Things Seen 14

It may seem that I talk a lot about how products geared for children reinforce and perpetuate ideas instilled by living under the kyriarchy, but, damn, I'm continually astounded.

We were shopping for summer clothes. My son, avowed lover of graphic shirts, thought this was funny:





I told him I didn't like it, then tried to explain why.*

"He's saying his sister is so annoying, he was happy she was kidnapped."

He understood that part, but the back took a little more.

"This is based on a stereotype that girls and women talk a lot, that their talk is annoying, and that what they say isn't important."

A debate ensued, which he began with, "Mama... some girls do talk a lot."

He kept looking at the shirts, then said, "You are really not going to like this one!"






He was, of course, right.**
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*Sorry for the (camera phone) picture quality. The shirt says "The Flying Monkeys Stole My Sister... But They Brought Her Back for TALKING TOO MUCH."

**The front of the shirt features a smiling boy holding duct tape. "I have no idea where my sister is," he says. On the sleeve is his unsmiling sister, restrained with the duct tape.

Now We Can Get Back to Wholesome, All-American Barbie!

***All bolding-for-emphasis is mine***

I'm not particularly upset that the outcome of Barbie Doll-maker Mattel's lawsuit is that a judge has ordered the competing Bratz doll line to discontinue production, except for the effect this will have on the people who work for MGA. I do believe Bratz represent a highly-sexualized image not necessarily appropriate for young girls and I'm not a big fan of "fashion" dolls period.

But it's not just the clothes and lip gloss that appealed to millions of girls.

Wikipedia describes them as having "almond-shaped eyes" and "lush... lips." Here are some images:





Images from here

According to Fara Warner:

If Barbie® were a real woman, she would stand 6 foot 2 and most likely would be unable to stand because of her tiny waist and large bust. By contrast, if Bratz™ were real girls, they would stand about 5 foot 6 and sport bodies that look more like entertainers Beyonce Knowles and Jennifer Lopez

My point is, that Bratz did not look like white-Barbie dyed light- or dark-brown, and that is definitely part of their appeal:

“Barbie® did advance as women advanced. She had a doctor’s outfit, she went into space. But she was still blonde and blue-eyed when a majority of girls in the U.S. and the world were not.

Focusing on the fact that these dolls are multicultural does lead to more troubling questions though:

1) Why did the manufacturer feel the need to dress and adorn these dolls in this way?

2) Have people (particularly moms) explored why it's so easy to call these dolls (dolls, for god's sake!) "freakish" and "hookers" and "slutz" and "trampy"?

The Bratz are market successes because they rely on stereotypes about "ethnic" women: they are sexy (and sexual) and made cutting-edge/trendy by their "exoticness" and their adherence to an alternative/rebellious counterculture (in this case, largely hip-hop).

Ironically, these are the exact reasons Bratz are repudiated. This mom, for example, was appalled by the "vinyl whores" who, when compared to Barbie had "less boobs, more junk in the trunk."

I am also bothered when people posit Barbie or Disney Princesses* as more "acceptable" alternatives. In a 2002 Detroit Free Press Article, Ellen Creager** claimed that "Barbie's" attempts to cash in on the Bratz appeal (discussed further down) besmirched her:

Mattel Inc.'s new My Scene Barbie has a big head, pouty pink lips, skimpy jeans and a navel-baring wardrobe worthy of an MTV diva.

But if ruining her reputation is what it takes to win back girls older than 7, Barbie's more than willing.

"The dolls are more reality-based," Mattel spokesman Ria Freydl said. "A girl can really relate to them."

Sure, if she's Christina Aguilera.

And, says Margaret Talbot,

You could never imagine a Bratz doll assuming any of the dozens of careers Barbie has pursued over the decades: not Business Executive or Surgeon or Summit Diplomat -- not even Pan Am Flight Attendant or Pet Doctor. Bratz girls seem more like kept girls... Whereas Mattel’s Scothon likes to talk about Barbie’s "aspirational" qualities -- how she might inspire "a girl to run for President and look good while she was doing it" -- [Bratz creator Isaac] Larian prefers to talk about "fashion and fantasy" and what’s "cute."

Ah, yes, Barbie, the feminist fashion doll!

Barbie and the Disney Princesses are just as problematic as Bratz, and Barbie, with her previously-impossible measurements and adherence to the blonde-blue-eyed-white-woman-as-THE-ideal is just as sexualized. For how many years did she play nurse to Ken's doctor, ahem?

But her sexualization is more acceptable--largely because it is cloaked beneath white skin and presumed to be reserved for one man. Barbie has been critiqued plenty, we all know. The basis of some of that criticism was her early devotion to the "cult of domesticity." The culmination of Barbie's life was to be marriage, in which she would reap the awards of her physical attractiveness--being "taken care of," having dreamhouses and luxury cars.

Contrast that to the basis for much of the Bratz criticism. Bratz detractors claim they "look ready to stand on a street corner." Now, a cynic like me would point out that these critiques have something in common; both imply that a message is being relayed to girls to rely on their looks and their bodies to get money from men for survival. The difference is, one way is idealized--long defined as normative--and the other, criminalized, classified as deviant. Thus, while Barbie is "despised by feminists and child educators for being a tool of racism and sexism, and a contemporary epitome of the cult of thinness," she is "idolized... as a model of aesthetic perfection and a cultural icon of heterosexual femininity."

(Speaking of "Barbie vs. Bratz," isn't it amazing how "disputes" between even fictional women can be cast as catfights? LOL/sob.)



And Disney, with its dead mother/evil stepmother issues and "aspire to be a princess who needs to be rescued by others!" isn't exactly the company I want shaping my goddaughters' world views.

Please don't think Mattel is overly concerned with protecting children from The Menace of the Bratz!! They tried to cash in on the Bratz's success with their ill-fated "Flava" line, viewed as offensive by many.



And what do you think MyScene Barbies are all about?



Barbie was no longer queen of the fashion doll circuit, so Mattel had to do something.

Look, in the interests of fairness, all I want are a few things:

1) I want psychologists, after YEARS of feminist critiques, to think about why they aren't as alarmed about Barbie as they are about Bratz.

2) I want mothers who point out the "vacancy" of the Bratz's lives to fashion a similar critique about the MyScene dolls who are, according to their website, primarily concerned with fab faces, shopping, and bling.

3) I want people to analyze why a doll based on a German "sex doll" who once opined that "Math class is tough!" and came with a weight loss guide that advised, "Don't Eat" is THE model for "fashion" dolls. (That's a bit rhetorical, huh?).

Seriously, Bratz did not spring from nowhere. Little girls get messages everyday about how the most important aspect of their person is physical beauty, about how women LOVE to shop and put on makeup. As I've been Christmas shopping for my six-year-old goddaughter, I've seen sweaters with feathered necks and fronts (Bratz are trashed for their feather boas), ultra-skinny jeans, high heels, lip gloss and manicure sets, and enough sparkles and glitter to decorate a high school prom.

The Bratz aren't some anomaly. They are reflective of much about our culture and pulling them off the shelves won't change the root problems. And the whole suggestion that Barbie is somehow a more-acceptable-tool-of-the-patriarchy is weird to me (and sorta misses the point, doesn't it?). How much of our problem with Bratz comes from the fact that this particular cultural reflection comes in different "packaging?"
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*Guess which Disney Princess the Hot Air blogger's daughter has a problem with? Jasmine, cuz she kissed Aladdin and she wasn't married!! Slutty brown girl!

**"Barbie Bares Her Belly to Compete with Bratz," 27 November 2002.

All Up in My Space!

I need some pants. Some for work, some for play, just some damned pants.

I've been in a quandary for the last year though, every since Lane Bryant rolled out their new "Right Fit" sizing. They were all excited, too, with tape measures tossed stylishly around the associates' necks and color- and shape-coded signs. They had my cynical ass all bubbly. Right Fit doesn't come in the sizes I'm used to, so I walked up to an associate and asked how could I find a pair of these "revolutionary," bubbly-elle-making, change-my-life-forever pants in a size that fit? How did the new sizes correspond with the old?

I thought she'd just tell me.

She didn't.

Therein lay the catch.

Apparently, Right Fit is so damned new and unlike-anything-in-the-history-of-fashion that I can't just try to find the size that corresponds.

I have to be measured. In the store. By another person.

That is too much for me. I'll admit that I haven't thrown off the well-instilled practices of not discussing my size (I tell y'all I'm fat but I don't tell you what size I wear, now do I?) and treating my measurements as if they were the combination to a safe at Ft. Knox or something. After a lifetime of that, I've made a lot of progress but I am NOT about to go in a store, fling my arms open, and say, "Measure me, baby!" I imagine a lot of women are hesitant to do so. And it doesn't matter whether we should or shouldn't be, that's just how it is.

Then there's the fact that I don't like people putting their arms around me, especially strangers. Yeah, we can brush cheeks, exchange pecks, give a quick squeeze to acknowledge each other, but a full out, prolonged hug--not my favorite thing. I'm not a touchy sort of person--again, I know a lot of it's related to body image issues. I remember a long time ago, seeing a weight loss commercial in which the mom was in agony over how she had failed as a mom--the proof? Her (very young) child couldn't get her/his arms around mom!! I have never forgotten that and though I thought it was ridiculous, that lingers in the back of my head when people try to hug me. Sad, but true.

So yeah, pants. I need them. I can find the cute specialty ones, but most of the denim and increasingly the career pants are Right Fit. I know there are other stores, but the stuff at Catherine's is not my style and the pants at Avenue always look as if they go with something specific. I'm going to look more the website to see if they'll reveal the secret that is Right Fit sizing.

I am very hesitant to buy clothes online, so that option is (mostly) out.

If not, I just don't know!