<p>My D was not much into any dolls, except she made some animated movies starring her and her friends’ Barbies using the frame-by-frame filming feature on her video camera (bought with the proceeds of her Mattel stock sale). I never actively discouraged my D from playing with Barbies, but personally I find both Barbies and Bratz repelling.</p>
<p>Remember the Talking Barbie flap about 15 years ago, when one of her possible comments was “Math is hard!”? There was a lot of negative attention in the press about Mattel reinforcing girls’ math anxiety, and the dolls were discontinued. Not every Talking Barbie had the phrase in her speaking repertoire, but our oldest d’s did. Now there was a potential collectible! Too bad the kid treated that Barbie as the same as all her others - after a haircut, Magic Marker makeup job, and several days underwater, the thing stopped talking at all and wasn’t even worth the $15 we paid for it.</p>
<p>I agree! Luckily both D’s felt the same way. Even the 10 year old thinks they are sleazy looking. It looks like they’ve evolved in some world where noses are no longer necessary-- just gi-normous lips and eyes. And even the baby ones appear to be wearing loads of makeup. And the clothes…! Blehh.</p>
<p>I have always associated Barbies with pink. I hate pink. So my daughter, from very early on, learned not to ask for anything that had a pink box - that included Barbies. I think she has only had one in her life, but there were some Bratz later on.
Happy to say that today she does have some pink colored clothes (yack) and knows that Barbie is a very, very artificial immitation of a woman:)</p>