Mommy I Want Plus Size Barbie

Well I think it's not that they aren't taken serious but they become either 1)intimidating or 2)high maintenance.

I certainly agree with this point. It's not that they are good looking and a snappy dresser, it's that they are absolutely insufferable to be around.

I hate to say it, but if I were introduced to a new manager who happened to be a very attractive woman with snazzy clothes, I'd instantly assume she blew someone for the job. Which is very hypocritical of me, as I was a young kid with fancy clothes when I walked in as a fleet manager for a fishery, I'm sure everyone thought I was someone's nephew.

or that you blew somebody for the job :P

<[Burn]>

Nothing wrong using your looks to get a better schedule or promotion!

So, just a head count here...

How many of you have actually bought gifts for girls, ages four to eight, lately? Christmases or birthdays, actually listened to what their requests were (didn't "wing it" and assume), and didn't have a wife or girlfriend buy the gift?



EDIT: God! I hate when I feel as though I have to use sarcasm tags.

/

Well, I know you do, Mos. LOL!

/

Part of vacation was buying four girls (only two under 8) presents for Christmas. Part of a thing me/my dad have going are to buy those cool puzzles you see in bookstores and let their parents indulge them in the action figures / dolls that get eaten or dismembered eventually.

Cousin #1 - (age4) - Barbie Rock Star - Her parents already got her two Vtech educational games, she wanted a doll and there's been a spare Barbie hanging out in storage for a while.

Cousin #2 - (age7) - Two (metal) puzzles and money contingent on solving the puzzles. She wanted electronics but her parents already got those for her so money and doing something to earn it seemed to make most sense. She also got some clothes, hurray.

Based on my own family, it seems electronics has been ruling the day the last couple of years but I try to gift for utility, not for whatever happens to fall off a tree inside a kids mind. Most of the kids I deal with don't really have any idea what they want (like adults lol) so sometimes you've got to look at their interests and fill in the blanks.

Or challenge them intellectually.

Which is exactly my point.

If you look too good, you're instantly written off as either a dumb jock, the type to bend over to get ahead in life or a giant douchebag who sees everyone as beneath them. People can't seem to get past your appearance no different than being the hideous beast chained up in tech support.

I did, but I didn't buy any Barbie dolls for my niece. I bought one for her to piss off my sister (who is very feminist in nature).

That Barbie never gets played with, my niece loves "Hello Kitty" too much.

Well aren't you exuding maturity.

Think about it.

My niece doesn't want to play with Barbie because of the "unrealistic portrayal of womenhood that it has exhibited throughout the decades by male fantasies" as my sister puts it, but because she doesn't think the doll is fun to play with.

The next day, after I told my sister to watch my niece and take note of what she plays with the most, I showed her that my niece doesn't like Barbie because it is not, in her mind, fun to dress up women, but instead to pretend to play with her favorite character.

That is what pissed her off the most. She finally realized that girls don't idolize Barbie to be the perfect role model, but they want to play with the doll because it is fun for them.

It doesn't matter what the doll looks like, all that matters is how well the kid plays with the doll.

My sister may have a couple of points about the unrealistic way society (or really, Hollywood) has portrayed a "perfect" woman, but at the end of the day, it is how you react to your own ideas that matters, not what anyone else tells you what is "perfect" or not.

Your niece is a child, no ***she doesn't understand the underpinnings behind the Barbie argument. It doesn't mean she can't internalize Barbie subconsciously one way or the other. Subtle things we do to children can have profound effects on how they turn out, things you think they don't pick up on.

My point was that you're spiting your sister on politics instead of you know, trying to be constructive and providing something useful for your niece to play with.

Time and place for everything.

Really? :/

Or is it that maybe, just maybe, girls are disinterested in Barbie lately? Anyone notice that, or are we making assumptions? (This goes for everyone.)

I'm about to open a can of worms here, but since you mentioned it, please describe a "feminist" to us.

EDIT: In your own words.

Well, my sister is very special when it comes to her viewpoints. My only issue is that she punishes my niece and nephew because of her own viewpoints.

She doesn't want to let my niece play with Barbie because she thinks it doesn't ever portray a real woman (it isn't supposed to for crying out loud).

She doesn't want to let my nephew play video games because she doesn't want him to be influenced by violent scenes and affect his little mind (it won't if she actually listens to me about what to buy and what not to buy for him!).

She doesn't want either of them to ride bikes because of a stupid accident she had when she was their age (don't get me started on that...).

The whole point in the present was to prove to her that her views are for herself only, and not for the "punishment" of her children (since I can't really raise her kids for her, I want her to understand that, because her life sucked, mainly for having me as a brother, doesn't mean that her children's lives will suck if they did the same thing we did when we grew up).

Her viewpoint or mine, it doesn't matter, as I have said before:


I don't know about if all girls are disinterested in Barbie or not (doesn't look like it imo, based on the fact that there is still aisles of Barbie crap at my local Toys-R-Us).

As for a feminist, the only real viewpoint I would have as to one would be (as you guessed it) my sister, therefor skewed because, even though she is a right pain in the ***, she is still my sister and I'm contractually bound to love her (as a sister, this isn't Colorado!). Truth is, I do love her (as a sister) and I respect her for raising 2 kids.

Anyway, I can't answer what I think a "feminist" is because I just don't care enough, but I'm 100% sure my sister is one (she keeps claiming to be one...).

KN,

Mmmm...Haven't been to a Toys-R-Us in a while. At Target, there's a quarter of an isle with Barbie stuff (This is neither here nor there but, they're skimping on the furniture available for Barbie now.), the rest is filled with Monster's High, Disney Dolls, Sophia the First (also Disney), Bratz, and MLP (and the anthropomorphic version of MLP). Next isle, the American Girl knock-offs (Mattel taking over AG is a damn travesty!), baby dolls, baby doll furniture, clothes, etc. Barbie's crown is slipping.

Agree with the bolded. I know my example doesn't include every girl, but the premature lessons I learned from Barbies were (1.) There's suppose to be something funny about Ken with his pants pulled down according to a first grade classmate who pulled Ken out of her cubbie, and was making the rounds to all the girls in the class. "What are we laughing about? IDK, but I guess it's worth a giggle?" (2.) Putting Barbie and Ken in bed together then stuffing extraneous Barbie clothes up Barbie's dress makes her pregnant. "Oh! That's how that works!"

Isn't Nintendo the first console every kiddo gets?

Bumps, bruises, scrapes, scratches are a part of childhood.

If this is true, then yeah...Your sister might be a little overly protective, but that's her choice.

9 yr old niece wanted a make up kit or one of those ridiculously overpriced Monster High dolls. We got her a ridiculously overpriced Furby instead.

You're a year behind! OMG, Zero! Get with it!

EDIT: Isle before Barbie and such, all those annoying animatronic toys that will literally jump off a shelf and spook you if you're not paying attention.

God! I'm so happy the holidays are over.

Nightmare fuel.

That's where I do my birthday/Christmas Shopping for the kids. Since I was there less than a month ago, I still remember how horrid the Barbie aisle was.

Hey, that's you. I don't know what goes into anyone else's mind but my own, so there you have it.

She only allows certain games (aka games on her smartphone) to be played by my nephew. She wouldn't even let him play on the Wii at my parents house (but it is perfectly ok for my niece to play on it, but that is something completely different), even with my father and I to supervise him. And it's not like either of us have violent games (the most violent game at my parent's house is Tiger Woods PGA Tournament 2005 or so).

My viewpoints of her is not to be discussed here any further, however.

You really don't see where I'm agreeing with you about Barbie? Go to the beginning of the thread. This thread is about Barbie's appearance, I specifically added that anecdote because everyone's concerned about the premature effects that Barbie's appearance has, but no one here has mentioned what other fun, little things you learn prematurely from Barbie.

Why am I commenting on a thread I've already seen a dozen times with a bunch of wiener-wielders? Stupid me!

Just throwing this out there...Jassik got it right earlier.

We misunderstood each other I guess.

I guess what I'm saying is that everyone's perception is different. That may be why Barbie hasn't changed for the longest time because of that.

This may be a step in the right direction, changing her looks to fit today's lifestyles.

At least Barbie doesn't pee, cry and poop like some other dolls on the market.

Well this one tucks her penis, pads her bras, puts on wigs, and excessive makeup. How can young girls say no to this !?

Extreme example:

You don't think you learn a little something about what's to come from traditional baby dolls either? See Barbie reference to fundamentals of pregnancy, and think in terms of playing dress up.

I know I'm not the best at arguing for the sake of arguing, but you all come off really naive about girls' interactions with other girls and playing with toys when they're really young. You may as well dump every toy tailor-made for gender roles in the mix if you're going to whine about Barbie's influence on girls' psyches.

Remember when Legos were uni-sex?

EDIT: There's balances, but you're influenced by more than just Barbie.

DOUBLE EDIT: Not directed at you, personally, Sparth. You just reminded me of something.

I'll admit straight up that I do everything in my power to avoid girls and women whenever possible. I'm the eldest of three boys, no less, so I didn't grow up with a sister.

However, most of the argument is not about the explicit value judgments that 7-year-old girls make about their toys but, rather, about the implicit cultural values imparted by those same toys. For all that children tend to be a font of whatever thought is currently dancing across their frontal cortex, they're not going to be able to say, after playing with Barbie, "I'm going to spend the next 30 years obsessing about being thin." Longitudinal and even instant-reaction studies suggest, though, that she does have that kind of impact, as do a host of other sexed toys (here "sexed" means they are aimed at a specific gender, not that the toys have a gender in themselves).

That said, my little brother was obsessed with Barbie until he started middle school and is now borderline anorexic. It's pure anecdote and has no scientific validity, but it is nonetheless a thing that has happened.

Also, for the love of butter, the word is "aisle." An "isle" is an isolated patch of land in the middle of a large body of water.

Hmmm...I seem to remember Bacon having a term for that.

All apologies, forgive me! I'm positive you never make typos while banging through something that is a secondary or tertiary focus. Please, continue enlightening us about a gender that you've shown you have utter disdain for multiple times in various threads. It all makes so much sense now.