>Bratzism
>Hidden in the deepest, darkest corner of our toy closet is a big box of…
Bratz.
That’s right. Bratz. America’s favorite hoochie dolls, dressed to kill in a vibrant selection of microminis, microtops and macromakeup. Personally, I don’t have a problem with my girls playing with Bratz, but lately, I’ve noticed their poor little plastic asses getting kicked by the mommyblogging masses. I guess it’s hip to hate on plastic prostitutes. The poor things can’t exactly defend themselves; their lips are sealed with glitter glue.
As popular wisdom goes, Bratz dolls make Barbie look like she came straight outta Amishtown. But I’m here to tell you that Barbie isn’t the virginal vixen she was when we were girls in side ponytails, making her and Ken get naked in the back of her pink Corvette. Today’s Barbie harbors a not-so-secret skank, and I’m here to expose her. Observe these pictures, taken straight from Mattel’s Barbie website:
First, we have Hard Rock Whore Barbie. I’ll give you one guess as to what her favorite instrument is.
Tattooed n’ Tarty Barbie is a big hit with the under-6 crowd.
According to the website description, French Maid Barbie “celebrates the working woman.” I hear she takes extra care going over your most treasured possessions…
Burlesque Barbie shows your daughters that it’s never too early to start practicing in those stripper heels…
And in another homage to the working woman, Bordello Barbie pays tribute to the world’s oldest profession. Va va voom!
Of course, the ultimate Barbie to add to your daughter’s collection is My Bling Bling Barbie.
I could write something witty here, but the comments written by moms on Bling Bling’s Amazon page are so much more entertaining…
“This needs to be called “My Porn Star Barbie” or “My $2 Hooker Barbie.”
“This doll is a major $LUT and she might as well be wearing fig leaves! The doll’s name should be changed to My Scene Gold Digger Barbie.
“The only thing that this Barbie is missing is Ken so he can be her pimp! Shame on you guys!
“Seriously, My Scene Barbies make out with boys. And wear the worlds most sluttiest and ugliest outfits.”
“This doll is by far the ugliest, nastiest, sluttiest dolls alive. OMG she scares me.
And her shirt, gross. It looks like something hanging from her boob, OMG that is nasty.”
“Her make up is gross, and especially the look on her face says, “Do me now.”
That’s why I’m calling now for an end to Bratzism. Barbie’s like that girl we all knew who pretended to be virtuous, then went to third base with your boyfriend in the boiler room. I mean, at least the Bratz are open about it. As far as dolls go, there’s only one group that’s sluttier.
>Ha, the french maid doll makes me think of that Desperate Housewife TV episode where Lynette gets drunk dressed up as a french maid waiting for her husband to come home.
>This is hilarious stuff…had my own blog troll call me a ‘rich skank ho’ last week and I don’t even have an outfit anywhere near as cool as these Barbie secret skanks. I’m going to have to get me Bling Bling Barbie to remind me of my fan base.
>I have never liked Bratz, although I may just be jealous of their bitchin figures. I’m sticking with My Little Ponies.
>Seeing these dolls makes me glad I have a son… though I don’t look forward to what he’s going to be exposed to in school!Whatever happened to modesty & decency?
>Bratz and Barbies really don’t bother me. I was a huge Barbie fan as a child and I didn’t harbor any impulses to die my hair platinum blonde or get breast implants. I thought they were a cartoonish rendition of a woman- and I think today’s Bratz and Barbies are the same thing. I don’t love the clothing, but what the hell? They all end up naked in the toybox, anyway, no matter what they were wearing originally.
>I am an admitted Bratz hater. And, I am very suspicious of that last Barbie pick you have…I think that is a Bratz doll trying to LOOK like Barbie. How DARE SHE!I laughed out loud at the Pussycat Dolls comparison. I really think some music exec was sitting down to breakfast with his daughter one morning and spied her Bratz dolls all together and said, hmmm…that could work. And, the PC Dolls were born…
>Yikes! It’s a good thing my mom was such a pack rat and I have tons of Barbie clothes from the late 70’s and early 80’s to hand on down to my little girl.
>My daughter has 5 big and 3 little Barbies, she plays with them every so often. Our big nemesi (nemesisuses?) are the Polly Pockets (or Polly Choke-its) because we have a 9 month old who is becoming more and more mobile. Fortunately, our daughter’s toys mostly have a “Coffee Table” rule. They stay in the coffee table or they go to charity.The daughter sees the Bratz cartoon ads on TV occasionally and says, “Can I watch that” to which I usually say, “no.”
>How do you tolerate this? These dolls portray women. But only a specific type: whorish, superficial, meterialistic woman! And for little girls, this is dangerous!I had a barbie doll, too and since I had lost all her garments, I would sew dresses for her (they susually turned out amazing) but all those years I wanted to be as tall as barbie and as beautiful as her. So you can imagine my disappointment when I stopped growing at 13 (5’only) and was not skinny. (I am not skinny today either!)Those barbies and brats are insults to today’s woman, who is working her ass off at work and at home, trying to have a balanced life. What do those stereotypes teach our little girls?Does anyone else think that those dolls seem more like sex toys rather than kid’s toys?
>I’m with you ST, I wasn’t scarred by the many hours I spent playing with anatomically nutso barbies with their huge boobs, tiny waists and mile-long legs, so I think my daughter isn’t going to be hurt by playing with the Bratz and Barbies of today. But I am baffled why the clothing is so ho-ish. I guess that’s what sells. That’s what the little girls want to buy.
>At my house we do not allow Bratz. In fact we call them prostitute action figures. That just seems to be who they are. My daughter never really got into Barbie- she is much more of a rough and tough girl that a lovey baby doll/Barbie girl. Thank goodness.
>The French Maid Barbie is a tribute to today’s Working Woman?!?!Pfft. Yeah. I’m sure a corporate executive woman at Matel came up with that. (rolling eyes)
>You didn’t happen to catch “Boston Legal” last night did you? (I LOVE that show) It was dealt with this very topic. Very interesting. HMMMM, I wonder if David E Kelley reads this blog and that’s where he gets his show ideas from? :)I wasn’t allowed to have Barbies as a girl, my Dad thought it would give my sisters and I unrealistic body image expectations. I am NOT kidding. And he’s a logger and usually didn’t have a clue what we were up to. It seems so odd now. ANYWAY, I am glad that I have boys. And I think it’s sad that from such a young age little girls are being modeled this kind of image. Put some clothes on for God’s sake…
>I waited (impatiently) for many years for my breasts to appear, but even after pregnancy and a year of nursing, I’m a 32A. I’m not totally blaming Barbie, of course, but I do think that girls grow up expecting to look a certain way. I didn’t get over being flat chested till I realized how much better I fit into designer clothes 🙂 That, and in college I started getting compliments on them.The Barbie doll we know is based on a German sex toy doll (I can’t think of her name right now), and The Pussycat Dolls were a popular burlesque act in LA for years before branching out into recording.I wouldn’t describe myself as wildly pro-sextoy doll, but I don’t think those dolls are the problem. We’d also be complaining if Mattel exclusively sold variations of Housewife Barbie. There’s a reaon toy companies portray females the way they do.
>I don’t like the Bratz dolls…but after looking at some of the hoochie outfits that they’re putting on Barbie…. Whew, I just think it’s a sign of the times. It seems like every generation is wearing less clothes than the one before; these dolls are just representative of our times. That said, I’m going to HAVE to tell my husband about “prostitute action figures”…that cracked me up!
>Haha..I grew up with Barbies, too, but those bratz are gross. Plus, I hate that you take off their whole foot instead of the shoe. I think that was a way to end the lost shoes, now lil sis has a collection of peg-legged bratz. Even the bratz clothes they sell for little girls is like “Hello, I’m not pimping my five year old!” But the WORST are Baby Bratz..you know, the little chubsters with the THONG sticking out their diaper or whatever!! Just sickening. Sunshine catches the cartoon once in a while, which I try to shut off (Because it’s dumb), and I won’t buy them for her, but she does have a couple from other people. Probably naked in the toybox.
>I had a ton of Barbies too (still have them actually). I guess the old-fashioned Barbies (a la 1970) don’t bug me the way these do. Yeah, they’re all just molded plastic underneath, but what the heck message are we sending to little girls with these get-ups?
>If my daughter wants a Bratz, she can have a Bratz. And we’ll talk about the makeup and the hair and how they’re a cartoony, ridiculous version of reality. By denying them to her, I think they’d have more importance in her mind than they would if she got one. Do you want to know what message these dolls are sending our kids? The “message” is whatever WE, as their parents, TELL them about the dolls. So if she hears her parents and older sisters laughing about the trampy little Bratz (which we do from time to time when the Bratz box comes out of the closet), that’s the message she’s getting about them, in a way that doesn’t leave anyone defensive or with hurt feelings.
>You make a valid point. After all, it’s OUR reaction that the kids are going to listen to…it’s not like they’re going to sit still for a documentary on “Sexist Behavior in American Society” or some shit like that. These lessons are learned on an “as needed” basis. We can’t sit them down for a “Barbie/Bratz=BAD” seminar. I don’t think that the dolls my daughter plays with now are going to affect her 15 years from now. I think that what’s going to make the difference is seeing how Mommy reacts to certain things.
>I have to admit: I caved.I was one of those moms who wouldn’t let dear daughter have a Bratz doll because, “You are not a brat and you are not going to have a doll called a brat.”That lasted about 3 months.Barbies are still cooler.
>I can’t stand Barbie. That ‘hooker’ barbie in the red dress is their version of an Asian girl. Yeah. I wouldn’t give that to my neices. Thanks.I will admit though, my kid plays with Bratz. And I don’t think they’re all as nearly as bad as advertised.
>MM wants some of these toys (Bratz and Barbie), I tell him that they’re too silly for us to buy since they wear “too much makeup and not enough clothes.”
>Those my scene barbies are called out by lots of people as being just as bad – but I have read (can’t speak to the veracity of it, just have read) that they were in response to the popularity of Bratz. So can we please still blame it all on the Bratz? Heh. Seriously, the APA’s new report on the sexualization of young girls calls out lots of other examples, too, from music and videos to the sale of tween-sized thongs. What is up with all that grossness? Do you really want someone to think your six-year-old is a sex object?! Who is buying this shit and fuelling the market for it?
>Snow White has many of the Bratz, Barbie, Kelly, etc. and I have the same feeling. They are only toys. I have no fear she will want to dress like them. She hasn’t ask me yet to dress up like Little House on the Prairie since she received her American Girl doll Kirsten.Bratz vs Barbie came up at our house this weekend too. I linked your Bratzism to my entry.
>I see where you’re coming from. The Bratz people won’t be getting any of my cash though, and if my niece wants one, she won’t be getting it from her Auntie M. Vive la consumer choice!
>Hm……I don’t get it. What’s not to like?
>Thank goodness my daughter only likes the princess and mermaid Barbies. However she does pull her pants down and her shirt up to show off her belly – I blame Teen Titans.
>… and we only thought pageants were the downfall of young women everywhere ;o)Gizmo won’t play with either. She’s too into Build A Bears and that kiddie crack known as Littlest Pet Shop animal bobbles. I always liked the Dawn dolls when I was a kid (where did they ever go?)
>About ten years ago I was in the height of my “I am woman, hear me roar” stage. I was attending college at Humboldt State University, the Hippie college. Armpit hair, rings in unusual places, tattoos… was all the rage.Barbie was the enemy!For Christmas my mom made me a Humboldt Barbie. She had an eyebrow ring, dreads in her hair, tattered jeans and tank top, belly button ring, armpit hair and leg hair… Gotta love the Barbie!
>Even the regular Barbies now have much bigger Bratzie eyes. It’s really creepy.
>I’ve now moved the age at which I will allow my daughter out of the house to 67.
>Anonymous,What the heck is wrong with the teen titans?
>Tatto Barbie was real. That is actually one of the Barbies I saw in a toy store. She came with press on tattos for your little girl to enjoy. “Bling Bling Barbie” is a My Scene Barbie and actually in toy stores too. The rest are for collectors.Even my Snow White, diehard Barbie fan, gave My Scene Barbie the boot big!! She has Bratz and ancient Barbies.
>Awesome! I loved this. I got rid of our Bratz last summer, but wound up with MORE (the Kidz and sister ones) at Xmas time from my crazy SIL who lives far away. Ugh. However, I’d take the Bratz Kidz over My Bling Bling. WTF kind of name is that???
>You are hysterical. Just ran across you blog while writing a post on beauty pageants. I’ll come back and check out your archives when I have a bit more time.
>Thanks for that rundown, MommasWorld. Actually, all of these Barbies are “real.” And many of the “collectors” are little girls. I used to be one of them.
>Did you know that the Pussycat Dolls were going to have their own dolls made (by Matell, I think), but a Fathers For Daughters Organization (or something like that) complained to the point that the dolls have been yanked from the production line. The dads thought the dolls promoted promiscuity and sluttiness. I don’t think they had any problems with Barbie, though. How funny is that?~Amalia~
>This is hilarious – how did I miss it?One of my favorite gifts from Nate (dare I say it?) we called “racist barbie” which was–no joke–a black teenage barbie in a McDonald’s uniform with a (her?) baby in a highchair next to her. The white counterpart, at least on display at the store we went to, was a candy striper.