Saturday, March 14, 2009

warning - personal opinion post

I'm thumbing through the latest Target catalog and I came across the latest Barbie offering. In addition to the Barbie 50th Anniversary Doll (which looks just fine although her bikini bottom is pretty low cut for a doll that is targeted to little girls aged 3 years and up), Mattel has now come out with Barbie Totally Stylin' Tattoo Doll. In blonde and brunette. I had always hoped that Barbie would somehow never fully drop into the ranks of The Bratz; unfortunately that day has come.

Yes oh yes, in this day and age of equality for all (ie, everything goes) there SHOULD be a doll for the kids of moms with tats. But you know what? I don't know of any mom who looks like 'regular' Barbie so why should they make one that reflects the tatted moms? How about they make some Barbies that look like most of the moms out there? Size 12, sweat-pants wearing, messy hair mom? Or Size 4, business-suit wearing, perfect hair and makeup mom? Or size 10, Capri-wearing, average, everyday mom? Or parapelegic mom in a wheelchair? Or frazzled, taking-care-of-two-kids-alone-with-a-job-because-Ken-ran-off-with-a-newer-model-Barbie Barbie? I guess that tattoo Barbie could be thought of as practice for the girls - they can spend the next 10 years figuring out with their Barbie where exactly they're going to get that first tattoo.

I KNOW that Barbie doesn't set the styles, that she's only a reflection of the current attitudes and styles. What a sad reflection this is of our current society. What's next? Girls-Gone-Wild Barbie that comes with her own 'personal massager'? Or will it be Anorexic Barbie that comes with some fake vomit, a toilet and some laxatives?

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