Does Your Child Need a Transgender Doll for Christmas?
We know it’s in poor taste to bring up Christmas in February, but if you’re the kind of parent who likes to get a jumpstart on your holiday shopping, Tonner Doll Company has just what you need. The company will unveil the world’s first transgender doll at the New York Toy Fair this week, retailing at only $89!
Yeah…
According to the BBC, the doll is modeled after 16-year-old Jazz Jennings, who decided at the ripe old age of 5 that – despite being born a boy – she would live out her life as a girl. Jazz’s story has been featured on Barbara Walters, Oprah, and has been the subject of a children’s book called I Am Jazz.
On Facebook, Jazz relayed her story and expressed her excitement over the new doll.
“I was assigned male at birth but was a girl right from the start,” Jennings wrote. “I expressed myself as a girl to my family by gravitating towards dolls, dresses, sparkles, and everything feminine. I didn’t just like girly objects, but I heavily insisted that I WAS a girl.”
Of the doll, Jazz said, “I love her. A portion of my proceeds will be donated to help trans youth who are struggling. I hope that it can place transgender people in a positive light by showing that we are just like all other people.”
When some asked how the doll was “transgender” when it lacked any defining genitalia, Jazz said that was the point.
“Of course it is still just a regular girl doll because that’s exactly what I am: a regular girl!” she wrote.
We know you already have your credit card out, but hold your horses – the doll won’t be publicly available until summer.
But seriously – what the hell are we doing?
We suppose that since there are parents who physically beat their children and neglect them in other ways too disturbing to think about, Jazz Jennings’ parents aren’t the worst people in the world, but they are still pretty damn bad. They’ve saddled this child with an identity he invented when he was a toddler. And we’re supposed to celebrate this madness and pretend that it’s perfectly fine!
We are down the rabbit hole and through the looking-glass. Sometimes you really have to wonder if there aren’t forces at the top of the pyramid, just trying to see how far they can push the collective sanity of the human race before it snaps.