New Barbie ad

ThxSugar · October 2015

This came across my FB feed a couple times and I approve. I wasn't a huge girly girl growing up but I still played with Barbies. I had the talking doll where she says "Math is hard". I think this campaign is a step in the right direction for Barbie after such a long walk in the wrong direction.

http://www.catchnews.com/culture-news/after-59-years-mattel-gets-it-right-the-new-barbie-ad-is-awesome-1445076134.html

Your thoughts? Do your children play with Barbies or other dolls/action figures?

thefanciestbeckler · October 2015

I don't have kids, but I was a Barbie fanatic growing up. I like it when any company focuses on things like this instead of appearance. I am especially happy to see that Mattel has opened their eyes to the things they are teaching young girls about body image and what it means to be beautiful, smart, and successful. Bravo!

ETF spelling

hellohkb · October 2015

Mattel and Barbie has taken such a dramatic turn in their marketing and image and I think it's pretty rad. I love Barbies and I love that they show "hey, you can be girly (or not) and still be strong and smart".

I shared this ad with other people in my feminist group and sadly it didn't generate conversation so I'm glad people on TK are talking about it.

Heffalump · October 2015

I am right in their crosshairs: I used to love Barbies, and now I have a 6 y.o. daughter who is not super interested in them. It's interesting that the article referenced the Disney Princess dolls, because she has a ton of those and plays with them all the time. And she likes Life in the Dreamhouse on Netflix (which I thought would be kind of dumb but was actually pretty clever and even LOL funny at times). But it has never translated into much interest in the dolls themselves, for whatever reason.

I loved the commercial, though. I'm OOT and I actually just texted a link to my husband and said it made me cry, because it was so DD. He texted back "That's her!

" So whatever else, someone at Mattel really did their homework and focus grouped the hell out of it.

jacques27 · October 2015

I have very conflicting feelings about this. I mean, I'm certainly glad it's not sending some sort of over-sexualized "math is hard" stereotype, but at the same time, I feel there is still a certain amount of sexism to it. It reminds me of something Sarah Silverman talked about in one of her specials a couple of years ago.

Stop telling girls they can be anything they want when they grow up. I think it’s a mistake. Not because they can’t but because it would have never occurred to them they couldn’t.

She continues on:
You’re planting that seed in their heads. It’s like saying, “Hey when you get in the shower I’m not going to read your diary.” “Are you going to read my diary?” “What are you crazy? I just said I’m not going to ready your diary, get in the shower.”

Maybe it's too difficult to boil it down that simply and it's a bit over-idealized, but really I don't think she's off base. The commercial also sort of rubs me the wrong way because in all of the examples, whether it was staged this way or truly candid, the adults all have incredulous looks on their faces, stifling laughter and reacting as if someone is playing a joke on them and will pop out from behind a plant to tell them they are on Candid Camera. And maybe their response is at the juxtaposition of it being a child instead of an adult, but since the message of the commercial is clearly only about little GIRLS, it gives the impression that there is something inherently funny and peculiar about a GIRL being in these roles, reinforcing the exact message the commercial is allegedly trying to speak out against. I find their reactions to be really off-putting and takes away from the message vs. if the adults had acted like it is perfectly normal seeing a girl in a role of authority and respect.

PamBeesly524 · October 2015

This just reminds me of last December when I was shopping for gifts for my "Frosty's Friends" (my company partners with a local family center to provide gifts for the holidays... we get paired up with one or two kids and buy them some things from their wish list). I got a 6-year-old girl who's wish list was "Barbies, Dolls, Dollhouse." I spent about 30 minutes in the Barbie/Doll section in Target looking for a Barbie that wasn't 1) dressed in tube top and tiny skirt or 2) labeled as "Shopping Barbie" or "Glamour Barbie". Maybe I was reading too much into it but I wanted to try and find a Barbie with a decent job! I settled on a veterinarian barbie even though she too was dressed in nothing. It was disappointing, but I made up for it with some kick ass Frozen Dolls to go with it.

Heffalump · October 2015

jacques27 said:

And maybe their response is at the juxtaposition of it being a child instead of an adult, but since the message of the commercial is clearly only about little GIRLS, it gives the impression that there is something inherently funny and peculiar about a GIRL being in these roles, reinforcing the exact message the commercial is allegedly trying to speak out against. I find their reactions to be really off-putting and takes away from the message vs. if the adults had acted like it is perfectly normal seeing a girl in a role of authority and respect.

That was actually my exact take on it, re the juxtaposition. Because honestly, it would be strange to see a 5 y.o. vet or professor--they're not in positions of authority (boys OR girls) because they're little kids. IDK, that didn't bother me.

I do agree with the whole "girls can be anything" point. DH and I actually had that conversation when DD was little. He would say "You can do anything a boy can do" or "Girls can be astronauts too." His heart was in the right place, but it was exactly like that diary example. (I really wish I had seen SS's take on it when DH and I were having that conversation.) And as a mom of a daughter and a son, I want to encourage girls and boys to be/do anything they want, and I'm also aware of the assumptions people make about girls' talents and abilities vs. boys'.

I also have a slightly different take on toys. I guess there is a role for Teacher Barbie, Astronaut Barbie, et al., but in my experience as a former Barbie kid and current mom, any Barbie can be imagined into anything: mermaid, airline pilot, fairy scientist. (This last one is a real thing from earlier this week at my house. She invented a flying potion.) So I don't get super hung up on what costume she comes with, because it doesn't necessarily determine how she'll be played with. (And it will probably end up in a drawer somewhere after the first time she strips Barbie down for a bath. Most of our Barbies/princesses are half-naked at any given moment.)

ryanandjoe4 · October 2015

Heffalump mine were always naked too, they are so tedious to put the clothes back on. I guess my barbie and kens decided they were nudists..

ThxSugar · October 2015

The commercial had the same effect on me at first too, as if saying a female professor or veterinarian is somehow abnormal, until the end when it shows the little girl playing professor. Then it didn't matter what the adults' reaction to a girl being in a professional role b/c all that mattered was the story the girl was making up. She wasn't thinking about whether or not she was making history or changing gender stereotypes b/c she was just playing. I agree about Barbies still dessing too skimpy. My Fniece LOOOVES Barbies. She is a total princess, girly girl. It is hard for me to buy things for her b/c I wasn't like that as a child. I tend to stick to mermaids and craft projects. Fi and I actually agreed last Christmas, no Barbie, no Disney. My Barbies were always half naked too. I remember not having enough bottoms for everyone so they all went bottomless for a while, haha. ETA: mobile ate my paragraphs.

Maggie0829 · October 2015

Heffalump said:

I also have a slightly different take on toys. I guess there is a role for Teacher Barbie, Astronaut Barbie, et al., but in my experience as a former Barbie kid and current mom, any Barbie can be imagined into anything: mermaid, airline pilot, fairy scientist. (This last one is a real thing from earlier this week at my house. She invented a flying potion.) So I don't get super hung up on what costume she comes with, because it doesn't necessarily determine how she'll be played with. (And it will probably end up in a drawer somewhere after the first time she strips Barbie down for a bath. Most of our Barbies/princesses are half-naked at any given moment.)

This is my thinking with toys. Kids have incredible imaginations and tend to make things up that don't always go with the outfit that the doll is wearing. I really think that these commercials and changing of the toys are more for the grown ups then the kids. A kid can take a stick and make it into a wand, a sword, a gun, a spoon, a donkey, or whatever. But all a parent sees is a stick and if the stick isn't promoting the message that they believe it should then it will influence their kid in the wrong way.

Also my barbies ended up naked quite a bit. I also would chop their hair and pull their heads, legs and arms off. But amazingly I am a very well adjusted adult woman with a full time job.

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