This is my first post, so be gentle!
I was more than overjoyed this Christmas when it was brought to my attention that Bratz Dolls were being taken off of the shelves - although not due to the way they portray a woman's image, but because of copyright infringement.
However, my step-daughter-to-be came home last week with a Barbie Thumbelina doll that her grandparents had purchased for her...and I was deeply surprised that they had not thought better of it after seeing the doll. For those who are not familiar with this line of Barbie dolls, here is an image of the one Bella brought home:
Not only are this doll's structure and features chillingly similar to that of a Bratz doll, it seems worse to me. She's thinner, she's more scantilly clad - but most of all, look at the way she's standing. If you have a chance to see this thing from all angles, it's even more shocking. She has a "hello there, sailor" sort of stance, and her right leg is actually sort of deformed so that she can form this position. I mean, look at the hip!! Her legs are completely immobile because of the way she is built.
In this picture, they have pulled the skirt as low as it can go, but after a minute of playing with it, it rides up so high that her posterior hangs out of the back. Also notice the flower on the skirt, where it pulls the skirt to form a sort of carrot (^) shape, in order to expose her entire leg (not really noticable in this photo, though.)
While these companies allege that their products are merely empowering to young girls, there is actually a name for this marketing technique. It's called "age compression," or K.G.O.Y - Kids Getting Older Younger. It is a means of pushing adult products onto young children in order to sexitize them.
Barbie's original targeted age group was 9-12. They are now sold to girls ages 3-7.
Some other examples:
Does anyone remember the Little Miss books (the female version of the Mr. Men books)? I had them read to me every night as a child. They were innocent and sweet and always had a good message.
A clothing company put Little Miss Naughty's image on a padded bra and panties set intended for 9 year-olds
Or how about Halloween costumes? Who wants their daughter to go as Harem Girl or Major Flirt?
Miss Behaved?
Forgive all the images, but it just makes my brains want to implode. How are parents allowing this to happen?
WHERE ARE ALL THE LISA LIONHEARTS?
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Congratulations on your first post, hillaryperson. I'm kind of new here (I mostly lurk) and I hope to have the guts to post, soon, myself.
In the meantime, don't get me started on what's being marketed to young girls today. I took a look at the Barbie Thumbelinas. Have you seen that not only has the super-short skirt and sexy pose, but the thigh-high stockings?
http://www.entertainmentearth.com/prodinfo.asp?number=MTN5671
I can't help wondering if there's a matching g-string under that skirt.
I've always had issues with what Barbie dolls teach girls about body image, gender roles, and race. But I'm old enough to remember when the outfits for them were at least fairly modest.
I don't have kids so I don't know how parents feel about this, but I suspect a lot of them are uncomfortable with it, and are giving in to the pressure that comes from manufacturers marketing directly to kids. I would imagine it's even harder to say "no" to kids when there aren't many alternatives out there. (At least, not that I know of.)
The links for the images didn't show up. Could you post them in a comment because I would like to see them.
Here are links to the photos.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41bKbgY4yhL._SL500_.jpg
http://img.thesun.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00047/I_intprod1-8000based_47909a.jpg
http://fancydressheaven.co.uk/bmz_cache/3/30546b111969b5bd475ee2f1bab8065f.image.300x450.jpg
http://essentials.baltimoresun.com/micro_clients/party_city/images/full/98184.jpg
http://cn1.kaboodle.com/hi/img/2/0/0/160/0/AAAAAp50KwAAAAAAAWAFpQ.jpg
Thanks for the comments!
What?! That doll is outrageous. And Little Miss Naughty bras for girls? Ugh. This was a bad start to my day.
You know, if you make dolls, I think you have some creative license. So, if you decide to make their legs out of strings and their hair out of pom poms, whatever. But these dolls are made to look like people, and the message does go through eventually that girls are supposed to look like that. And the problem is not that there is one strain of dolls that look like this -- they all do. Even Dora was made over to adhere to these types of ridiculous standards.
I don't really think that Barbies are being marketed to younger girls. I remember having them as young as age 3-4, and that was in the early 90's. I DO think those Thumbelina dolls are weird-looking. They don't look like Barbies at all.
I kind of like the "Harem Girl" outfit. It reminds me of "I Dream of Jeannie," but given what a "harem girl" actually is, maybe "Pink Genie" would be a more age-appropriate name for the outfit.