I am considering the doll as a sexual symbol. This specific doll represents a toddler girl, an epitome of innocence. As such she is deeply disturbing because she is corrupted. She looks abused, the colour of her face is a sickly yellow and green and one of her limbs have been pulled out slightly. Her staring eyes are at odds with her round baby cheeks and little nose and mouth. She appears as painfully vulnerable. She looks like she has been ravished. We perceive the image of corrupt innocence as deeply disturbing and even threatening, hence the success of children as monsters in horror movies.

This doll is sexless with nothing between her legs and at the same time oversexed with a weirdly small waist for a toddler and a suggestion of prematurely budding breasts. The doll is a sexual symbol, but one with a double standard. This girl looks more sexually suggestive than is appropriate for her age but she has no vagina, there is no possibility of actual sex. This state is thrust upon her. This is symbolic of how our society treats young girls, they are allowed, even expected to look like sexual beings but they are strongly urged to guard their virginity. A second double standard is found in our moral judgment of girls in opposition to boys. Recent culture has tried to apply the word virgin to boys as well as girls but it feels wrong on our tongues and is mainly used in a comic context made to make those boys look effeminate. The first sexual encounter for boys is still an accomplishment, an initiation but for girls it is a loss – the loss of virginity, innocence and sometimes even their honour.