appropriate feminine behaviour”, encouraged them to comply with certain pre-established social roles and “permitted a pre-industrial revolution division of gender roles within the family, where female labour (...) made a positive and necessary contribution to the overall economic viability of the family unit” (Peers, 2004, p. 78)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: Ilha do Desterro A Journal of English Language, Literatures in English and Cultural Studies
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
