Mattel created in 1994 a Teen Talking Barbie that caused a lot of protest and controversy when it came out because this talking Barbie said, "Math is hard!" Oh silly Mattel, what were you thinking! This here is a perfect example of a non-role model for females. It basically is implying that girls don't do as well in math and especially Barbie finds it hard. In class we mentioned that Systers went up against Mattel for Talking Barbie and won the court case.I came across this article which was part of a collection of essays written by college students at the University of Missouri. This student writes, "This was hardly the first qualm people had with the doll; Barbie has long been blamed for the ills of the teenage girl, but studies have show that during early and middle childhood--the time when most girls engage in play with Barbie dolls--girls are the most resilient" (Guthrie 24). Even though that may be true, does that make it okay to create these talking Barbies that say offensive things? I think not. Females have enough stereotypes to deal with without the rest of world creating even more products that reinforce them. We should be advocating dolls that say, "Girls can do anything!"
Aside: Interesting article on Fox News about the debate of Barbie being good or bad for young girls. http://origin2.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,504456,00.html. The image in this post was also taken from there.
Guthrie, J. (2004). Living in a Barbie world: today's little girls, tomorrow's independent (& slightly narcissistic) women. Sosland Journal. http://cas.umkc.edu/english/publications/sosland/2003-2004.soslandjournal.pdf#page=20
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