MyGender Dolls allow kids to swap genitals, a ‘therapeutic’ tool
An ongoing project at a publicly-funded university came under new scrutiny after a pitch for their “gender identity” dolls resurfaced promoting genital swapping to kids as young as five.
“Creepy” and “demonic” were just some of the reactions as word of a project at the University of Minnesota made the rounds referred to as “MyGender Dolls.” There, the Eli Coleman Institute for Sexual and Gender Health and the National Center for Gender Spectrum Health coordinated “therapeutic” paper dolls to facilitate conversations about the “gender spectrum” and “talk about private parts.”
Highlighted by the account Libs of TikTok after a report from Minnesota’s Alpha News, a video from the school appeared to advance the idea, “They want to groom your children. Parents beware!”
In the two-and-a-half minute promotion that sought financial support for the project, a series of illustrations were depicted with swappable reproductive organs and genitals that covered an array of skin colors, hairstyles, and clothing options as the narrator contended, “There are lots of different ways to be a girl, a boy, or anywhere along the gender spectrum.”
The school’s website further detailed, “The dolls consist of bodies that vary in age, shape, and skin color, so all kids can see themselves represented. In addition to the bodies, kids will have a choice of genitals and internal reproductive organs to show that their gender identity is valid no matter what parts they have.”
“Clothing options: each clothing item is drawn several times so that any outfit will fit any body,” continued the description. “With over 100 different clothing, accessory, and hair options, kids will have a lot of choices for self-expression through their doll.”
Earlier this year, NCGSH was offering $20-$60 for “transgender and gender diverse children” aged five- to 10-years-old, along with their parents, to meet in groups, play with the dolls in their “new hands-on activity to help talk about gender and bodies!”
Psychologist Dianne Berg, co-director of NCGSH, who co-developed the dolls with artist Ashley Finch and psychologist Rachel Becker-Warner argued in an interview for the school, “I think everyone should be learning that there’s diversity in gender identity and that what makes you ‘real’ is not what your body parts are, but how you think and feel.”
Having participated in trials of the project that had been funded in part through a grant from the California Institute of Contemporary Art, therapist Elizabeth Panetta cheered, “We were able to explore and brainstorm not just what our bodies are able to do now but what we want our bodies to do and look like in the future. We also were able to talk about private parts without it feeling too serious or clinical.”
While NCGSH and the Institute for Sexual and Gender Health were currently planning a “2SLGBTQIA+ Intergenerational Winter Celebration” that did not specify any age requirements for participation, reactions to the insistence on promoting gender ideology to children included calls to shut down funding for the University of Minnesota.
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