Smackdown: Barbie and the End of the World

re: Smackdown: Barbie and the End of the World

Pablo Wegesend — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 04:17:59 GMT

No matter what any parents do

1) boys will always like girls with big butts and big breasts

2) your daughters will still notice some girls attract more guys than others!

3) your daughters will spend more time wishing certain boys would stop being attracted to them, than worry about "am I attractive enough"

by the way, remember the controversy over rap songs like "F--- the Police". The kids of those days are now adults! And many of those kids who grew up with gangsta rap are now police officers! If the police department want to fire anyone who like such songs as teenagers, 3/4 of the police force would be fired!

January 11, 2009 10:55 PM

re: Smackdown: Barbie and the End of the World

JTL — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 16:37:04 GMT

Speaking of sexualized toys....

"Barbie lays forgotten upstairs"

I think you meant to write "Barbie lies forgotten upstairs."

Unless perhaps Ken is involved...?

re: Smackdown: Barbie and the End of the World

mamaspeak — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 18:41:58 GMT

You know, my philosophy on all of this kind of stuff is; "they covet what they can't have, so anything in moderation."

We'll see how I feel when my girls want to do drugs. But I think a lot has to do with how big of a deal you make of things. If you make a big deal about it (either way/good or bad) your kid will pick up on it & then go from there..some will try to please you & some will do the exact opposite of what you want, cause that's human nature. Emme's response is pretty typical, she was mostly interested in the animals. Perhaps if she'd seen pictures or movies of mommy or daddy doing scuba she might have been more interested in barbie, but maybe not.

In regard to self-image; I think the biggest influence in a girls' life is her mother. Kids don't miss much so if you put yourself down, even if you don't think they know, they pick up on it. If we women could get over the idealizations that the media is selling us, then our kids might be able to too. Even though I wish I had my 20YO body back (cause I certainly didn't appreciate it then) I realized that my most comfortable time in my life body image wise was when I was pregnant. I think that is very telling. This is turning into a blog post, so I'll go finish on my own site.

My more than 2 cents.

re: Smackdown: Barbie and the End of the World

Amanda — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 18:12:25 GMT

I had corncob dolls, I shit you not, CORNCOB. My sisiter got have Barbies, and now I can't walk three steps without tripping over the damn things. My daughters like playing with them, but find it highly suspect that their knees don't bend.

re: Smackdown: Barbie and the End of the World

ZBecks — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 07:30:36 GMT

Now Barbie is EVIL....Muhahahahaha.

oh PLEASE!

re: Smackdown: Barbie and the End of the World

bueller — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 03:41:51 GMT

I had a ton of barbies when I was little. I think I turned out okay. Well mostly.

;-)

re: Smackdown: Barbie and the End of the World

kat — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 18:53:20 GMT

from what i can remember, i didn't have a Barbie. then i found a pic from my 5th b-day party where i got one and i was beaming. go figure, i don't like Barbie at all now and i am not a Barbie chick by any means. then again, they said i was obsessed with Mickey and don't care for him either way now. i don't even remember the obsession. as for the Barbie, she eventually disappeared. i don't ever remember playing with her and my on-going memory starts around 8.

re: Smackdown: Barbie and the End of the World

Bunny — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 18:02:00 GMT

I never compared my body to Barbie's, but I certainly caught on to the fact that she was "sexy" and made her do things that you really don't want to think about kids thinking about.

But the real problem was seeing people on television and in movies who looked a certain way and thinking that that was the only "correct" way to look and that anyone who looked like me was hopelessly ugly instead... and not really female, by virtue of not being sexy. And I think these pressures are worse today.

re: Smackdown: Barbie and the End of the World

Mary — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 17:18:57 GMT

I wouldn't blame Barbie for the "diets" that seven-year-old girls put themselves on. I remember launching "diets" as a kid, myself -- doing crunches in my bedroom and demanding fruit and so on. These phases usually lasted about a week, and what I remember most about them was the thrilling feeling that I was doing something "adult," not a deep desire to look like my Barbie or my ballet teacher or anyone else. I don't think I even thought I needed to "trim dowm" at the time. (That came later, and WAS courtesy of the ballet teacher. Bitch.) Diets at 7 were roughly equivalent to parading around in my mom's high heels at 3 -- they were playing grown-up. Maybe that says something horrible about our society's expectations for actual grown-up women, but I don't think it has much to do with toys.

re: Smackdown: Barbie and the End of the World

Heather — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 17:05:37 GMT

Honestly I don’t think it’s Barbie who influences young girls about dieting, clothes, make-up or sexy-ness. I played with my four barbies for years (all gifts as my hippie mom refused to spend money on them) and I don’t remember ever thinking, hmm, my boobs aren’t as big as hers or my waist isn’t as small, or even compared my clothes to hers. She was a plastic doll…not real. However, I did listen when my mom and her friends talked about dieting…and that’s where I picked up that my body was not perfect. It’s sad when I think about it because they were definitely not talking about me; they were just talking to each other. So there you go, my opinion is that if you don’t make a big deal about barbies or guns the kid will be fine. But watch the diet talk around impressionable kiddos.

re: Smackdown: Barbie and the End of the World

Mike Adamick (Cry It Out!) — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 15:19:46 GMT

Yeah, that's what I really meant to say.

re: Smackdown: Barbie and the End of the World

Dad — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 13:42:48 GMT

Mike, I love ya man, but you gotta ask yourself - are you really worried about the message Barbie is sending your daughter, or are you worried about what all your friends will think of you when they see your daughter has a Barbie?