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Golly doll3/18/2023 ![]() (Source: Wikipedia)Īgain, my issue is with minstrel reference, “ A product of the blackface minstrel tradition, the Golliwogg had jet black skin bright red lips and wild woolly hair. Upton’s Golliwogg was jovial, friendly and gallant, but some later golliwogs were sinister or menacing characters. The golliwog doll became a popular children’s toy throughout most of the 20th century, and was incorporated into many aspects of British commerce and culture for instance, some of Enid Blyton ’s books feature them, often as a villain and sometimes as heroes. Upton did not trademark her character, and its name, spelled “golliwog”, became the generic name for dolls and images of a similar type. Upton’s book and its many sequels were extremely successful in England, largely because of the popularity of the Golliwogg. He wore red trousers, a shirt with a stiff collar, red bow-tie, and a blue jacket with tails - all traditional minstrel attire. The 1895 book included a character named the Golliwogg, who was first described as “a horrid sight, the blackest gnome ”, but who quickly turned out to be a friendly character, and is later attributed with a “kind face.” A product of the blackface minstrel tradition, the Golliwogg had jet black skin bright red lips and wild woolly hair. To afford tuition to art school, she illustrated a children’s book entitled The Adventures of Two Dutch Dolls and a Golliwogg. There she spent several years drawing and developing her artistic skills. Following the death of her father, she moved back to England with her mother and sisters when she was fourteen. Here’s the history of how the golliwog came be:įlorence Kate Upton was born in 1873 in Flushing, New York, the daughter of English parents who had emigrated to the United States three years previously. I wish I had kept that post up so I could post reactions by some of the members, all of which were good and, kinda, in defense of the doll. The doll, to me, reminds me of the days of minstrel shows back in the day in which white people would dress up in black face and look like the doll presented here.īeing shocked by such a doll I presented the picture in a Prisonergroup am apart of on Facebook and received a lot of feedback. In particular, the association of the golliwog with the pejorative term “ wog ” has resulted in use of alternative names such as “golly” and “golly doll”. ![]() Manufacturers who have used golliwogs as a motif have either withdrawn them as an icon, or changed the name. In recent years, changing political attitudes with regard to race have reduced the popularity and sales of golliwogs as toys. While some see the golliwog as a cherished cultural artifact and childhood tradition, others argue that the golliwog is a destructive instance of racism against people of African descent, along with pickaninnies, minstrels, mammy figures, and other caricatures, and it has been described as “the least known of the major anti-Black caricatures in the United States ”. The image of the doll has become the subject of controversy. For this reason, in the period following World War II, the golliwog was seen, along with the teddy bear, as a suitable soft toy for a young boy. Though home-made golliwogs were sometimes female, the golliwog was generally male. The doll is characterized by black skin, eyes rimmed in white, clown lips and frizzy hair. It was reproduced, both by commercial and hobby toy-makers as a children’s toy called the “golliwog”, and had great popularity in Europe and Australia into the 1970s. The golliwog, golliwogg or golly is a black fictional character created by Florence Kate Upton that appears in children’s books in the late 19th century usually depicted as a type of rag doll.
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