Why do Bratz hate America?

[tikistitch]

Our buddy Lynn pointed out this latest round of Bratz-bashing:

Are Bratz Dolls Too Sexy?
Why our little girls are growing up so fast.

There’s something undeniably disconcerting about seeing teen and preteen girls dressed to emulate their idols like Britney Spears—decked out in butt-grazing mini skirts and tight, belly-baring T-shirts. And probably the only thing even more alarming than that sight is seeing a similarly sexy outfit on girl who’s still in kindergarten. It’s a phenomenon that has child development experts worried and some parents fighting mad.

“Little girls are being encouraged to immerse themselves in the preoccupations of adolescence,” says Susan Linn, co-founder of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC). “They are going straight from preschool to teenager and skipping over the important development stages that should take place during middle childhood.”

But it’s not just pop stars who are to blame for popularizing looks that are too sexy for grammar school. The latest culprit in this culture war is something seemingly innocent—a line of dolls. The Bratz are marketed as dolls with “a passion for fashion.” Fashions that include low-cut jeans and halter tops worn over little girl-like bodies. MGA Entertainment (the company that makes them) says the dolls are geared toward girls ages 7 to 11, but girls as young as 4 are eager to play with them too. And in a culture that glorifies fashion, runway models and celebrity cover girls, it’s no surprise that the obsession would trickle down even to preschool fashionistas. Little girls have always wanted to emulate older ones. But critics claim that the message of the wildly popular Bratz dolls (according to the manufacturer, over 145 million have been sold since they debuted in 2001) is that image is everything. “The dolls encourage girls to think about themselves as sexualized objects whose power is equated with dressing provocatively,” says Linn.

The article kind of rattles on like that for several hundred words, and finally gets around to the point that, um, maybe there's actually more stuff out there besides Bratz that's causing this. Ya think?

To be fair, we'd probably find a lot of room for agree ment with Ms. Linn--we'd love it if they totally outlawed all advertising on kiddie TV. We mean, why should Kelloggs get to tell pre-schoolers that you're somehow not "cool" if you don't eat their sugary Apple Jacks crap for breakfast?

And as for Bratz, while we groove on the multicultural message (quite a tonic after Barbie's blithering blondness), and we think the whole "OMG teh sexor" message is overstated, it's kind of annoying that the world MGA has created for Yasmin and Jade et al. seems to involve nothing more than going to the mall a lot. It is absolutely impossible that you could have "a passion for fashion" and also sometimes read a book for chrissakes? Hell, Barbie went to the moon! And, she looked fabulous!

But, ya know, as for toddlers in halter tops and low slung jeans? OK, we don't know about you, but when we were a baby tiki, we had to ask our parents very nicely to buy us new clothes. We mean, what, does the Romper Room set now all have their own Amex cards?

Comments

[spazzygirl19.livejournal.com]

My niece is 7 & though she does play with Bratz - she isn't obsessed with them more so than any other type of doll. She also likes Barbie, Littlest Pets and Polly Pocket. And she doesn't dress like a little hooker. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that my brother & sister-in-law lay down the law as the 'parents' of the family. As they rightfully should. If my niece asked for a cel phone (even if all the kids in her class had one - they don't), her mother would only snort with laughter. The only one of the kids with a cel phone is my nephew - the oldest one - a 15 year old.

The kids I see (in the class where I volunteer - 1st graders) who are over-indulged in consumerism seem to tend to have the parents who don't have the time, but seemingly the $$ to 'throw' at their children. One of the girls in my class told me she has four (4) Game Boy Advances!! Insane.