Provide More Options for Girls, Mattel

Mattel? Or you? Stupid, stupid letter mam! Very stupid! My sister
grew up with Barbie (the original) and she's a fine career woman with
too many job demands, pissed because she had her kids close to age 40
because she was too busy climbing the career ladder and making the big
bucks, and has not enough time to spend with them because now she's an
actual officer of her company, and the Nanny just isn't cutting it
like she used to. Her kids are very needy and very demanding when she
is around and that just makes her nastier. But she pops a 20 dollar
bill their way and that shuts them up for a few hours!

Enough? Because the above is all true. And did I mention that she
and her husband fight like cats and dogs ALL the time over money,
time, career moves, their "other" business that she purchased for him
to keep him busy because he felt emasculated by her career power!

Wow...........life is hard enough. Why pile this junk on it. Your
daughter just might want to stay home and take care of her children.
Your son might too. Both are an okay scenairo, either way you slice
and dice it. Labeling is very limiting. Your letter is very
limiting. Pull your head out!

Peace!

Can we please boycott the slutty Bratz dolls? I don't know what
everyone elses children wear under their clothes, but I know my 7 year
old doesn't wear a thong. Or plaster lipstick and mascara and tweezed
eyebrows and eyeliner and eye shadow and fake nails and fake lashes or
gogo boots with daisy duke shorts...the list goes on....I demand more
than "Hooker" as a career choice for my child. How bout you?

I absolutly agree with you.

When i was little, Barbie had all kinds of jobs (Pilot, doctor, i
believe i even had a construction worker barbie...). Now, the only
Barbies you see are princess, fairy, or extremly trampy American
Idol/film star types.

And i especially hate the Skipper family doll, as she still looks
about 16 and has a baby. (Not knocking anyone who had children at 16,
but it's most defintly a harder life)

I would like to see more career oriented Barbies, and less of this
fairy princess crap they've been producing lately.

Okay, I can't see why this person is getting snide remarks about it
being their job as parents to teach their daughters, etc. etc. This
letter sounded to me like they were making more of a SUGGESTION for
ways Mattel could improve this line of toys. Yes, it is a bit of a
complaint too, but nothing outrageous or asking for freebies. It was
well-worded and to-the-point, and why shouldn't these people offer
their input? Whether or not you personally agree with what is
written, I don't see that there's any problem with the letter, and
it's nice to see something intelligibly written up here for a change!

Personally, I'm just upset that none of the outfits included in the
set include advertising copywriter. What are you trying to tell me,
Mattel, that children don't dream of growing up to work in my field of
work? This is discrimination in its lowest form - the kind that only
applies to me personally.

You know what, I'm with you and your hearty band of soccer moms 100%.
Where do I sign up for entry into your club? With God as my witness, I
swear that Mattel will soon know our combined fury! The streets will
run red with their corporation-tinged blood!

They will know us by the trail of our dead!!!!!

Here's an idea. Buy you little girl something else.

In some ways I think you have some valid points here. I do think toys
cater to many common stereotypes in our culture, and I also think that
the socialization of children (especially where gender roles are
concerned) is a very tricky thing made harder by these stereotypes.
On the other hand, I am an educated woman who believes firmly in the
very things you obviously want to teach your daughters, and I played
with Barbies. I am sure that the strong female role models provided
by my mother and her friends had more to do with who I am now than the
baby dolls and pink dress-up dresses I played with as a child.

As far as the Polly Pocket dolls are concerned, the only actual
professional artist I know is a man. If your theory on toys were
correct, how could he ever have gotten the courage to show and sell
his work having apparently been told that art is a feminine endeavor?
I'm pretty sure your girls will grow up as unscarred as any other
person, regardless of the toys they grow up with - as long as you do
your job as parents and educate them about their true potential as
people.

You lost me at: The world is their oyster! LOL, that is great.
Where did you hear or read that line.....that is great! LOL

You are the parent here, it your job to teach your child. No toy can
replace the information, opinion and guidance that a parent can give.
It is your job to tell your daughter that she can be whatever she
wants regardless of what the toy being manufactured's job is.
If I recall Barbie has been everything from doctor, to astronaut,
teacher to cheerleader.

Once again we have a situation where lazy parents want the rest of the
world to do their job of parenting for them. If these clueless mothers
expend a small effort to teach their little girls that females can
follow any profession, the toys they buy won't matter.

Case in point: I grew up in the 50's and 60's. My pediatrician was
unusual for that time because she was a doctor which was uncommon for
the times. My mother explained to me that girls could be doctors and
dentists and anything they wanted to be as long as they worked hard at
it.

My dolls were all girly-girl type dolls because that's all that was
available, but I knew the difference between play toys and real life.
I was also taught not to believe in TV commercials which were in those
days extremely stereotypical in male and female roles.

The best examples and teaching come from within the home. If these
mothers have so little self-esteem about themselves that they feel
they can't teach their daughters what they can become, the fault lies
with them and not Mattel.

I hardly believe ALL of your girls questioned why the doctor was male
in this "career" toy until all of you brought it to their attention.

You as parents are the ones who mold and develop their minds, along
with their teachers, religious intstructors and their friends. And
while playtime has impact we should be also be teaching our children
that both male and females can do just about any job or have nay
career they chose. They just have to work hard towards it.

Giving your child goals and heading them in the right direction is
what we as parents are supposed to do.
But threatening a business with YOUR SPECIFIC VIEWS of what life
should be is so ridiculous.

With all these people, you really need to do the following:

Go to a toy store (or the toy area of Target or WalMart) and count
each and every toy. Picking just one toy is not really fair.

I agree with you... some toys are sexist. However, I think you've
chosen a bad example. And picking just one or two examples is not the
same as doing a real study to show an unfair bias. You have, what,
40+ people cosigning this letter. I'm sure 40 people could do a real
study in under an hour. Heck, one person could do this in a couple.

to reconsider buying toys that are meant to be played with in certain
ways, and encourage your daughters to figure out what they want to
play.

Then you wouldn't have to worry about whether Mattel, Hasbro, Disney
and Fisher Price are conditioning your daughters and sons to see some
occupations as appropriate for one gender and not the other.

For example, have you looked at Build-A-Bear Workshop recently? Your
daughters can pick their stuffed animals and get clothes and
accessories so that the animals have a wide variety of careers and
interests. (The toys at BABW also do not look as if they have had a
ridiculous amount of plastic surgery and have developed an ephedra
addiction, which as far as I'm concerned is one more reason to prefer
them to Barbies, especially if you're going to present them to little
girls as role models.)

Or you could buy your daughters cardboard, construction paper,
scissors (or, depending on how old they are, craft knives), paste, and
markers and encourage them to make briefcases and laptops and hammers
and screwdrivers and soccer goals for the dolls they already have.
Sometimes even a princess needs a career change, and creativity can be
useful no matter what jobs one ends up taking later on.

It's not that I don't take seriously the idea that the toys a child is
provided, especially if they are toys that are designed to be played
with in specific ways, can have an influence on how that child views
the world. It's that I think it is very difficult, choosing from
among toys that are designed to be popular with huge numbers of kids,
to come up with something that'll support your own values. Even if
Barbie becomes a corporate executive or a plumber, for example, she is
still going to look as if she's had more plastic surgery than Michael
Jackson and cultivates an ephedra addiction.

So apparently you haven't seen Dr. Barbie?? My 7 year old got
Veterinarian Barbie for her birthday last year. My 17 year old has
"Barbie for President" still in the box. We purchased "Photographer
Barbie" for my 7 year old this past Christmas. I'm wondering what kind
of Moms group this is. As a Mom of 4 girls, sister to 2 and stepsister
to 4, I feel qualified to comment on this letter. It doesn't really
matter what your daughters play with- if you teach them that their
imagination is the best plaything, they will grow up and become what
THEY want to be, not what YOU want them to be. I have one artist ( who
works for Citibank), one theatrical hair/makeup artist, one who hasn't
decided but is leaning towards graphics, and a 7 year old who has
informed us that she wants to be a Ballerina/Race Car
Driver/Geologist/Teacher/Princess. I think you have targeted Mattel
only because they make Barbie. Why not contact Disney and tell them
that the Little Mermaid should go to Dental school or Snow White
should be an airline pilot? Children have been playing with Barbies,
baby dolls, girly things,etc. for hundreds of years. Some of thos
girls HAVE grown up to be doctors,lawyers, senators, restaurant
owners- and some grew up knowing that they really just wanted to have
children and be a Mom, like me. While your letter may be well
intentioned, it misses the mark.

So it's Mattel's fault I didn't become a doctor. All this time I
thought it was the fact that I can't stand the sight of blood.

The only role models your children need their parents. You are the
ones who can encourage them to become anything they want.

My sister grew up in the 50's and 60's playing with good old regular
Barbie and she's a doctor. She's got a BA, an MA and a PhD in
Nursing. She's well respected in her field (Oncology) and besides her
regular job she teaches and lectures all over the country. So much
for your theory.

When my oldest daughter was first born, I made an earnest vow to raise
her in a gender-bias free environment. I bought her cars and dolls, a
tea set and a T-rex.

Overwhelmingly, she chose the "girl" toys - and given free reign in a
toy store, she would opt for the girliest of girl toys.

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Do toy companies make
princess dolls because that's what girls like or do girls like
princess dolls because that's what the toy companies make?

Based on my experiences as a mother, aunt, preschool teacher and
general friend to all sorts of little people, I'd have to say that
it's the former.

You can lead a girl to the gender-neutral, self-esteem empowering,
eco-friendly toys, but you can't make her play with it.

So your daughter and 20 friend are playing Barbies, and they claim
they want to be a princess or have a Malibu dream home with a classic
macho man,

so you all sit down a write a letter?

I doubt that 20 little girls want Barbies that are lawyers and
doctors.

You are exactly right.

I could have been a lawyer if I'd only had a lawyer doll to play with
when I was growing up.

This is only one playset. Mattel makes female dolls with lots of
careers. Doctors included.

n/t

I just want to know who's making dinner for the men while all these
women are writing a letter to PFB.

That meat ain't gonna loaf itself ladies.

Perhaps they should come out with a doll to show how to be a
responsible parent. After all, if you believe that the type of doll a
child plays with has an effect on what they become in life, then I
question your parenting skills in regards to shaping your child's
life.

As an engineer, I can inform you that very few of your daughters will
be engineers. Does it happen? Yes.

They have been trying to lure women into engineering for many, many
years, and the last time I saw figures it isn't working. The ratio of
women to men in my class was 1:9, and I believe the situation has
gotten worse not better in the last 25 years.

I am not sure what an engineer doll would look like - perhaps glasses
and a leather calculator holder hanging from the belt?

I think I'd have had a good time if I"d grown up to be a princess.

At a quick glance at the Toys r Us website I found the following:
Barbie: I can be Swim Teacher
Barbie: I can be Soccer Star
Barbie Dream Stable Playset
Barbie: I can be Baby Doctor
Barbie: I can be Baby Photographer
Barbie: Play all day Zoo Doctor
Barbie: Check up Time Doctor Kit

Little kids want to play things that they are familiar with -
teachers, actresses, models etc. I don't very often hear a little
girl say "I want to play CEO - I'll be in my office doing paperwork"

This cant be real. Please tell me it isnt real.

You and your legion are up in arms about a TOY?! All the horrors going
on in the world and you choose to take up the Polly Pocket cause?

What did YOU play with as a child? Did it really affect your life that
much that you didnt fullfill all your dreams and goals?

I played with girlie toys as a child. I didnt grow up thinking I was
going to be a princess.

Toys are only a tool to use to open the imagination. They dont
determine your destiny. If that were true my son will grow up to be a
Transforming, Bionicle fighting, Spiderman who rescues animals while
driving a race car.

This I love:

"Our girls are going to grow into women, not princesses. They will be
teachers and lawyers, stay-at-home moms and engineers. They will wear
business suits as CEO's of corporations and they will wear scrubs as
nurses AND doctors."

I would love to be around when these over controlling mothers find
their little engineer flipping burgers or as pregnant teenagers. Are
you going to blame the toys they played with then? I know, I know.
That wont possibly happen because they had non-gender specific toys to
play with.

You and the ladies need a little timeout. Toys are toys. Looking
back, I don't believe my toys had any influence on what I thought I
could be or what I became.

You know what had a lot of influence? People. My friends, school
experiences, and parents.

You took the time to alphabetize this list by first name? Perhaps you
should redirect this fervor.

I agree with Venice. It is JUST A TOY!

Female doctors don't have it bad, male nurses have it bad. Sears
released two toy sets for the last ten or so years. The kit labeled as
"doctor" was coloured blue, while the kit labeled as "nurse" was
pink.

All in all, however, both genders can play with toys for both genders.
There are a lot of dolls that have female doctors (Barbie comes to
mind). Or maybe putting less pressure on the gender could work.

I remember the days when Polly Pockets could actually fit in your
pocket...

You may want to look to Barbie then.

In her 49 years of shelf life she has been:
* a model
* an astronaut (twice)
* firefighter
* palentologist
* doctor
* vetrinarian
* dentist
* PRESIDENT (1996-ish)
* Olympic gymnast & skier
and many others. During her doctor stint, Ken was her nurse.

Seriously, don't you think you're putting a little too much weight on
the influence of toys? They're only TOYS after all. Certainly your
daughters lives don't revolve solely around playing with toys. There
are plenty of books and role models you could use as examples instead
of relying on toys. If a child has the desire to be a doctor, I doubt
very much that a toy could discourage that calling. Contrary to your
opinion, I think real experiences have more of an impact and set the
stage for how children play, and help form their belief system.