Gender Role Expectations OR Why Baby Will Be A Surprise

When I was a little girl, I had a lot of porcelain dolls.  They lived in my closet, on the top shelf where I couldn't reach them.  They stayed in their boxes.  They looked sort of like this:

So, if I didn't/couldn't play with them, why exactly did I have them?  Well, they were all gifts.  Gifts from relatives who didn't know me.  All they knew was that I was a girl.  Same goes for any Barbies in my possession.  So, while these dolls were the spawn of good intentions and nice thoughts, really, when it comes down to it, they were a waste of money.  Somewhere I'm sure they still exist, in a storage unit or something.  The point is, no one ever really loved or enjoyed them.

What could my relatives have gotten me had traditional gender roles not tinged their judgement?