William's Doll is a 1972 children's picture book

Picture book

A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. The images in picture books use a range of media such as oil paints, acrylics, watercolor and pencil.Two of the earliest books with something like the format picture books still retain now...

 by Charlotte Zolotow

Charlotte Zolotow

Charlotte Zolotow is an American author, poet, editor, and publisher of many books for children ....

 about a boy who wants a doll

Doll

A doll is a model of a human being, often used as a toy for children. Dolls have traditionally been used in magic and religious rituals throughout the world, and traditional dolls made of materials like clay and wood are found in the Americas, Asia, Africa and Europe. The earliest documented dolls...

 even though dolls typically are considered a toy only for girls

Gender role

Gender roles refer to the set of social and behavioral norms that are considered to be socially appropriate for individuals of a specific sex in the context of a specific culture, which differ widely between cultures and over time...

. His father, uncomfortable with William's request, tries giving William toys the father considers more gender

Gender

Gender is a range of characteristics used to distinguish between males and females, particularly in the cases of men and women and the masculine and feminine attributes assigned to them. Depending on the context, the discriminating characteristics vary from sex to social role to gender identity...

-appropriate, such as a basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

 and a train set

Train set

A train set is a set, normally consisting of a model train and a small circle or oval of track. A set of rail tracks of more appropriate size for a train set is a model railroad layout...

; while William enjoys these toys, he continues to ask for a doll. Eventually, the boy's grandmother fulfills the request, explaining to the father that William will use the doll to practice being a good father.

Zolotow has explained that although she is a feminist and appreciates that many feminists enjoyed the book's message, her inspiration was more from personal observations about her husband's early attempts to bond with the couple's son, Stephen, and about how men of the time period missed out on some of the pleasures of being closely involved with their children's development.

The book often is used in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 for lessons on gender roles, stereotype

Stereotype

A stereotype is a popular belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" are often confused with many other different meanings...

s, or general anti-bias

Bias

Bias is an inclination to present or hold a partial perspective at the expense of alternatives. Bias can come in many forms.-In judgement and decision making:...

 education. (See, for example, Ellen A. Greever, Patricia Austin, and Karyn Welhousen, "'William's Doll' Revisited," Language Arts, 77(4), 324-30, March 2000, for a journal article on a study comparing reactions of fourth-grade

Fourth grade

Fourth grade is a year of education in the United States and many other nations. The fourth grade is the fourth school year after kindergarten. Students are usually 9 or 10 years old, depending on their birthday. It is a part of elementary school. In some parts of the United States, fourth grade...

 students in 1975 and in 2000.)

Adaptations

A song based on the story, with lyrics by Mary Rodgers

Mary Rodgers

Mary Rodgers is an American composer of musicals and an author of children's books. She is a daughter of composer Richard Rodgers and his wife, Dorothy Rodgers, as is her sister, Linda Rodgers Emory...

 and music by Sheldon Harnick

Sheldon Harnick

Sheldon Harnick is an American lyricist best known for his collaborations with composer Jerry Bock on hit musicals such as Fiddler on the Roof....

, was included in the best-selling Free to Be... You and Me children's album

Album

An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...

 and songbook in 1972, where it was sung by Alan Alda

Alan Alda

Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo , better known as Alan Alda, is an American actor, director, screenwriter, and author. A six-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner, he is best known for his role as Hawkeye Pierce in the TV series M*A*S*H...

 and Marlo Thomas

Marlo Thomas

Margaret Julia “Marlo” Thomas is an American actress, producer, and social activist known for her starring role on the TV series That Girl . She also serves as National Outreach Director for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital...

. (This same song was sung by B. D. Wong at the Ms. Foundation's 15th Annual Gloria Awards ceremony in 2003, where Marlo Thomas and former Ms. Foundation president Letty Cottin Pogrebin received the Creative Philanthropy Award for the album's creation.)

When Free to Be... You and Me became a television special in 1974

1974 in television

The year 1974 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1974.For the American TV schedule, see: 1974-75 American network television schedule.-Events:...

, ABC

American Broadcasting Company

The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

 asked producer Marlo Thomas to make two changes to the material, one of which involved the Zolotow story:
William's Doll also became a 14-minute film in 1981

1981 in film

-Events:*January 19 - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer acquires beleaguered concurrent United Artists. UA was humiliated by the astronomical losses on the $40,000,000 movie Heaven's Gate, a major factor in the decision of owner Transamerica to sell it....

. In 2010

2010 in film

The year 2010 saw many new films released worldwide. 2010 saw a dramatic increase and prominence in the use of 3D-technology in filmmaking and film releases after the success of Avatar in the format, with releases such as Alice in Wonderland, Clash of the Titans, Jackass 3D, all animated films and...

, the producers of RiffTrax

RiffTrax

RiffTrax are downloadable audio commentaries featuring comedians Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett heckling films in the style of Mystery Science Theater 3000, a TV show in which Nelson was the head writer, and later the host. The RiffTrax are sold online and delivered by digital...

, formerly Mystery Science Theater 3000

Mystery Science Theater 3000

Mystery Science Theater 3000 is an American cult television comedy series created by Joel Hodgson and produced by Best Brains, Inc., that ran from 1988 to 1999....

, released William's Doll http://www.rifftrax.com/shorts/williams-doll. This was their "riff" of the aforementioned short, which was itself based upon the Charlotte Zolotow

Charlotte Zolotow

Charlotte Zolotow is an American author, poet, editor, and publisher of many books for children ....

book that inspired the William's Doll track on Free to Be… You and Me.

The 1981 film starred Craig Salles as William and was shot in Graceada Park in Modesto, California, hometown of director George Lucas.