A few months ago, a little girl and I were watching a cartoon on television while her mother got ready to go out with us for breakfast.
Of course, there were commercials.
Some jingles (and products) were annoying enough to make anyone groan and, possibly, bang their head on a coffee table. But what surprised me the most were the doll ads. Barbie notwithstanding, it seems as though they’ve taken a distinctively sexy turn from when I was a kid. When I saw their sultry pouts, hiked hemlines, camisoles and curves, I wondered what mother would feel comfortable offering her little girl a six-inch Christina Aguilera or Britney Spears look-alike.
Lots, it seems.
The Bratz dolls—the pouty figurines with a “passion for fashion”—have sold more than 145 million since they debuted in 2001. Keep in mind, these toys are marketed to kids still in the early days of elementary school, if that. And Bratz dolls are just the tip of the sexy toy iceberg.
Does a 6-year-old really need to be passionate about their or anyone’s appearance? Nope. And, thankfully, I’m not a lone voice here. Susan Linn, co-founder of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood told MSNBC, “Little girls are being encouraged to immerse themselves in the preoccupations of adolescence. They are going straight from preschool to teenager and skipping over the important development stages that should take place during middle childhood.”
And Diane Levin, a professor of early childhood education at Wheelock College in Boston, told MSNBC, “When young girls have an open-ended toy—like a generic baby doll—it encourages creativity. But the scenarios of Bratz dolls tell them how to play—to dress up, do your hair, go to fashion shows.”
In other words, tarted up toys can encourage young girls to imitate the sexualized roles they see in their dolls. Subsequently, dressing up like them and flirting are natural desires.
Now, is it patently wrong for little girls to own such toys—and should parents hang their heads if their children already do? No. Nowadays, it’s hard to avoid these dolls—and a child’s pleas for them. But talking to kids about body image, self-esteem and what their toys might be teaching can help to offset some of the marketers’ message.
Chatty Cathy never caused a stir, did she? In fact, I wish she’d reappear (still fully clothed, but quieter) in our “more sophisticated” day and age.
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