Vanguard News Network
VNN Media
VNN Digital Library
VNN Reader Mail
VNN Broadcasts

Old December 20th, 2013 #1
Alex Linder
Administrator
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 45,756
Blog Entries: 34
Default The Politics of Dolls

[comment on design ideology behind Barbie in context of discussion of American Girl dolls (2013 christmas)

http://vnnforum.com/showpost.php?p=1633341&postcount=1
 
Old December 21st, 2013 #2
Nate Richards
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Posts: 2,431
Default

So the Barbie product was meant for keeping up with the boys, but why give dolls to boys anyway? "GI" or not, it's still a dolly. Weird little idols. I don't think a soldier with a name and accessories and a biography is much better than a Ken doll. You can still find big bags of little green army men at garage sales. I don't know if anyone is still making those. I used to buy piles of those soldiers for about what the plastic was actually worth and kept my nephew well stocked.

They get shot, burned, mangled, detonated, one at a time or in whole platoons. They get lost in action and forgotten. Just like real army men but for pennies instead of millions, and still a tiny fraction of the price for crap like GI Joe. You set these guys up around the battle ground and think about arrangements of squads and their group maneuvers rather than individual quirks of personality and physical appearance. Tactical instead of social and personal. Your real friends are more than happy to help you destroy your artificial ones.

I'm sure someone with a leftist bent could cook some almost plausible concerns over why it might not be good for a kid to fantasize about commanding swarms of near faceless cannon-fodder, but even if they're right about some of it would you really want to influence your kid towards being Ken's Special Friend out of fear that he might turn into li'l Generalissimo?
__________________
No time for the old in 'n out, love. I've just come to read the meter.
 
Old December 21st, 2013 #3
M. Gerard
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2012
Posts: 1,093
Default

Girls thinking of themselves as future mothers was the problem. Barbie was the solution.

I'm not reading the article, but I was in the store yesterday and saw an ad for some whore like multirace looking Barbie type dolls and also baby dolls - hey, they were all over the front of the store - that came in two shades, pink and tan. (No dark chocolate.) The baby dolls had blow up doll expressions on their faces. Dollies for future sex perv boys, I imagine.
 
Reply

Share


Thread
Display Modes


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 05:40 AM.
Page generated in 0.06554 seconds.