Barbie, Shmarbie

While reading the article titled 'Barbies without Ken: Femininity, Feminism, and the Art-Culture System' by Lynn Spigel, many different thoughts were conjured up in my mind. The world we live in today in full of SO MANY different controversial issues that it is hard to read something like this and think, "Wow, Barbie is really making an impact on our kids." Although there are several interesting points made regarding the issues of racism, classism and gender roles, there are many other much more prevalent dolls that we should be focussing on. What about 'Bratz' - if that is even how you spell it. They are or were, maybe I'm continuing to date myself, very popular and have many of the same if not more exaggerated traits than Barbie has. I think the bigger issue is the way that we are parenting our children. Let's be honest with ourselves. We could give our child any toy they wanted and someone could find something wrong with it. Don't get me wrong I am a strong believer in creating change and ridding ourselves of the stereotypical images of women that we constantly see but for me it is more important to focus on what really matters. Our children's opinions and ideas originally stem from us as parents and the resources that we provide our kids with. Parents need to wake up and educate their children. Why not use Barbie as a tool. Talk with your kids about how this is not what most people look like, Barbie is just a doll that some people think is fun to play with and dress up, provide these children with other examples of images and toys in popular culture that are progressive. How about giving your daughter legos and giving your son an easel and some paint and letting them go all out.