(no subject)

[charliesmum]

Was, for some reason, explaining the song William Wants a Doll to the Boyfriend yesterday - I forget why, but it came up in conversation with my mom, the Boyfriend having missed out on it, being just a tad too old for it when it came out in the early 70's.

For those of you too young to know the song, it's from the hippy-dippy feel good children's album put out by Marlo Thomas And Friends - Friends being some of the stars of the day - Alan Alda, Carol Channing, Mel Brooks. The songs and stories were all about how Girls Could Do Anything, and Boys Are Allowed To Cry (illustrated in song by football player Rosier Grier, I believe).

William Wants a Doll is a song about a little boy who, well, wants a doll. His brother and friends all pick on him, his father tries to bribe him with sports gear, but William is steadfast. Grandma eventually brings him one, pointing out to the Concerned Manly Father that a boy having a doll is a Good Thing, because it will teach William how to be a good father.

Which is true, I pointed out. Learning how, as the song says, 'to dress it, put diapers on double, and gently caress it to bring out the bubble and do all the things that every good father should learn to do would help William be a better father when he grew up.

Assuming, of course, he and his partner are able to adopt.

But the song isn't that brave actually. They actually go through great pains to point out William is not gay - he's good at all the sports his father bribes him with, you see, which is kind of sad when I think of it now. It's okay for William to want a doll if he's perfectly straight, but if he wants a doll because he's...effeminate, that's not okay, apparently.

See what happens when you think to hard about childhood songs?

Comments

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. I don't think it's a question of the song not being that brave; the song was trying to correct an underlying assumption of the 1970s, which was that any boy who wanted a doll (and, to a lesser extent, any girl who played with cars and trucks and liked sports-at least past the age when such things were "cute") either was gay or would be turned gay by playing with toys reserved for the opposite gender. There would have been no point in telling the parents of the 1970s that William was gay; most parents of the time probably would have been wondering (even if they didn't say so) if a little boy who wanted a doll had some tendencies "that way." William's father is clearly worried about this, and is trying to steer his son away from dolls toward sports...and a more heteronormative male role. And the song delivers a Take That, for Grandma points out to William's father that the traditional male role could use expanding--and that it would be GOOD for William to be able to care for and demonstrate his love for his child.

The song was saying that a boy not only could but SHOULD like things that were traditionally tagged feminine, that a father's role could be nurturing and could involve feeding and diapering a baby, rather than leaving all of that to the mother, and that things people thought of as "for girls only" should be valued by everyone. Those were pretty revolutionary messages back then.