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MeAndTheBoys
Citizen
Username: Meandtheboys
Post Number: 3996
Registered: 12-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, June 15, 2006 - 8:49 am: | 
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Holy crap. These "Babies" look like little "ho's" with CFM make-up, "bedroom eyes" and full, pouty lips. Just saw a commercial and it scared the you-know-what out of me.
What do moms of girls do? |
Hank Zona
Supporter
Username: Hankzona
Post Number: 5714
Registered: 3-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, June 15, 2006 - 9:10 am: |
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some of them buy the matching outfits for their daughters...others just say no. |
ess
Citizen
Username: Ess
Post Number: 2242
Registered: 11-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, June 15, 2006 - 9:14 am: |
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My daughter was into the Bratz dolls a couple of years ago. Nothing she had was too suggestive or ho-esque, although the make-up was a bit much. Haven't seen the new Bratz babies or any recent iterations of the dolles, though.
Ultimately, I think she found them a bit creepy (to change the shoes, the entire leg comes off) and abandoned them in favor of American Girl dolls (a more costly habit) and Jesse McCartney. |
Hoops
Citizen
Username: Hoops
Post Number: 1475
Registered: 10-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, June 15, 2006 - 9:22 am: |
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LOL
Bratz babyz -
http://www.mgae.com/2004_product_pages/products/BratzBabyz/BratzBabyz.asp |
Project 37
Citizen
Username: Project37
Post Number: 116
Registered: 3-2006
| | Posted on Thursday, June 15, 2006 - 9:25 am: |
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How 'bout this?
http://www.pimpfants.com/
(Yes, it's for real.) |
Soparents
Citizen
Username: Soparents
Post Number: 1031
Registered: 5-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, June 15, 2006 - 9:37 am: |
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I let my daughters pretty much have the toys of their choice when we go toy shopping, but Bratz? nope.... no no no nooooooo
They look deformed with those big heads, and who ever taught them about makeup?
 |
kmk
Supporter
Username: Kmk
Post Number: 1286
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, June 15, 2006 - 9:41 am: |
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Three daughters in this house....no Bratz.
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Virtual It Girl
Citizen
Username: Shh
Post Number: 4609
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, June 15, 2006 - 9:59 am: |
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We have a few, they were gifts. I wouldn't buy them (but my eldest insists I never buy them toys.)
I guess I'm raising 'ho's in training.
Really, I agree they are hideous and scary looking, but my girls are big on imaginary play and just use them the way they use any other doll, creating characters and putting them in different scenarios.
So what if those scenarios include after-hours clubs and ecstasy induced sexcapades. 
(BTW, That was totally tongue in cheek)
What difference are they than some of the boys' toys like different weapons, transformers, etc? I really don't think my 8 or 4 year old is going to start asking to dress like her bratz doll.
Sometimes I just don't sweat the small stuff. |
Zoesky1
Citizen
Username: Zoesky1
Post Number: 1560
Registered: 6-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, June 15, 2006 - 10:10 am: |
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Two daughters, ages 6 and 4, in the house, but holding off on Bratz. I hate those things. My girls know they are not allowed to get Bratz dolls, but they play with them at friends' houses. And i did give in once and allow them to get a Bratz playground ball, because it was fairly benign. But they know that is the closest they're getting to owning one of those hideous things. When they asked why they weren't allowed to get Bratz dolls, I simply told them they were inappropriate and left it at that....and they seemed to get the idea. I allow Barbies, but I draw the line at Bratz. |
Lydia
Supporter
Username: Lydial
Post Number: 1970
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, June 15, 2006 - 10:18 am: |
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I agree w/ Virtual It Gal,
I have daughters, one of them has Bratz, she also has Groovy Girls, barbies, Ugli dolls - they all live together in one big basket and she plays with them all together.
Yeah, the big heads are funny looking, but so was Blythe - remember the '70's? Dawn was pretty big-headed too.
What I do find unsettling is that some posters describe these dolls as "ho's" - what exactly is a "ho-looking" doll?
Do "ho dolls" have pimps? Carry switchblades? What? |
MeAndTheBoys
Citizen
Username: Meandtheboys
Post Number: 3997
Registered: 12-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, June 15, 2006 - 10:18 am: |
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I get your point, VIG. But boy, are those dolls kind of frightening.
Boys and weapons have a been around forever and, like you, I don't sweat the small stuff. But it certainly seems that when my guys were really small, before anyone else bought them any kind of play weaponry (because I generally don't), they were making guns out of their toast.
But there certainly wasn't anything like Bratz when I was a girl. I had a Malibu Skipper (you know, the one with the California tan), and that was about as crazy as it got.
And I really wonder about girls not "dressing like Bratz dolls." Seems like I see some girls (perhaps a bit older, but not always) who come very close sometimes.
I saw a teenage girl in the park yesterday, probably about 15 or 16, and her low-rise pants were so low I could practically see her uterus. As it was her little blue panties where peeking out. Aside from that fact, they were just terribly unflattering, as she didn't really have the figure to pull-off that low rise. And she had some conglomeration of horrific pink, sparkly eyeshadow all over her face. I guess I must be an old fart, because I said to myself "if she were my daughter, she wouldn't leave the house looking like that!" |
mjc
Citizen
Username: Mjc
Post Number: 1193
Registered: 10-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, June 15, 2006 - 10:51 am: |
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meand - "making guns out of their toast" brings it all back! Our thought at the time was that anything longer than it was wide was immediately a gun. And this at a time when they were way pre-K and not watching any of "that kind of stuff" on TV. Where does it come from?? |
ess
Citizen
Username: Ess
Post Number: 2243
Registered: 11-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, June 15, 2006 - 11:03 am: |
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Way back when I was a kid, I had a Skipper doll that unfortunately developed breasts when the arms were raised. In retrospect - WTF????
I'm not apologetic about the Bratz dolls, just as I am not apologetic about the Barbie dolls I tried to ban. They were fun at the time, and they were used just as any other doll/toy for imaginary play.
I am way more concerned about guns and violent toys at this point. It seems as though the potentially suggestive toys are a thing of the past (and fortunately, before they could have an impact on my daughter, who is now 9) but the toys for boys - guns, swords, and the like - are everywhere. Even when my son gets a weapon as a gift, it is given away. |
joy
Citizen
Username: Joy
Post Number: 480
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, June 15, 2006 - 11:42 am: |
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No ho dolls in my house. My nieces wanted them for Xmas one year - no ho dolls from me - let some other Aunt spend the $.
Barbies made it into the house to my chagrin. I view them as a lesser of two evils. |
Lizziecat
Citizen
Username: Lizziecat
Post Number: 1274
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, June 15, 2006 - 11:56 am: |
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I had sons and we never allowed them to have toy guns. So they made them out of legos. Or they pointed their fingers and said "Bang, I'm shooting you dead." Or they played with guns at their friends' houses. At least we were true to our own principles and didn't buy guns.
Now I have granddaughters. They don't have Bratz, as far as I know. They do have Barbies, and I must say I get a secret satisfaction from seeing the way that the Barbies are carelessly tossed around, ignored and then forgotten. |
Hoops
Citizen
Username: Hoops
Post Number: 1478
Registered: 10-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, June 15, 2006 - 12:11 pm: |
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thats it. I am now scarred for life. buzzsaw you have clearly crossed the line. Dave - buzzsaw should be banned for this obscenity.
editted to say Sorry - 'Nevermind' |
buzzsaw
Citizen
Username: Buzzsaw
Post Number: 5025
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, June 15, 2006 - 12:16 pm: |
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I took it down. It was in bad taste.
The dolls do look like they have had really bad plastic surgery. |
Hoops
Citizen
Username: Hoops
Post Number: 1479
Registered: 10-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, June 15, 2006 - 12:17 pm: |
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I thought it was funny tho. Just extremely gross. |
Pippi
Supporter
Username: Pippi
Post Number: 2344
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, June 15, 2006 - 12:19 pm: |
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I always think Buzzsaw is funny and brilliant, so I am sorry I missed it. Whatever he said, I am sure I would have agreed
 |
Hoops
Citizen
Username: Hoops
Post Number: 1481
Registered: 10-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, June 15, 2006 - 12:23 pm: |
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It was a visual comparison between a Bratz doll and an actual plastic surgery gone bad. It really does seem like the person tried to look like the doll.
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Virtual It Girl
Citizen
Username: Shh
Post Number: 4613
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, June 15, 2006 - 1:01 pm: |
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No wonder my mother-in-law looks like a Bratz Doll!
 |
Rastro
Citizen
Username: Rastro
Post Number: 3379
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, June 15, 2006 - 1:32 pm: |
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This shirt is worth the embarrassment of peeing in my pants at work.
 |
doulamomma
Citizen
Username: Doulamomma
Post Number: 1560
Registered: 3-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, June 15, 2006 - 2:25 pm: |
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yikes!
hey, Meand...my oldest made a toast gine once - as I've noted (possibly here) before, I made myself feel better by feeling happy that it was a whole wheat gun  |
doulamomma
Citizen
Username: Doulamomma
Post Number: 1561
Registered: 3-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, June 15, 2006 - 2:27 pm: |
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Hey Meand, my oldest made a toast gun once & as I have probably said here before, I made myself feel better by noting that it was at least a whole wheat gun! |
Lydia
Supporter
Username: Lydial
Post Number: 1971
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, June 15, 2006 - 2:46 pm: |
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Rastro,
Love the shirt!!!
Celebrate your little darlin's Oedipal complex with the world! |
doulamomma
Citizen
Username: Doulamomma
Post Number: 1563
Registered: 3-2002
| | Posted on Friday, June 16, 2006 - 8:50 am: |
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oops - above was an example of a post I thought I had mistakenly deleated but obviously had not...maybe JB can do a list about double posts instead of deleated ones! |
Lydia
Supporter
Username: Lydial
Post Number: 1973
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, June 16, 2006 - 1:18 pm: |
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If "Barbie" was magically changed into a real woman, I read somewhere she'd be 6 feet tall with 4 foot-long legs and size 3 shoes wearing 6" heels. Yikes!
My objection to describing "Bratz" dolls as "ho's" isn't that they aren't weird looking dolls, but the word "ho" carries a value judgment of the dolls' morality (!) based on cosmetics and clothing, and not too far behind, their dark skin.
If these were white-skin-colored dolls with caucasian features with the same clothing would they be called "ho's"? I doubt it, inappropriate perhaps, even "slutty". The word "ho" is so demeaning and much more harmful for our daughters and sons to hear than any weird little doll is.
Ugly language with sexist/racist connotations are more powerful and potentially damaging to a child than any toys are IMO. |
Glock 17
Citizen
Username: Glock17
Post Number: 1135
Registered: 7-2005
| | Posted on Friday, June 16, 2006 - 1:27 pm: |
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Some of them are "white-skin-colored". They are just faux tanned as is the style for many young white-skin-colored girls of today.Part of this stems from a desire to not seem very "white". "Oh I'm 1/8th Dominican and I'm also Russian, and my friend is black so I guess I'm part Black." Why is this occuring? Don't know. |
Lydia
Supporter
Username: Lydial
Post Number: 1974
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, June 16, 2006 - 2:28 pm: |
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Glock -
Possibly, re: faux tan, but the doll's features are not "caucasian" in the way that Barbie's are.
The Barbie line has some dark-skinned dolls, but they still have button noses and small lips like the white/tan Barbies do.
The first dark-skinned Barbies that I recall were the "Malibu" Barbies - making it clear that their dark skin was due to the sun and not genetics. That may be over-analyzing it - but I grew up in the '70's when a "Julia" doll was a big deal.
Anyhow, my point is mostly that women have fought for a long time to dress or wear their makeup however they want to. When anyone refers to a woman as a "ho" it perpetuates harmful sexual stereotypes that should be rejected once and for all. |
Cynicalgirl
Citizen
Username: Cynicalgirl
Post Number: 2873
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, June 17, 2006 - 12:20 pm: |
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Agree with Lydia. Welcome to the '50's redux. Personally, I can't bring myself to pronounce the word "ho." If I need to, I say "slut" instead. My kid has some Bratz a few years ago, much as she had those Kelly dolls I tended to call Jon Benet Barbies (not much for kid beauty pageants as I am, and I'm sure that's not PC either). It passed, and didn't influence her clothing preferences any. Or her behavior.
At the same time, seems a little something -ist to assume darker skin correlates with certain feature sets. African, Indian and Carribean people have all kinda looks. As do Europeans. Wiry hair, or not. Some small noses, some not. Ditto lips (I say this as a person with a rather large, un-WASP mouth). It's all pretty silly, and few of us of any racial cocktail fall into categories neatly, at the polar extremes. |
SO Ref
Citizen
Username: So_refugee
Post Number: 1905
Registered: 2-2005
| | Posted on Saturday, June 17, 2006 - 12:32 pm: |
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Not sure about it being PC, but trivializing a little girl's murder is a bit insensitive. |
Cynicalgirl
Citizen
Username: Cynicalgirl
Post Number: 2874
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, June 17, 2006 - 12:44 pm: |
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That's what I meant. You're right. It's not very nice, and that wasn't the intention (trivialization of murder). The Kelly's were first making the rounds, in all their beauty pageant glory, about the time such pageants were a hot topic, and then Jon Benet's pix was all over. It stuck. My apologies. |
Joanne G
Citizen
Username: Joanne
Post Number: 218
Registered: 10-2004
| | Posted on Sunday, June 18, 2006 - 4:07 pm: |
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Just saw my first Bratz, and I can see what you're all talking about. I don't have kids and most of my friends' kids are in their 20s, so dolls don't usually enter our conversations!!
This neighbour child's mum was telling me frightens her the most is that the feet totally remove at the ankle if you want to change shoes, so you land up with modular 'women' not modular fashion. So the morals of beauty include the continued objectification of body parts, not making the most of what you have and accessorising well. And this is not a well-education, highly philosophising family. H'm. I just shuddered when I saw it - but then I used to love Noddy and thoguht I would marry him or Casey Jones. Come to think of it, maybe I did...! |
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