I'm Going With Creepy

So the latest toy foisted on our kids is another baby doll, but this one apparently makes noisy suckling sounds when, and here's the critical point, the child dons a special halter top that has sensors embedded behind "petal appliques" located in the nipple area of the halter.  Yes, you read that correctly.  The AP story (Creepy or Groundbreaking?) is here.  

Bill O'Reilly has already come out against the dolls, which retail for $89 each.  While they have sold well in Europe, the manufacturer hasn't been able to market them through mainstream retailers in the U.S. due to the retailers' desire to "avoid controversy."  The manufacturer believes the controversy in this country is based on Americans' discomfort with breast-feeding.  Of course, the "petal appliques" do tend to conjure up images of strippers, but...

I can't speak for American toy retailers, and I generally think Bill O'Reilly is full of hot air, but I'm going with "creepy" on this one.   I'm perfectly OK with breast-feeding and I don't think anything about it sexualizes anything, but this doll does something else.   It would seem to be yet another pressure on our children to grow up too fast.   I mean, it's one thing to play at feeding a baby doll, but carrying a doll around pressed to an 8 year old's breast seems to be something other than play.  According to the manufacturer (Lewis):

Lewis considers Breast Milk Baby "very much less sexualized" than Barbie dolls or the sassy Bratz pack.

Small comfort.  Those toys are often just as creepy.  He may be right, but sexualization isn't my point; growing up too fast is.