The Bratz phenomenom

[adina]

http://health.msn.com/pregnancykids/...60211&GT1=9303

We've never bought these dolls. We've got one in the house, which my oldest got for a birthday present from a friend from school. Someone asked me once what's the difference between these and Barbies, well, um...Barbie has clothes on? And a job?

I guess my question is, do you see a difference between these and Barbie? I'm fine with the Barbies, but we don't buy the Bratz dolls, and my girls know this.

[mwfanelli]

http://health.msn.com/pregnancykids/...60211&GT1=9303

We've never bought these dolls. We've got one in the house, which my oldest got for a birthday present from a friend from school. Someone asked me once what's the difference between these and Barbies, well, um...Barbie has clothes on? And a job?

I guess my question is, do you see a difference between these and Barbie? I'm fine with the Barbies, but we don't buy the Bratz dolls, and my girls know this.

Good grief. I never even heard of Bratz dolls...

[walterick]

They are different than Barbie, but both can be criticized for the unconscious messages they send to little girls.

Barbie says: "Beautiful means white skin blonde hair blue eyes long legs huge boobs and an impossibly small waist" (we've all heard the medical comment that a real woman with Barbie's dimensions could not breathe)

Bratz say: "It's okay to be a color other than white and cool means big lips sassy attitude bare midrift eye makeup platform shoes stylish hair."

They both send a different message but I don't know which is worse. Historically, they have both been blamed for sending negative messages to little girls.

I don't know which shape and color of doll parents feel safest giving to girls. Everything is going to affect their view of themselves in some way. I guess the bottom line is the behavior and attitudes that are modeled by their parents are going to have a bigger effect on how they view themselves and what they feel they are worth than their dolls are. If daddy comes home and yells at mommy that will have a bigger effect in their little minds of how relationships should look. If mommy and daddy deliver the constant messages both verbally and nonverbally that their little daughter is beautiful and capable of whatever she sets her mind to, that would have an equally powerful effect. Sure, the images of other women they see have an effect, but there are a few things that come before that carry more weight developmentally, imo.

[shutterman]

Adina,

We don't have Bratz either, but we do have Barbies and American Girl Dolls. Our daughter plays with both just about equally, but Polly Pockets still rule the day! She is 5.

I think cartoons are far worse than the dolls at her age b/c she can' t really read and doesn't comprehend a lot of the marketing that goes along with Bratz. Once she becomes a little more aware it will be a bigger problem.

Also, since Barbie has started making movies about Princess' (like Disney) she tends to see them as more of Disney-like figure (with the big gowns, etc) rather than some sort of sexy body to aspire to.

thanks,
Wes

[MJS]

We're pretty much over the barbie and bratz phenom here. I do however feel like the southern rep for American Girl dolls. I honestly think that my 11 year old has almost as much, if not more of her allowance and gift green tied up in her dolls than I do on Nikons and assorted gear. She and her little pack of she wolves have already travelled to Chi town and NYC with the Mother/daughter book (shopping and Partying) club and totally pillaged both AG locations. I'll have to con her and her growing group into another portrait this weekend.

[Tel]

Well I'm 100% fine with Barbies, but I hate Bratz so much its not even funny. If you see the commercials, there basically Promoting to little girls thats its good to be spoiled. I mean COME ON! If I could get rid of one thing on this planet, It wouldn't be Poverty, It wouldn't be AIDS, it wouldn't be Terrorism, It wouldn't be George W. Bush, It'd be Bratz. Call me heartless, whatever you choose, but I hate these things with the white hot fury of a thousand suns.

[Asylum Steve]

I guess my question is, do you see a difference between these and Barbie? I'm fine with the Barbies, but we don't buy the Bratz dolls, and my girls know this...

Funny, I never liked Barbie that much (won't even go into Ken), but have always loved Bratz dolls and their outrageous fashions.

Always seemed to me like the image of Barbie was suppose to be "realistic", IOW what Rick said, an unreachably perfect woman.

OTOH, Bratz are obviously cartoon characters, playfully way over the top, and (again agreeing with Rick) ethnically diverse. The Diva factor and spoiled, high fashion aspect to the girls are a total fantasy play thing.

Make believe. Like dressing up in mom's jewelry and clothes...

Personally, I don't agree with anything that linked article professes. Assuming there is parenting (yeah, I know, a big assumption), I find it hard to believe that childhood toys affect a kid's self-image so strongly that they are single-handedly responsible for how we turn out as adults.

I loved my GI Joes and war toys when I was a kid. Then I moved on to 007 and "Man From U.N.C.L.E." stuff. "Killed" my friends many times over. Can't live without my Bugs Bunny cartoons.

And I am about as non-violent an adult as they come...

And FWIW, I never thought there was anything wrong with me simply because I wasn't tall with broad shoulders and muscles like my dolls, er, I mean action figures. My folks made sure I had lots of books and magazines growing up, taught me to be curious about everything, and encouraged me to draw and create and learn every chance I got.

That is what shaped my sense of self-worth. Not what Madison Avenue was trying to sell me.

BTW, sounds like some of you need to avoid the toy aisle at the store. Think you're taking this a little too seriously...

[MJS]

I used to love to play with my sisters Barbie's, along with my train sets. Used to imitate old silent movies by tying them up on th tracks with the train headed toward them, where they were then rescued by an action figure. That way the train stayed up for a while after Christmas and I kept my sisters out of Mom's hair for a bit.

[adina]

For us, the difference between Barbies in Bratz doesn't have anything to do with body types or whether or not they are realistic.

Fact is, the Bratz look like little whores. Pretend or not, fantasy or not, every popular toy has all the additional merchandising that goes with it. In this case clothes and makeup. Sorry, at 6 and 8, not going to happen. My kids know this, and are okay with it. We don't make a big deal out of it, and I certainly don't tell them they (the dolls) look like whores, but they know that we don't buy those toys because I don't like them.

[JETA]

There is something fundamentally wrong with Bratz dolls.

My 7 you daughter has none. Tons of Barbie's one American Girl doll, but no Bratz.