<![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame? - Jezebel Comments]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame? - Jezebel Comments]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> I signed up for Miss Bimbo. It never let me log on, saying it didn't recognize my login info. Even though I put in the same password I use for most things.

Month later, I get an e-mail saying my bimbo died. Not moved on, or whatever, but died. Pretty bleak for a little girls game.

OMG a Girl Gamer

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> this will make me sound incredibly dour and humorless, but for reals, i haaaaate the pic for this entry. i find it...offensive. there, i said it.

yours in total oldness,

clit

clitoryss

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @Kali Mama: Yeah Bratz are persona non-grata around our house (my daughter is 4). The worst thing about Bratz? The little chubby ponies and babies they sell which also have the lips and eyeliner. What?!

We do have High School Musical barbies though; I was won over by the accurately mulatto, afro-having Corbin Bleu doll...as a Brown I'm a sucker for a good ethnic dolly.

ObtuseIntolerant

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> you know what else is becoming obsolete? Imagination. Why buy a doll and pretend to be rich and famous when you can just watch TMZ and see teenage celebrities living out the barbie life?

kami2000

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> If Mattel spins this right, it could be a marketing dream.

I have been meh about Barbie and all that she symbolizes for my whole life...but I suddenly feel sympathetic and defensive for her honor.

ObtuseIntolerant

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @tscheese: You're not that weird. My cousin and I pretended my Barbies were androids married to his Transformers and would fight crime together.

KittensMcgee

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @meaghan2k: I hear ya. My daughter once got a bratz doll and I binned it. She's 3 friggin years old and you're giving her a doll with eye liner, miniskirt and a DIAPER.

I almost bought her the Island princess barbie the other day, but for the same money I choose a kick scooter.

Ha just as I typed this a Bratz commercial came on. My daughter: "mom, the commercial says Bratz are cool, but they're really really stupid." Aww, mommies lil' skeptic.

KaliMama (Ganesha is my Om boy)

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> I played with a lot of vintage dolls as a kid. My great aunt had a Jill doll that I played with when I stayed at her house, as well as a Candy doll (Surly expression, red ice skating otufit)--probably one of the most obscure dolls ever. My mom and I have never been able to find any real info on it--too bad, too because it might be worth something. My aunt had a doll that lived in a seafoam green trunk and had soft blonde hair, like spun cotton. And my mom had a Miss Dollykins (who had real miniature bras!) and the first edition Barbie with the bedroom eyes and the short haircut, with brown hair the texture of pubes. Of course I had my own dolls, too (spoiled, I know--an only child, sorry)...maybe kids would love a Barbie more if they were given one with a history? Like maybe the love your mom had for her Barbie becomes a package deal--something you can't buy? Damn, that was sappy...

stealthird

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> I'm really torn between which is the lesser of the two evils. I had plenty of black Barbies when I little, and they didn't warp my body image or anything. At least Barbie attempted to be constructive. All Bratz dolls teach girls is how to get into credit card debt.

uhoh-ohno

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> Miss Bimbo is the most boring game ever. I'm insulted that it's so popular (I read about it on a UK feminist website that was *horrified* at it and signed up cause I thought it would be a laugh-it's not)

beastybeatsy

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> It always amazes me to hear mattel say things about Barbie to make it sound like she's going to be around for hundreds of years. Kids tastes change, American Girl Dolls are the rage for some kids in the old barbie demographic, Bratz and hannah montana are the rage for the other kids in the traditional barbie demographic. Bratz dolls are slutty and low class, but if I were 8? I would be BEGGING for them. They wear all the skanky clothes that I wouldn't have been able to wear.

Chatty Cathy isn't around anymore either, or brooke shields or dorothy hammill, some things are just supposed to fade.

meg9

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @tscheese: My mom said that she remembered me being alone in my room for hours making up long, involved stories with my Barbies and stuffed animals. She brought it up to remind me to still be creative with my writing and open up that part of my brain. The last short stories I wrote were from last year, and they were inspired by pop songs. I haven't thought of anything new to write.

I would act out scenes from Saved by the Bell and 90210 with my Barbies.

beatrice3000

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @insert_identity_here: You're not the only one. Those ads freak me out.

cate3710

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> "CD-ROM game and featured wings that fluttered at the push of a button"? I think that all the effort we're putting into these uber-sophisticated toys is going to result in children with less creativity and imaginitive power than the generation that created the toys. That doesn't bode well for the future. My grandma used to have a butter churn that I played with sometimes--you can bet I learned more from that than a CD rom.

Oh, and I know this is sort of OT, but I noticed some other mentions of My Little Pony--has anyone seen the ads for the My Little Pony Musical? Am I the only one that thinks they're totally creepy?

stealthird

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @polypam: oh wow, that sounds really cool.

@AnderBobo: totally! i saw him walking around yesterday actually, i was surprised that i recognized him on his silhouette alone.

ineffable.me

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @NefariousNewt: Get the kid a real gokart and teach her how to race.

That's the dude's plan for any offspring we might acquire. He got all wistful last week when one of his racing buddies put his five-year-old's trainer kart up for sale.

howdybeep (runs with monkey wrenches)

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @LaComtesse: Hee, awesome.

vegemitekid

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @polypam: Same jingle :) It always kind of bothered me as a kid that they always played "My Buddy" first.

MillyMoo

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @ineffable.me: OMG right?! I was like a young Christian Siriano with my napkins, tissues, rubber bands and scotch tape. I made quite a "fierce" outfit too. Come to think of it that does sound like a Project Runway challenge, lol.

AnderBobo

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @ineffable.me: I am pretty sure rubber bands were part of my sewing kit back then too. When I was in design school (college), in my fashion history class, I had to pick a project to do (anything I wanted) and I did a Josephine-style Barbie and I'll tell ya, all the girls in the class were like, "Ooooh...can I see her?!!", it was like magic. I totally got an A!

polypam

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @AnderBobo: I'm all about boys playing with baby dolls and dress up clothes, etc. The two most amazing childhood play include: my brother (now 6'2" power-lifting champion) carted around his cabbage patch baby, Meghan, everywhere with him... along with his other dolls, named Bacon Boy, Spike, and Chickenface. He was creative with names; and my cousin at the top of my uncles enormous staircase, naked but for a top hat, high heels and a boa screaming "I'm a drag queen! My name is The Purple Unicorn!!!!!" and then dancing down the stairs, Fred Astaire style.

LaComtesse

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @tscheese: We would have been great pals as kids. My Barbies had crazy jobs (astronaut, rock star, president) and even crazier love lives. I would spend hours acting out basically plays with them, telling my sis what "parts" hers got to have and whatnot.

funnyface

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @MillyMoo: What about Kid Sister!

polypam

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @katieb has landed: It either has to be that, or the "Nothing Can stop the Schmooze" song from the movie.

dontbogartthewine

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @LaComtesse:
Well that is awesome. You have just inspired me to watch Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealers this weekend. Because now the inner 5 year old is awake. ha!


dontbogartthewine

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @tscheese: Now I have the "My Buddy" Jingle in my head. "My buddy (my buddy). My Buddy (My Buddy!). Wherever I go..HE goes!"

Also, I agree with your point. My barbies always got into capers in an orphanage run by my crazy Disney Belle Doll. Good times!

MillyMoo

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @polypam: i did the same thing. youd be surprised what napkins, rubber bands and a barbie can yield.

ineffable.me

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> Barbie was my first muse when I starting making clothes as a kid. A lot of famous designers have said the same thing. I can't imagine Bratz would inspire a girl to do much more than charging up daddy's AmEx.

I still go "oooohhh" at the pink glow of the Barbie aisle if I am ever in Toys R Us. And that scene in Toy Story 2 still cracks my shit up.

polypam

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @dontbogartthewine: I officially need that as a ring tone.

katieb: in charge of the war on the poor.

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @meaghan2k: Lol, Yeah my sister and I played "office" quite often and I too have an affinity for scribbling my name in cursive on notepads.

My only issue with toys is that they are gender specific. I hate how there is a "girl aisle" and a "boy aisle" and god forbid the two should intermix. My hypothetical children would be free to play with whatever type of toy they wanted (except play weapons or stupid Bratz).

AnderBobo

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @TurangaLeela: not many people see Legos as a gender-neutral toy. thats why they have to make girl sets and make them pink and what not.
building blocks: architect
girls arent architects.

ineffable.me

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> When the Miss Bimbo story was posted I had to go check it out - I signed up for my very own Bimbo. Yesterday, I got an email: "Your Bimbo Has Died". HAHAHA

I really loved Barbies and played with them until the ungodly age of 14 (undercover of course) and mostly because they came with so little narrative - I could make a new story for them any time i liked.

washionfore

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @TurangaLeela: Not for us spatially uninclined children. I could stack them. That's it.

LaComtesse

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @tscheese: @AnderBobo: While I agree with both your points, I still am wary about giving my kids action figures and dolls. The way babies and Barbies and marketed to young girls is disturbing (be a mommy be a mommy BE A FUCKING MOMMY!!!!!), and I don't think I would be comfortable with my boys (note: I do not have children...yet? Jury is still out on the baby-making shit) playing with war heroes.

I didn't really play with dolls. Any dolls I had were drawn on with pen. I preferred playing "Waitress" only because I loved to write on thost little pads. Fast foward to present time and you'll see that have a sick love for office supplies and I write all the time.

meaghan2k

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @TurangaLeela: My mom used to put legos in my shoes b/c I had this problem of walking on my tippy toes as a child, and still find myself doing it as an adult... so I have this weird association with legos.

AnderBobo

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> Also, how great are Legos as a gender-neutral toy? I think they're totes underrated.

TurangaLeela

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @dontbogartthewine: Ha! I told her the same thing when I found out who she was. I was like "Bettina! I wanted to BE YOU when I was little." Cutely enough, she's really into the fact that she was able to be a part of little girl's childhoods in a positive way.

@BlondeGrlz: Sadly, this was my old job, back in LA. I'm in NY now (thank god!).

LaComtesse

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> Ok, I have to admit I used to have a Barbie Doll growing up however I didn't play with it because she was like Strawberry Shortcake or some shit.

So I played with my GI Joe, Transformer and Voltron action figures. All three were fighting over the battle of who can rule the Lego Empire!

Good Times. Good Times.

DeafChick

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @PetiteGal: I love it that we can think of a Barbie doll as looking "proper"... hey wait, is there a Dowager Barbie yet?

bigleggedwoman

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @Lymed: Venus of Willendorf had enormous breasts and hips, a huge vulva AND NO FACE. Goddess images were focused solely on a woman's fertility and sexuality-- what a woman was expected to accomplish in life. Barbie is the same, only our lifestyles are different. At base, i think they are very comparable.

[www.edu.pe.ca]

LaComtesse

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> My favorites were the Malibu Barbies. I definitely spend one day of shopping at Meijer huffing all of the Malibu Barbies in the toy aisle.

brokestephenswoman

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @meaghan2k: I think playing with dolls CAN actually help kids' creativity. I mean, I was a really weird kid, but I would always come up with the most astoundingly complicated dramatic telenouvela-style love triangles and trapezoids and dodecahedrons with my Barbies. There would be musical numbers, and then Skipper would shove Courtney off a cliff out of jealousy that Courtney was banging Kira. I can't say it did much for my social development, but I was telling stories, and it definitely kept my brain working. To make the dolls interesting, I had to be interesting within my own head.*

The rest of the time my Barbies were 50-foot-tall monsters who ate little Lego guys for breakfast. I can't imagine that that kind of play is particularly instructive, but at least I was rarely bored.

*I still think I am very interesting within my own head. This has yet to be confirmed by an unbiased source, however.

tscheese

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @meaghan2k: I think children learn alot when they play with dolls/action figures etc. It is a way of like role playing certain social situations thru dolls and it inspires their imagination. As long as they understand that they are just dolls and not supposed to be physically representative of actual real people I don't see the problem.

I actually feel bad for kids today, too much internet/technology has basically removed the need for an imagination. I wouldn't trade my memories of making wedding dresses out of tissues for barbie for anything.

AnderBobo

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @tscheese: Sadly, the current incarnation of Barbie isn't as much of a blank slate. There was one line (My Scene or something like that?) that was kind of like Bratz; there's currently the Fashion Fever line (complete with credit card) and the Rebelde dolls that go with the whole Gossip Girl/elite snob trend. She's still got a couple of career choices ('baby doctor,' art teacher, photographer, princess, etc) but none of them are as cool as astronaut or president.

cate3710

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> I have the worst urge to go play Barbies now.

TheFormerJuneBronson

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @ineffable.me: Well, now that Barbie's out of the way Ken is finally free to be real to himself. Waiting for the release of "arrested in a public park after hours, Ken"

vegemitekid

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> I used to play GI Joe with my brother, but I would always play with, like, one soldier and the German Shepherd-like dog and have the two of them go on crime fighting adventures.

TurangaLeela

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @meaghan2k:
Strangely enough I've seen a kid do that. And it was still less gross than a Bratz doll.

All Barbie was ever good for was as a Jockey for really tall Breyer horses anyway. And not even that good bc her legs didn't bend the right way. I won't miss her I don't think.


dontbogartthewine

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @LaComtesse: If I send you my Rainbow Brite doll (a big stuffed one) can you have her autograph it's face with a sharpie?

BlondeGrlz

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @meaghan2k: Reading Rainbow was my life as a child. I had one Barbie, she was an astronaut which I desperately wanted to be at age 7. My mother thought I was the weirdest child in the world. All I wanted were books and Cabbage Patch Preemies to pretend they were my children and read to them.

stacyinbean

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @LaComtesse:

The only person I think I ever wanted to be more than Megan from my little ponies, was Rainbow Brite. And that is because her horse could run on a G.D. rainbow. If I were 5 you would have just made my mind explode in happiness. And ok, you still did a little bit. Jealous.

dontbogartthewine

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> Also, my Barbies didn't NEED any freakin' Corvettes or sporty coupes, because they were Godzilla. You don't see Godzilla in a damn BMW, do you? No, because when Godzilla's done stomping Tokyo, he just goes back into the ocean. He doesn't have to commute because he is a freaking DINOSAUR.

Same with my Barbies. They just went back to Luxury Barbie Valhalla Townhomes after they were done terrorizing the populace. For serious.

tscheese

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> Playing with dolls doesn't teach you shit. Remember Reading Rainbow? "Take a look, it's in a book."

So the fact that Barbie is going down doesn't bother me one bit. But I do need to destroy Bratz. I'd rather my kid play with a used condom than a fucking Bratz doll.

meaghan2k

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @NefariousNewt:
Some of the best memories of my life are from driving a similar pink baby corvette. They are expensive but they are so much fun. I'd still drive one today if I wasn't clearly over the weight limit!


dontbogartthewine

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @LaComtesse: I don't think Barbies and goddess figures are comparable. The goddess figures are celebrating life. Barbies are a sexualized version of a woman's body.

Lymed

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @AnderBobo: My favorite Barbie was black. Then I ALSO had the freckled red-head Midge; I called her Maggie, and I made her an Irish exchange student. As my mom recently pointed out, my whole life, I LOATHED "the pretty one" in any group. Jem? Pshw. But I had all the 'Misfits' dolls from the same show.

LaComtesse

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @AthertonMerriweather: Ohhh Frenchie, that comment was priceless on Sunday night. And how could Bret not want you after you show heem zee perfect Barbee assz?!

stacyinbean

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> My Barbie had a red Corvette. The hardest day of my life was when I cleaned out my childhood bedroom and had to throw it away (after checking Ebay and making sure it wasn't worth anything)...

TurangaLeela

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @NefariousNewt: Be warned. My parents refused to buy me a Barbie Corvette as a kid too. First guy I met who owned a real one (yellow, not pink) - I married him.

BlondeGrlz

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @NefariousNewt: Buy her the corvette! I remember being little and wanting a power wheel more than anything in the world, I even befriended a neighbor child just because he had one!

AnderBobo

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @dontbogartthewine: @BlondeGrlz: @katieb has landed: The greatest day of my life was when I realized that my boss' daughter-in-law voiced not only Megan from My Little Pony, but Rainbow Brite. To make it better, she is the most beautiful, kind woman I've ever met.

@Lymed: I hear you, particularly on the "math is hard" thing. But my baby doll had a giant head and eyes, arms that didn't move away from its body and, after I was done with it, one eye and no hair. It didn't give me unrealistic ideas as to what my younger siblings would look like. Look at any goddess figurine from the dawn of time: none of them give us accurate proportions of what a woman really looks like.

LaComtesse

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> What about Skipper? I could relate to Skipper.

TurangaLeela

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @ineffable.me: Omg I was totally talking about Kyra in my last post! She was so gorgeous and had that long black hair! I miss her.

AnderBobo

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @BowlingForDollars: They are the "Rock of love" girls of the doll world.

Cuteasabutton

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @BlondeGrlz: I also had that My Little Pony! Its wings also busted off from being put away into the toybox. Dammit.

I don't want to buy Barbie for my nieces nowadays. She's always a fairy princess or something else equally fluffy. Bring back the Barbie with the powersuit, or Barbie for President, or even the Barbie who was a zoologist, and I'll start buying them again for my nieces.

Catra

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @LaComtesse: My sister had Barbie dolls, who spent an awful lot of time commingling with my G.I. Joes.

NefariousNewt

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @vegemitekid: totally dude. totally.

@LaComtesse: thats true. but then after i got old enough i always chose the ones that didnt have blonde hair. my favorite ones growing up were kyra (who was sort of hawaiian looking and had darker brown skin and black hair) and midge, barbie's red-headed friend. my skipper also had brown hair.
they ruled.

ineffable.me

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @BlondeGrlz: My wife keeps pointing out every time we go to Toys 'R Us how much my daughter loves the kid-sized Barbie Corvette. However, I'm not paying $250 so my daughter can tool around in a replica pink Corvette. It'll be bad enough when she wants a real car.

NefariousNewt

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @tscheese: Well put, perhaps they should make a "Bing and Purge Barbie" with laxatives and real flushing toilet.

@LaComtesse: I stole, and loved, a barbie from my sister that was Hawaiin or Asian and had long black hair and was so fierce and hot and I would dress her in this spandex neon green workout outfit with a huge pink tutu thing over it. Ahh the 80s. I liked the ethnic barbies over regular barbie.

AnderBobo

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> Back in '59, I wanted one of those first Barbie's very badly. I saved up chore money until I could have her. After a childhood of baby and little girl dolls, at eleven, I wanted a fashion doll that I could dress in adult clothing that I designed and made. That first Barbie was very different from current Barbies. Her features were more Asian with sharply slanted eyes and her hair was fine black silk threaded thru tiny holes in her scalp, pulled tightly back into a long pony-tail. Her body was hard, not pliable molded plastic like the ones today. As soon as the versions with plastic hair and pliable arms came out, I didn't like her anymore.

sjct

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @zivah: Barefoot.

BlondeGrlz

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @tscheese: "Credit Card Bratz Divaz Shopping Binge Purgatory Glitter Blowout" Oh my God. Coffee in my sinuses thanks to you! :)

TurangaLeela

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> When I have kids, they can play with the twenty or so Barbie dolls I have saved for them, complete with Barbie horses, Mercedes, and motor home. My stepsister and I played with that shit until an embarrassingly late age. Good enough for me, good enough for my unborn children.

R-Star

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @Lymed: all dolls have unreasonable proportions. and barbie didnt teach me that math is hard. my mom never bought me that. see how people can do that? barbie was a fun time and there was doctor barbie and veterinarian barbie and astronaut barbie.
call me when astronaut bratz comes out.

ineffable.me

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @ineffable.me: Ahh, Barbie was just a front?

vegemitekid

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @ineffable.me: You mean "whorses". Haha!

Cuteasabutton

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> Generations of women have managed to grow up unscathed playing with Barbie. I think it's still too early to tell how the freakish, slutty Bratz are going to influence the current young girls, if at all.

TurangaLeela

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> Oh Barbie. You really do epitomize the real life women you seek to embody. Cast aside in your 40s for a younger, trampier version of yourself.

The problem with Barbie is that the doll always looks the same. At leas the Bratz dolls have different hair and eye colors. As a child, I was actually bitter about all the blonde haired blue eyed dolls, princess, etc. that were out there. The only representation I had until Belle was Snow White. And she talked funny.

LaComtesse

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @katieb has landed:
My Little Pony...My Little Pony

What will today's adventure be?

My Little Pony...My Little Pony

Will there be exciting sights to see?

Where will you wander? Hither and yonder

Letting your heart be your guide

My Little Pony...My Little Pony

I'll be there right by your side

I'll be there right by your side

... never actually remembered the hither and yonder part, but there's a good chance the song is in my head for a solid month now.


















dontbogartthewine

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> Barbie is kind of a blank slate, which is what I used to like about her (usually she would be a Godzilla monster who the GI Joe guys had to defeat, but I was a weird kid.) The thing was, you had this adult doll, and sure, she had lots of different outfits and careers and accessories, but the play was really open-ended. Barbie could be a straight astronaut pursuing Space Ken one day, and a lesbian pirate the next day (pursuing Midge and Teresa across the high seas.)

Bratz and the like largely seem to emphasize shopping, fashion, and other displays of conspicuous consumerism. Bratz don't walk the plank, or stomp Tokyo to smithereens, or engage the warp drive. Bratz come prepackaged for fashion shows and mall adventures. Bratz aspire to be famous rock stars or fashion mavens.

Take a look at the section of the toy aisle that's targeted toward girls. When I was a little kid, there were lots of dolls, but some of them emphasized adventure and novelty. Like the My Buddy / Kid Sister dolls? And the endless array of doctor/lawyer/astronaut Barbies?

Now it's all Credit Card Bratz Divaz Shopping Binge Purgatory Glitter Blowout, as if all little girls want to aspire to is shopping and spending and looking good.

Sigh.

tscheese

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @zivah: Only after he marries the bratz doll, has a new baby, is divorced by the bratz doll and taken for millions, cursing himself all the way for not signing that pre-nup....

vegemitekid

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> Are we supposed to mourn for Barbie because there are now dolls that are worse? This is the doll that taught us math is hard. It is the doll that has unreasonable proportions. I really don't care if she becomes obsolete.

Lymed

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @BlondeGrlz: You just gave me a flashback to my childhood, listening to my grandma rant:
"Barbie Dream House?? You know what I used to get for Christmas? An orange. And I was happy with that orange. My sisters and I would peel it carefully, so we would get half of the peel off unbroken so we could fashion it into an umbrella for the doll we used to share."


asylum

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> Little girls always want to do whatever older girls are doing. Barbie does not look like older girls. Bratz look like the older girls...on MTV shows. Parents let their little kids watch MTV programming. Little girls therefore want Bratz and not Barbie.

Solution: only allow age-appropriate programming in the house. Duh. Bratz is and never will be age-appropriate.

vivresavie17

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @vegemitekid: ken never had sex with barbies, he's out there with the n'sync action figured.

ineffable.me

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> Barbie is lame, and seriously, only the lesser of two evils when it comes to the nasty Bratz dolls.

I was obsessed with dolls as a kid and had plenty of non-name-brand dolls to dress up and make clothes for, plus my fantasy come true American Girl doll.

I played Barbies at my friends houses, but seriously, I proud and grateful that my mom refused to give a corporately branded childhood.

Dear Blond Diary...

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @jenalicious: maybe, but american girl dolls come with books, not cd roms, and books are sooooo 90s

alloutofnice

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @BlondeGrlz: I also had to walk 10 miles to and from school, uphill both ways and in the snow. Hrumph.

zivah

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @BlondeGrlz: Anytime someone says the words "my little pony" the theme song is stuck in my head for days. All three words of it.
My little ponies, my little ponies......


katieb: in charge of the war on the poor.

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> My 5-year-old son wants a Bratz doll so badly, and while I think it's adorable that he likes dolls, I just can't bring myself to buy one of those overly made-up, sexed-up dolls. He also wants a Sharpei (High School Musical) doll that sings 'Fabulous' (a song about worshipping material things). Also resisting getting that, although it's light-years better than Bratz in my opinion. I have not resisted getting the music for either, though. Bad mommy!

pastanaut

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> I really want to maim the person that came up with the idea for "Bratz" dolls. They're little hooker dolls, that's all they are. You could make Barbie be anything. All you needed was a little imagination that I fear might be lacking in today's youth.

Kittenish

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> Mattel Profits Plummet -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?

YES.

DeafChick

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> what was so wrong with tree houses and roller skates?
go play outside kids!

alloutofnice

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @vegemitekid: Yeah, but he has to take viagra, and I think his midlife crisis is going to give him a heart attack when he's in his early 50s.

zivah

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> "Magic of the Rainbow"? This is a name?

...unless you're talking about Magic Johnson, in which case it makes sense. Ba-dum-bum.

MsDirector

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @zivah: such as Bratz babies? those were some sexy toddlers.

what about American Girl dolls? they're still a raging success, right? youd think that would keep mattel afloat.

jenalicious

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> "Kiss my perfect Barbee Ass!"

AthertonMerriweather

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> Rightly, or wrongly, I'm readling lots of "transferrance" into that obsolete at 49 quote.

AGreenEyeDevil

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> When I was a kid, 'interactive' meant you took it outside to the sandbox. The fanciest toy I has was a My Little Pony with wings that actually fluttered when you pushed the button (for the hour before I broke them off). I would have cut a bitch for a Barbie corvette with working headlights. Damn kids today, they're all spoiled little brats who have no imagination.
Now get off my lawn.


BlondeGrlz

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @BowlingForDollars: I was thinking the same thing- not only are real women too "old" at 49, but now barbiee is too? I suppose Ken's still going strong though, probably hooking up with a brats doll as we speak......

vegemitekid

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> @funnyface: Yeah right I'm afraid to let my kids watch TV. Have you ever seen a child mesmerized by the boob tube? It's frightening! You can't get their attention for SHIT.

sanibelly

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> Girls don't want to play with Barbie because she is portrayed as a grown up who has had a myriad of careers. Barbie is also significantly less slutty looking (actually, not slutty at all) than the other dress up dolls in the market, and girls today have been brainwashed into wanting to look slutty. Being "proper" is no longer desirable.

PetiteGal

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> That photo is great!!!

angryblackgurl

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> SUCK ON THIS HUMORLESS FEMINISTS
Barbies were SO awful and deforming and god knows what and now y'all stuck with Bratz and online dolls with boob jobs and unicorn whores.

HA-HA!!

ineffable.me

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> See, ladies? No matter how much you inject into your face, even if you look the same as you did at 21 at 49 you'll still be obsolete!!!

sanibelly

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> No kids for me yet, but I can already tell I'm going to be the lamest mom ever. Web based toys? HA. Bratz? HA. TV? HA.

funnyface

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> Barbie has been around the block and back and she ain't going no where! Besides you can't brush Miss Bimbo's hair.

Some of my fondest memories growing up were playing with my sisters Barbies. I'll never forget when I accidentally burned the hair off one when I tried to dry it on a lightbulb and it melted and clumped (and stank) kind of like the time I put a my little pony in the microwave to dry it's hair as well...

AnderBobo

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> I'd hate to think at 49 I'd be obsolete. These Bratz and Hannah Montana dolls are the Trophy Wives of the doll world.

Bitches!

BowlingForDollars

]]> <![CDATA[Barbie Sales Flatten Worldwide -- Are Bratz & Miss Bimbo To Blame?]]> Hey, at least Barbie was an adult. Never thought I'd say it, but I'm more comfortable with grown-up Barbie, bringing her idiotic version of "sexy," than I am with the sexualized kid dolls.

zivah

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