The Secret:  Mommy's scared that Bratz might kick her ass!

Editor's Note:  The article in question follows this commentary.  This commentary is solely the work of the weblog author.

Nancy Gibbs' article "The Secret of Barbie's Rivals" sets off quite a few alarms that Gibbs neglects to mention - primarily, alarms for individuality, diversity, and parenting.

While I recognize that Gibbs' article is in fact a commentary/ opinion piece of its own (much like the retort I am writing now), it is very striking and, quite frankly, insensitive.  Far be it from me to lecture Gibbs about how she raises her kids, since I know nothing of her parenting skills other than her decision to deny certain toys to her kids (which, though I don't agree with her choice in the article, is probably smart, thoughtful parenting in general), and since I have no children of my own and thus no experience raising them.

However, given her heated comments, such as "It's easy to imagine that behind those pouting lips lies a pierced tongue," and "Heavily made up, they look jaded, bored, if not actually stoned," it appears she has caught the same disease so many parents in America seem to have caught and spread:  laziness in parenting and a desire for only simple answers.  It also highlights a deeply disturbing, and deeply American, problem:  to discourage individuality.

Now, as I said, I know not how Gibbs goes about explaining diversity to her children.  I can't comment directly on that.  Still, isn't it disturbing that she makes no mention of the fact that the styles represented by the Bratz brand dolls are in fact based on the styles and lifestyles of real life people?  Has seen even bothered to look around her local mall, at the teenage girls that congregate there, and observe the fashions they wear and the air of detachment they carry?

I ask:  why doesn't Gibbs bother to point out that there are "Different Strokes for Different Folks?"  IS she scared that she might have to hide daughter  if she were to come home with a piercing or a tattoo?

While individuality is a paradox waiting in the wings - with most of those teens claiming that they are "expressing their individuality" simply by emulating the styles of just another group, be it the "Goth Kids" or the "Sporty Kids" or the "Nerdy Kids" or whatever groups might permeate their high schools - it is still something nonetheless that should be taught to be recognized and respected, not feared and shunned.

Stereotypes exist everywhere for a reason, that there is normally a grain of truth to their design.  However, not every teenager, young adult, or older adult that has a piercing or a tattoo, or multiple ones, is easily pigeonholed into those stereotypes, which are always negative.

Furthermore, by resisting diversity, and forcing that resistance on a younger generation, one of two things most likely happens to the younger person - he or she either rebels against the resistance, or buys into that resistance and pressures others to do so as well.  Many a time in high school I observed a friend wear multiple wallet chains to school, in defiance of those who thought it was too punk, too skater, too alternative.  Just as many times, I observed the teasing my friend recieved from individuals (granted, in groups and cliques) taught to resist that type of behavior and style.

What will the little girl who plays with a Bratz doll be when she grows up?  Who knows?  I can speak from experience, having dated a girl with no tattoos or piercings (not even her ears) and having dated one with multiple tattoos and piercings that, at heart, a young woman is a young woman, and will express herself in the ways she sees fit based on her personality.  One might "rebel" in a certain way, while another might "conform" in another.

I can also speak from experience about what impressions these "lessons" make on a young person.  It was understood in the household where I grew up that if I came home with a piercing or tattoo, there would be severe repercussions.  In response, I always wanted to get a tattoo, in some form of rebellion to the rule that was pushed on to me.  However, in another sense, I also succumbed to the notion that tattoos and piercings were "bad" - I carried a negative idea to my impression of people with multiple tattoos or piercings.  And while those things were once "counter culture," they are much farther from it now days than many people think. 

Whether it be a waiter with a sweatband around his wrist to hide an ink band or a flesh colored tongue stud, tattooing and piercing are a way of life for many young people, one that today's children need to be properly educated on, taught to respect, and above all, taught that body art a woman or man does not make.

I applaud Gibbs for taking an active role in parenting, and denying her children toys that she feels will adversely affect them or their judgement.  But, boo to you, Gibbs, for not bothering to point out that heavy make-up, pouty lips, and a pierced tongue on a young woman does not mean that that person is a bad person, that your daughter shouldn't be friends with.  That type of neglect only leads to teasing and prejudice, or rebellion from the very impression you've tried to create.

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Editor's note:  this article appeared online at Time.com.  It is in no way the work of the individual blog writer.  However, it has been included for preservation of the preceeding commentary.

The Secret of Barbie's Rivals
A mom suspects that girls love them for the same thing she doesn't: their 'tude

By NANCY GIBBS

Since parenting so often feels like one long exercise in humiliation, in which you think you know everything until your children arrive to prove you wrong, I guess I shouldn't be surprised to find myself reconsidering my deepest beliefs about girls and their dolls, in the face of a merchandising watershed.

Like many moms of my era, I was one of those who righteously banned Barbie, the doll that launched a thousand women's studies dissertations, on the grounds that we didn't want our daughters' role model to be a giddy shopaholic who said, "Math class is tough!" and had a figure that defied the laws of gravity. That stance lasted until my older daughter was about 6 and a wise friend told me I was being an idiot by turning Barbie into forbidden fruit. Sure enough, when Sleeping Beauty Barbie arrived, she was played with happily for 48 hours and then put to sleep on the shelf in favor of the paintbox and the Beanie Babies.

Fast-forward a few years. Barbie is now poised to be toppled as the most popular girls' toy by a rival that makes Barbie look Amish: the Bratz doll, a brilliant invention of MGA Entertainment that you can tell instantly, from the very name, taps into the deep desire of daughters to drive their mothers insane.

Enter the world of Bratz dolls, and you can see that their bedrooms are not pink with daisy pillows on the beds, though girls can get a disco ball and a Plugged In Lip CD Boombox. Introduced in the summer of 2001, the dolls are cool, urban and multicultural, with names like Roxxi and Nazalia and Jade and Fianna. They have big heads and big hair, and faces that make you wonder if Angelina Jolie licensed her lips. The designers have even solved the problem of those infuriating little Barbie shoes. The Bratz feet are huge, and when you remove a shoe, the whole foot comes off with it, mildly grisly but much more practical. The dolls are a sisterhood, a rainbow coalition, and they come with killer accessories, like the sushi lounge with a karaoke stage, or the Lil' Gym with treadmill and exercise bike.

So what's not to like? After "The Unbearable Whiteness of Barbie" (the name of an actual Occidental College course), was there not a need for a doll that "looks like America"? Absolutely, but diverse is one thing, dissolute another. Most critics focus on the clothes, which lean past trendy to trashy: torn jeans, bare navels, platform shoes, microskirts with chains. It's easy to imagine that behind those pouting lips lies a pierced tongue. But that's not really the issue. You could strip them naked, re-outfit them from Cinderella Barbie's closet and still have a problem.

It's all in the expression. Heavily made up, they look jaded, bored, if not actually stoned. You may want to play with them, but they don't want to play with you. And this matters, because when you watch little girls play, you realize that it's not just about fashion; it's about fantasy. Barbie joins the circus; Barbie teaches the teddy bears to read. You get the feeling that the Bratz dolls would come to life and protest if you told them they were entering a spelling bee.

So, having caved on Barbie for my firstborn, I banned the Bratz for my second, determined to draw a line somewhere, only to watch her fascination grow every time we passed the toy aisle at Target. Meanwhile, the competitive threat to Barbie did not go unnoticed by the makeover masters at Mattel. In the face of years of criticism, Nurse Barbie had turned into Doctor Barbie, Stewardess Barbie into Astronaut Barbie, with a host of multicultural friends. There was even Barbie for President 2004 in a trim red pantsuit with a Stars-and-Stripes scarf.

But somehow Barbie remains incurably pink and retro, because she is an icon, a Warhol painting, a Smithsonian exhibit. The latest attempt to make Barbie modern is a little painful to watch. Bling Bling Barbie looks like a Bratz clone. At the Toy Fair this week in New York City, Mattel is unveiling the new Ken, who has "hottie hair" and cooler clothes. Turns out Ken is a metrosexual now. Mattel talks about the "Barbie turnaround" it is planning, which just makes me worried about the prospect of Rhinoplasty Barbie (you can remake her face!) or Tattoo Barbie.

Suddenly Malibu Barbie is looking better to me. Once seen as insidious, she now looks innocent compared with her successors. As it happened, Santa overruled me and brought Daughter No. 2 a Bratz doll (though she came dressed in a karate outfit, which is practically a burqa by Bratz standards). Maybe in the best of all worlds, two sisters with two generations of dolls will play together. Barbie might loosen up a little and learn some new moves, while Roxxi might get some help in AP calculus. A mom can dream.
(article link:  http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1158949,00.html )

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Update:  newly designed, this site will now be used for my commentary on popular news items of the day.  There's too much going on, and I need an outlet.

Enjoy at your own risk.

~ D.C.