Dolls for Boys and for the Imagination

I think it is so important for boys to have dolls to play with when they are little. Unfortunately a lot of people seem to think that boys won't enjoy them or it would be an "unmanly" gift to give to a young fellow. Why so? Little boys grow up to be fathers. Hopefully when they do, they will have practiced with a soft, warm ,wool-stuffed Waldorf style doll like the one shown in the pictures.

Waldorf style dolls are usually gender neutral. The only way to tell a boy from a girl doll is by the clothes the doll is wearing. I once received an email from a customer who had bought a boy doll, asking where the doll's "you-know-what" was. Blush...What was I to say? It had never even occurred to me to make a doll that was realistic in that respect. I have never seen a pattern that included genitalia indicating the gender of the doll.

Though made of plastic, I fondly remember the Ken-Doll I received one Christmas Eve in the 1970s. My sisters and I always thought it was kind of curious how Ken did not have any genitals. But did it make us doubt his manliness? Not really. All it took was a bit of imagination.

A lot of commercial toys these days don't leave room for a child's imagination. For example, coloring books, where the child fills in the blanks, but there is no room for his or her own drawings... I'd rather buy my child an empty sketchbook! After all, that is what Waldorf dolls are all about. Waldorf dolls, in their purest form, have intentionally no features at all or very simple ones. Dots for eyes and a line for a mouth. Some artists will put a nose. I usually don't. I am always amazed at how much expression you get from this simplest of faces. I enjoy the pure an simple beauty of these doll.

I don't like clutter. It makes life so complicated. I like wide open spaces. I like an empty canvas or empty piece of ruled paper. Oh the possibilities...