You’re right, because part of my point is about the idea of worship, but what I’m really interested in here is the actual linguistic history of the word ‘doll’.

On the conceptual idea, it presumably also works the other way round: while the dictionary asserts that a ‘doll’ is, by definition, a female figure, I would be surprised to find that little girls never played with male dolls in the centuries before Barbie. Although, interestingly, their function in more modern times seems to be to complete a family or a female-oriented life (as with Ken). Ken *is* actually a ‘Ken Doll’ isn’t he? but cf. – Toy Story 3: ‘I’m NOT a girls’ toy! Why do people keep saying that?’

Unless they’re blow up dolls.

I LOVED the Care Bears as a child. I remember fondly the movies: Care Bears 1, Care Bears 2 (which was much better as it involved the Care Bear Cousins), Care Bears In Wonderland…

Of course, there was no continuity between the films. Even as a pre-schooler, this irked me.

No, the people selling them don’t call them dolls, although they are occasionally referred to that way by the “uneducated” (or people who just want to make a point). This doesn’t change the fact that the basic concept is the same: little people made of plastic.

(Only a little relatedly, I am always particularly pleased when I meet a man who can share my fond memories of Care Bears. It happens rarely. But now and again…)

They don’t *call* them dolls, though, do they? The word itself has such a weight as a feminine term that they have to call them something else…