Bratz
When did a child’s play-toy…a simple doll require a tramp stamp?
In the pink aisle, there is a disturbing trend. All the dolls look like sluts. This trend started a few years ago when a line of little girl’s dolls appeared called “Bratz.” Soon after, the line was filled out with cars, action sets, homes, and all the other stuff that goes along with a doll line that is similar to what Barbie has. They were even given a television show and a full-length feature film to flesh out the back-story of these little harlots.
That is the full extent of my knowledge of what a “Bratz” doll is. I don’t know the story line behind the doll, I don’t know their individual names, and I don’t know what planet they come from. I don’t want to know, the second I saw them sitting on the shelf, I made a mental promise to never buy one of the things. My daughter doesn’t seem to care, none of her friends play with them and she’s never seen the television show. When I ask her about them, she tells me she doesn’t like them. When I ask her why she doesn’t like them, she just shakes her head noncommittally and shrugs her shoulders. I pressed her further to explain why she doesn’t like them and she tells me that they wear too much make-up, they wear belly shirts and they have feet that are waaaay too big. That is as far as I can get with her concerning her opinion on the Bratz line of dolls. They just don’t matter to her or her group of friends.
But what about other kids? Do their parents actually buy these things? They have to be. The geniuses at Mattel (or whoever is making Barbie these days) figures that somebody has to be buying them… because the geniuses at Mattel are changing Barbie to look more like the Bratz line. Really? Yes, Barbie doesn’t look like Barbie anymore. This isn’t really a new concept. Barbie has evolved many times over the years to change with the times, but this is the first time I can actually see that Barbie hasn’t evolved into something that is pretty.
Barbie is considered the classic young girl’s toy. Everybody on the planet knows that. Heck, there are grown women who still collect them and pass them off to their daughters. People also know that Barbie is supposed to be beautiful. Not in some gamine waifish beauty or some rotund earth mother beauty. Barbie’s “look” is kind of like that of a Miss America contestant and has been considered the unattainable beauty that some women spend tens (or hundreds) of thousands of dollars in plastic surgery trying to achieve. I’ve read articles on how Barbie’s measurements are a set of outlandish sizes that make her look more like a cartoon than an actual human being. I believe that; nobody in real life could pull off her body style and expect to be able to walk upright. Even still, Barbie comes off as a beauty queen while the Bratz dolls come off looking like one girl everybody on the football team knew. And I mean knew.
So now, Barbie has changed to be more like the Bratz dolls. Her eyes have a tad more eye shadow on them; her lips are just a bit bigger (I don’t remember reading about Barbie getting collagen implants in the tabloids) and her outfits reveal more of that Mickey Mouse bod she has been hiding for all these years. This trend doesn’t seem to be going away, but rather, it seems to be growing and becoming far more whore-like. Do we have to see “Meth Whore Barbie” action sets and is Ken going to keep his pimp hand strong?
I am waiting for when the day comes and I can find a My Pretty Pony doll with a pierced navel…they already have the tattoos.
