Mattel's Black Canary Barbie (a superhero doll) is being attacked for being sexually suggestive, and thus inappropriate.
I can understand the instinct. You don't want your daughter pregnant at thirteen, of course.
But I think the issue at the heart of the matter is: are we doing well by shielding our children from the way the world is? Or are we doing them a disservice by letting them grow up in an artificially innocent environment, and dumping them all unprepared into an entirely different world at eighteen?
And, by making their decisions for them, are we stunting their own natural development into making sound judgements of their own?
This issue goes very deep. I think it's the same dilemma at heart as, for example, drug laws. When we make a dangerous drug illegal, are we protecting people or are we taking choice away from them, thus making them rebellious and creating a lucrative black market and further criminality to support the buying of drugs at artificially high prices?
You can say it's totally different situations because one involves children, but I think apart from degree (children need more nurturing and educating than adults), it's the same issue at heart: how much can and should we make decisions for others?
The most well-adjusted, happy, and successful adults, do they come from homes with a lot of protection and a lot of discipline, or from homes which encourage self-determination and self-reliance? I've not read any studies, but anecdotal evidence suggest the latter.
Other parents said to my parents: "your children are so nice and polite, how do you do it?" and the interesting part was that my parents didn't do anything, in fact I think they may have gone overboard in the direction of leaving us alone.
Black Canary Barbie looks darling. I'm going to order two of them for my digital animation project. At least they will like each other. But then again, maybe I shouldn't. The plastic darlings CERTAINLY are made in China.
ReplyDeletePersnickety,
ReplyDeleteAre the collector dolls flexible enough? Most dress Barbies only have small movement of knee joints.
I don't think this is one of the articulated Barbies, nor one of the Everflex dolls.
I guess once in the digital domain you can do anything. I'm more used to stop motion techniques.
And no, I've never filmed fashion dolls yet.
Alex
This is definitely a thought provoking question. Any you’re right Eolake it a VERY deep issue. As I read it I was thinking of peer pressure and role models. When I was growing up, a friend of mine told me that if I want to smoke then go ahead. What can your mother do about it? I started smoking the next day. Good Ole peer pressure.
ReplyDeleteOur entertainment business is full of role-models, good and bad. When kids aspire to be just like Joe….that’s ok, but what if Joe is a women hating, ear biting wrestler and basically has no respect for anyone. Good Ole role models.
For girls young enough and impressionable, I think that playing with a doll (role model) like this would basically say that it’s ok to dress like that in normal life. Then if you have a couple of girls playing with them (peer pressure) they’d influence each other. But, at that age, who should be influencing who?
Now, when these girls become 13 and dress that way. Would they be more or less of a target in this world of today? I think probably more so. This age they could become very easy prey in this dangerous world.
When they become 18 or above, it’s an entirely different issue, they know what they’re doing. They’re also to an age of being able to better protect themselves.
Don’t we as parents have a responsibility to protect children when they’re at those innocent and easy prey ages?
I also understand your comment “And, by making their decisions for them, are we stunting their own natural development into making sound judgments of their own?” Well, yes. But, where is the line. As you say it’s a deep issue. Is there an answer, I wish I knew.
I don't know if this Barbie is anymore suggestive than a lot of their others. I guess in this case the problem is with the Marvel Comics character its based on. They draw the males more musclebound than any bodybuilder and the females dress like strippers and all have huge knockers.
ReplyDeleteEolake:
ReplyDelete"But I think the issue at the heart of the matter is: are we doing well by shielding our children from the way the world is? Or are we doing them a disservice by letting them grow up in an artificially innocent environment, and dumping them all unprepared into an entirely different world at eighteen?"
Your question is very important, and i'll offer my opinion.
Wrapping a person up and away from the evils of the world creates cripples and weaklings that are socially retarded and will have a hard time getting accustomed to the way the world is once they eventually get in contact with it.
Many things in the world are discomforting or decidedly abominable, but I believe it to be true that, just like jumping in the cold water for the first time in the summer, it's best gotten over with quickly. Dragging it out just drags out the agony, so to speak.
As with children. I'm not talking about showing them horror movies from age three, but instead not being over-protective.
Kids have some fantastic faculties of adaptability and a primitive brand of reason (which continually becomes sharpened with the cynicism of age), and as a parent, you should let them use it.
Yes, I agree very much.
ReplyDeleteI think the biggest problem with applying this in practice is our own fears. It's very difficult to distinguish between our fears and common sense sometimes.
Just read that, and it is a thought-provoker.
ReplyDeleteI've fathered five children, but due in part to
circumstances beyond my control (2 divorces)
I didn't have any real influence on how they grew up.
So I can't offer a lot of "worked for me" type advice.
Over the years, I've had more experience at helping
my neighbours raise their kids than with my own.
Generally speaking, I think kids have a more-or-less
natural sense of what's right and wrong, and what's
fair and unfair, and given the opportunity to exercise
their own ability to use those instincts and that knowledge,
they can be very good at establishing their own boundaries
and maintaining their own code of discipline.
I more or less proved that, years ago, while I was living in
a townhouse (rowhouse) development in a nearby town.
There were 22 of those townhouses, divided into two rows,
one on either side of a common driveway. I was the only
single guy living there, and there were something like two
dozen kids (or maybe slightly more) in the other residences
around me.
I've always liked kids, and I relate well with them. I also was
quite handy at fixing broken bicycles (mine & theirs) and patching
up skinned knees or elbows. Soon, the kids were using my place
as a refuge and home-away-from-home whenever they wanted one,
and the first thing we did was establish the rules. Just a few, but
not to be broken by anyone, including me. Those included no kids
in the house alone - only in groups of two, three, or more. This was
so that nobody would be without a buddy or two at all times, for
everyone's peace of mind, including mine and their parents.
The next rule was that they had to appoint their own leaders and
take care of their own chores. If they wanted something to eat,
they had to at least help with making it, and help clean up after.
And the third main rule was that the upstairs was off limits to all
the kids, all the time - no exceptions.
It worked out very well - whenever it looked like a war was breaking
out, we'd have a 'family meeting' and the kids would all gather around
our big circular table, and air the issues, and talk about what to do,
and come up with a solution that the majority of them agreed on.
Those sessions surprised me, because of the unexpected wisdom that
came from those kids, and the relative maturity of their proposed
solutions. Some of the neighbourhood adults could have really benefitted
from listening in on some of that. Some of those kids were smarter than
their parents seemed to be.
And because I let them use my place, and let them make mostly their own
decisions, I hardly-ever had to pile the wood for the little wood stove
in the living room, or shovel the snow from the carport in winter, or
wash the car. Other parents in the place were obviously envious, and
wanted to know how I did it. I told them I did it by setting a very few
rules, and then encouraging the kids to make their own decisions about
what they should or shouldn't do, and then I let them do it. It worked
out very well.
I don't think we should let kids go wild, but I don't believe they need
to be over-managed or over-protected either. I think they're quite
able to decide how much of that is enough, and how much is too much.
And they're smart enough to appreciate an opportunity to show what
they can do for themselves.
I have another relevant question: why didn't anybody raise a hullaballoo some 40 years ago, when the DC comics character Black Canary was created? NOW they wake up?
ReplyDeleteI actually find that specific Barbie way prettier than average. Perhaps because she's got less of a Dopey "Fuck Me" Blonde expression than the standard ones.
But $40 is holy-hollow-wallets-Batman-ly expensive!!!
Alex,
Here's a suggestion: buy one Gymnast Barbie for each Canary one, and then switch the heads and the clothes.
Okay, so you might have to get them naked for that, but... a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do! ;-)
Another thing has me wondering, about the main issue: the same USA that worry so much about these highly unrealistic dolls have pageants for very young girls like Little Miss Sunshine, fashion for early teenagers HEAVILY seducive, and gave immense fame to ambiguous singers like Britney Spears.
..."and dumping them all unprepared into an entirely different world at eighteen"Don't worry about that, at eighteen 99.8% of them are ignorant innocent virgins no more.
So much for the efficiency of protecting them... :-(
I agree with Jimbo: I'd love to see a few female characters in today's comics who are just "ordinarily" breasted for a change. And not just the caricatures, normal female characters.
Like, say, the women on Domai? ;-)
"Knockers", indeed. They'll knock you down to the ground from their sheer weight!
"It's very difficult to distinguish between our fears and common sense sometimes."The whole difficulty of education in a nutshell!
" I think kids have a more-or-less natural sense of what's right and wrong, and what's fair and unfair"Thou hast said!
They can equally sense when an adult is full of BS, or doesn't truly love them. That last one since birth.
Never underestimate the smarts of a child, or it's YOU who will look like the fool.
"Some of the neighbourhood adults could have really benefitted from listening in on some of that."Ah, but as we all know, parents never listen.
"I don't think we should let kids go wild"Surely not. Our duty is to guide them into becoming their own free selves.
Look at the birds. Have you ever seen more dedicated parents? And yet, when their little ones are big enough, what is the final thing they teach them? How to spread their wings and fly off the nest.
Many, perhaps MOST parents, think or act like love is possessiveness, "you'll always be my little baby, I don't want to see you leave, etc". But love is generosity. Give, and you shall be given back, it's that simple.
The greatest gift of love we can make to our children, is teach them how to be free.
Now you all go to your rooms and think about what I've said, you hear? NOW!
"What planet do they live on, that fishnet stockings is a "problem"?"Well, once you make them synonymous to "hooker", they definitely are.
ReplyDeleteEvery culture has its Talibans, it seems...
I have to agree with what somebody commented on the Sun article: Bratz dolls, with their heavy (and slutty) make-up and impossible platform shoes, are intrisically more vulgar. But then again, I'm a faces man, so maybe my focus is biased...
"Barbie has always been on the tarty side"You gotta love that!
So, all of a sudden, it's leaped from tolerated to unbearable? Like, wow.
What next? Nudist Barbie scandal? LOL!
I swear, I *had* made a separation between these quotes and the following text! It even appeared correctly by clicking the preview button.
ReplyDelete):-P
My very apt word verification: "bylle"
Exactly. This is repugnifying.
why didn't anybody raise a hullaballoo some 40 years ago, when the DC comics character Black Canary was created? NOW they wake up?I was thinking Black Canary was a Marvel character for some reason. D'oh!
ReplyDeleteYou know, this thread all started because of a comment in "Dollhouse", the TV series. One character, Echo, was referred to as "S&M Barbie".
ReplyDeleteIn the past I have heard Mattle Co go after the slightest infringement on their copyrighted 11.5" fashion doll. So naturally I Googled to see how big a trouble Joss Whedon was in for that line in the script.
The only news articles I hit were the Black Canary one. The first few I checked out all seemed to link back to The Sun, a direputable paper in the UK, but at least it's not The National Inquirer.
The Sun was the instigator of Page 3 girls in the late 60's.
Anyway, I am surprised at Black Canary, not because of her garb, or her tie-in status. There have been many interesting Barbies in recent years. I am surprised because of all the hullabaloo with 3rd party clothiers for these dolls. There was a designer in Berkeley who made a whole series of clothed dolls, and admit it Barbie and Sindy are probably the best base for a quality dressed doll. The series included Biker Dyke Barbie and Out & Proud Ken.
I believe this is the designer - time and location matched.
Hey, wait a minute, we've had parts of this conversation before...