?Why doesn?t your daughter have any dolls"? a mom friend asked, watching our toddlers wade through a morass of toys at my house?balls, puzzles and electronic doodads that played relentless tinny music that I could never get out of my ears.
?Feminism"? I said, surprised at her: She had three girls and was always posting intriguing questions on social media, like, ?When should my daughter wear a bikini"? and other topics I?m sure I will need to confront one day. Yes, I was just another older, middle-class city mom trying my best to help my daughter become a strong girl, not obsessed with princesses, glitter and babies, able to choose who she wanted to be. And giving her dolls?especially those long-limbed, blond, buxom Barbies with a minuscule waist?didn?t seem to be a body-positive, feminist thing to do. ?Besides, I never had any dolls growing up and I turned out just fine,? I said.
?You never had any dolls"? she said, in horror.

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   American Girl dolls: Love 'em or loathe 'em"

It was true. I was a tomboy. We Brooklyn kids roller-skated and biked up and down our gravelly block, used our pogo sticks and hula hoops in the backyards, and on inclement days we played jacks and Chinese jump rope indoors. One of ...