I don't know what to think about the Ho Ho Ho dolls for kids

[AnnInLa]

((When my daughter was young, I did not want her playing with Barbie dolls because of the usual feminist reasoning....supporting unrealistic images of the way women's bodies are supposed to be, yada, yada, etc. Now I have a young granddaughter, and there are these dolls in the toy stores just waiting for the kids to yammer for them....do they support an unrealistic lifestyle image that we, on DU, are usually criticizing as shallow, empty-headed, beauty/youth oriented?

I am torn....this comes from the RW New York Post, so I tend to take the other side. But, I do not want my granddaughter having these kinds of dolls. Hmm. Sometimes I am not as liberal as I like to think.))

http://www.nypost.com/seven/12142006/postopinion/opedcolumnists/ho__ho__ho__dolls_to_make_you_cry_opedcolumnists_kirsten_powers.htm



December 14, 2006 -- WHEN did the doll section turn into a porn shop?

snip

Just feet from the Etch-A-Sketches and paint-by-numbers were dolls dressed in garter belts, bustiers, fishnet stockings and high heels. "Ella" was in a teddy; "Justine" in an evening gown with her breasts overflowing. Cleavage and lingerie were the order of the day.

As small children filed by, I felt myself panicking, wanting to cover their eyes or steer them away, as if they were going to be exposed to something they weren't meant to see. Never mind that they were the target audience for these hyper-sexualized dolls. I was, after all, in a toy store.

snip

A few feet down was the worst of the dolls - with baby faces, but the bodies of grown women. The cherubic faces, with painted lips and eyes, sat incongruously atop stick-figure bodies - interrupted only by the requisite bustiness - clad in revealing evening gowns and other adult outfits. None were named JonBenet, but the point was clear: What's sexy is a child made up to look like a woman. Bizarrely, parents seem to by buying it.

What's next? Dominatrix Barbie?

snip

The new dolls have gone beyond selling a body image and now sell a materialistic, hyper-sexualized, party lifestyle. Where Barbie had no real-life counterpart, the newer dolls are clear rip-offs and reinforcements of what's already being sold 24/7 to girls through movies, reality TV, music performers, MTV and glossy magazines:

more at link

[patrice]

1. What's the matter with you? Don't you believe in the "Free Market"?

[warrens]

2. The Britney version comes without underwear

Just kidding, but who knows, it may have already happened. Flasher Britney.

[rhiannon55]

3. But this is a CONSUMER culture

We should buy our kids anything they ask for...:sarcasm:

Why do you hate Amurka?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

4. I don't want my granddaughter to have dolls like these either

I'd rather make her a soft-sculpture doll with clothes that are realistic for a child or a doll to wear....or, if like me, she decides she'd rather play with trucks, I'll get her those.

[nemo137]

5. Gods, I hate Bratz dolls.

When I hear my 5th graders talking about them, I die a little inside.

[AnnInLa]

6. OK, what are Bratz dolls?

Are they something I should steer my granddaughter away from?

[FedUpWithIt All]

7. They are a counterpart to Barbie

I have never bought them for my daughters. They are dressed slightly more questionable the Mattel's newer My Scene dolls.

One thing that did bother me about Bratz is that they have a line of "baby" dolls. You know, the type that the kids play house with. Before i really knew what a Bratz doll was my children were talking about the "thong" underwear the babies apparently wear. They had heard it in school of course and i have never actually confirmed it.