Everyone Hates Barbie...

This is ridiculous… can Barbie never get it right?

The liberals criticize her for promoting stereotypical female gender roles, such as being obsessed with appearance (to attract male interest), promoting that having material goods equals happiness, and in the past, showing traditionally female career choices and interests (remember the “math is hard” recording for a talking Barbie?)…

The conservatives criticize her for the exact opposite – that Barbie is too worldly, too risqué, and doesn’t promote a traditional female role model!

Certainly, there is plenty of fodder to criticize… I myself take issue with the Chickenpox Kelly doll – making a plaything out of a serious disease… IMHO they would have been better off having Kelly going to Dr Barbie for a well-child checkup… much more of a positive message, and educational, in the sense that children should know about going for an annual checkup, and feel comfortable at the doctor’s office….

But I digress…

The conservatives have the complaint this time… saying that Barbie and Mattel are promoting a homosexual agenda because a survey on their website gives three options for a question response:

Are you a:
Girl
Boy
I don’t know

Mattel execs say the “I don’t know” option was default text that should have been rewritten to state “I don’t want to say”, as that is always an option with their surveys. Conservative activists claim it was a deliberate attempt to portray homosexuality as acceptable to young children.

And, of course, Barbie gets criticized again – now for steering girls away from the Christian ideal of womanhood…

I’d say she was a born loser – except she’s just so popular…

-Emily