Ding Dong The Bratz are dead!

Barbie killed the whole pack!

Bratz Dolls will no longer be sold after this Christmas season because they infringe on a copyright Barbie (Mattel) happens to own, so sayeth The Court.

Carter Bryant, in typical "mean-girl fashion," evidently conceptualized the rottin little Bratz while under contract with Mattel and then illegally sold the concept to MGA Entertainment.

Earlier in this cat fight The Bratz was court-ordered to pay Barbie $100 Million in lost sales. Mattel attorneys said MGA made nearly $779 million on the Bratz line since it was introduced in 2001.

In a recent ruling, Judge Stephen G. Larson of the District Court in the Central District of California shut down the whole Bratz line.

The court has ordered recalls from stores, the shattering of molds used to make the hideous little beasts and they are no longer to use the brand name The Bratz.

Who wants to join me in a gleefilled Hallelujah?

There IS a Santa!

Thanks to reader, and lawyer, Jonna for tipping me off on this legal triumph for all girls everywhere!

Maybe for New Year Eve we can get American Girl Dolls to take down Barbie!

More details at Associated Press.

The Girls Next Door is rated PG-13.

Hugh Hefner decided.

Its a voluntary rating system.

(Oh, and Barbie obviously has no cultural influence at all on girls or the bodies they grow up and buy.)

Image Source: Ragyn

Who doesn't love A Christmas Story? It's my favorite Christmas classic.

So, about those Barbies Ainsley keeps praying, wishing and asking Santa for. . .

Ralphie needed that Red Rider BB Gun just as Ainsley needs some Barbie dolls. I have overlooked the fact that Mattel makes the Mattel High School Musical Gabriella & Troy 2-Pack dolls for Ainsley. I also balanced it out with a Hairspray Deluxe Singing Tracey Turnblad.

I did not order the Link Larkin doll because Troy and Link are both Zac Afron and I am fundamentally too frugal.

It is unlikely she'll shoot her eye out, right?

I think they will come from Santa. Or should I get the credit?

by Tracee Sioux

Yesterday we went walking, the kids and I, to get our exercise and take a break what seemed to be a downward spiral of bickering and frustration at home.

There's a prayer sanctuary near our house that's open to the public with some wishing wells out front. It's about a mile so we ventured forth.

Let's go in and pray. We can show God our gratitude for our blessings.

Not me. I'm praying for a Barbie.

Stupid Freaking Barbie! When she had one she dismembered and beheaded it. Now, it's her heart's desire.

Is it only because it's forbidden? I got her a Barbi-like knock off - do you think she'll be satisfied?

We made our wishes in the fountain, on penny at a time and then we had some more so we moved onto the nickels, dimes and quarters. Then Ainsley tried to fish them out because she was out of money but still had more wishes.

You can't steal other people's wishes Ainsley. And if you get your wishes back they might not come true.

So, in we went to pray. I knelt and prayed out loud (it's uncomfortable for me, but I try to teach by example) for all the wonderful gifts we've been given.

She went over to the spiral notebook and started writing.

Please bless that mom and dad will love each other all the time. Please let my brother be nice, she wrote.

Then we came home and she wrote a letter to Santa.

Mom how do you spell Barbie?

How do you spell Sleeping Beauty Princess Dress?

Okay now how to I write Barbie Computer?

Do you think he could really fit a tree house in a present?

A few days ago we were making a Dream Board, you know a collage of our dreams that we hope to come true. A visual representation of our goals, if you will.

She cut out a Bratz bedspread.

You don't want that, I tried convincing her.

I do want it.

Like every mother, my hearts desire is to make all her dreams come true at Christmas. But, you'll notice that I have a moral objection to nearly every toy on her list?

Is it irony, karma or a case of wanting the forbidden only because it's forbidden? Or is it the mass marketing to girls today telling them they must want these things?

I've my theories but I'd really, truly love to hear yours.

Pro-Ana Cheerleader Barbies
How Come Zack Gets A Barbie?
Bob vs. Barbie
Friends With Barbies
Go Bratz Go!
No Bratz No! Tantrum Or Go With The Flow?
Princess Ban
Cinderella Should Have Saved Herself
Ariel - The Little Mute
Belle - Battered Codependent

I admit I vacillate like crazy on the issue of allowing Ainsley to have Barbies. It's a grey area for me. I allowed Barbie for a while, then when I found a decapitated and limbless Barbie massacre on Ainsley's bed I silently cheered for joy and vowed not to replace her.

Some people give me crap about it and think I'm being too extreme. I admit, I've been thinking What's the harm in letter her play with those dolls, really?

Then the universe sends me a message to remind me.

First, I was flipping channels and came across Say Yes To The Dress. A wedding dress consultant asks a full grown woman, what do you want to look like on your wedding day?

Like Barbie, the woman says. She wasn't kidding. Click this link to see her say it.

Then my Barbie-defending friend, Violet, sends me this Cheerleader Barbie Inspires Young Girls.

Could those cheerleaders be any more Pro-ana ? Mattel is calling this their model muse body. It makes me want to be sick - but not to lose weight, just to express disgust.

Seriously, what message do these Barbies have for your daughter? You will never measure up unless you quit eating altogether and have a rib or two removed.

Give Barbies for Christmas if you must, but Ainsley's getting the "chubby" knockoffs.

More Barbie Blogs
How Come Zack Gets A Barbi?
Barbi For President
Bob vs. Barbi
Friends With Barbies

by Tracee Sioux

In a focus group carried out by toy manufacturer, Martin Yaffe, where children were invited to put this year’s top Christmas toys through their paces, seven out of 10 girls chose to play with toys designed for boys over the girls’ alternatives.

Around 70% of girls under six admit that boys’ toys are what they really want, according to a press release put out by the manufacturer of Bob the Builder toys.

Kristian Johnson, Marketing Manager at Martin Yaffe, said: It seems that stereotypes applied to toys in the past such as dolls for girls and cars for boys no longer apply – opening up a whole new element of choice for parents when shopping for their daughters this Christmas!

We wanted to hear directly from children exactly which toys will be at the top of their Christmas lists this year, and surprisingly found that the majority of girls preferred playing with the toys designed with boys in mind, from Bob the Builder to Fireman Sam.

The girls were given their choice between Bratz and Barbies and Bob and other toys marketed to boys. The study was done in the United Kingdom, but it stands to reason that American girls might feel similarly.

The top five picks were:
No.1 – Bob the Builder Snaptrax Garage & Car Wash set (picture of electronic sounds vehicle wash) – Girls loved working the working carwash and dryer.

No.2 – Oddbodz – The girls enjoyed playing with the colourful characters and vehicles that could be dismantled to create crazy new ones.
No 3 – Remote Control Scrambler – Girls particularly enjoyed mastering this easy to operate Scrambler, from hit pre-school TV show Bob the Builder.
No.4 – Bob the Builder Tool Bench – This was a surprising favourite with the girls who enjoyed emulating their hero Bob.
No.5 – Fireman Sam Remote Control Jupiter – This toy held its own, proving that kids still love traditional role models such as fire-fighters.

Read the whole press release. Keep in mind, this study was conducted by the manufacturer of Bob the Builder, so the boy toys were all made by Martin Yaffe.

I think we should test the theory though. Giving traditionally male toys to our daughters certainly can't hurt them.

by Tracee Sioux

How come Zack gets a Barbie and I don't? Ainsley challenged.

Why don't you let her have Barbie's? My protegee, Ambrea, asked.
Zack just sat sucking satisfied on the top of GI Joe's camoed head from his car seat.

Freaking Barbie. All day long I'd been being challenged here, on So Sioux Me, about why I don't allow Barbie. Could the lack of a Barbie doll might actually harm the development of my five-year-old daughter? Am I being too extreme? Some think so.

Is a bad feeling in my gut a good enough reason to restrict a mainstream toy? Have you seen Sunset Tan? It's like a strange planet that Barbie took over. Watch the show and then tune into Dr. 90210 and see the perfectly beautiful, normal girls carve up their bodies attempting to look just like Barbie. Have you ever been to LA and seen how homogoneous Barbie beauty is? That's my objection. The Olly Girls are the epitome of girl-mothering failure, in my opinion. That's the bad feeling I have in my stomach that says, just say no to Barbie. I don't see how anyone can watch those shows and not see Barbie's influence. But then I find myself in the car listening to:

How come Zack gets a Barbie and I don't? Ainsley challenged.
Why don't you let her have Barbie's? My protege, Ambrea asked incredulous.

uuuggghhh. I have nothing. Well, I've got a feeling in the pit of my stomach that screams Barbie sucks. But, I don't have a concrete reason to back up or ban the acceptance of GI Joe. He's a war doll with exagerated masculinity in his plastic chest. He seems very much the same as a boy Barbie doll, to my five-year-old daughter.

Like most of my children's toys I didn't buy GI Joe. We were at a thrift store, and I had found Ainsley playing with the Barbies. Zack was being fussy and I grabbed the nearest toy, a GI Joe, to buy myself some browsing time.

A generous and kind employee gave Zack the GI Joe.

I didn't think the issue through before it was thrust into my life. Zack is a toddler. I haven't formulated a policy about the acceptability of war toys or male Barbie-like dolls. We have a talking Bill Clinton Barbi-like doll already, does he too have to go?

So, now I have to decide, if Barbie is banned, then does GI Joe have to go too, out of fairness? Or should I just give up and let Barbie in the house to irritate and annoy me everytime I have to pick her up and put her away?

By Tracee Sioux

So a friend asked me the other day where I stand on Barbie. I have included "no Bratz, Barbies or Princesses" on birthday invitations. But, I also have a hot pink Barbie VW Bug and a Barbie skate board in the house.

I used to be anti-Barbie because Barbie had unrealistic body proportions. Her breasts were gigantic, waist tiny and nothing was in proportion. Perhaps Barbie-lunacy lead to so many women feeling they had inadequate breasts? Maybe Barbie is responsible for the dramatic increase in boob jobs? But, I can't back that up scientifically.

Besides I'm not against boob jobs or plastic surgery on principle. I'm against women being perpetually dissatisfied with their bodies and passing that onto their daughters on principle. Barbie may have contributed to that feeling of dissatisfaction by making little girls feel like growing up to look like Barbie was the ideal.

"Estimates have put the doll's life-size bust between 38 and 40 inches, her waist at 18-24 inches, and her height between five and a half and an outlandish more than seven feet, with a weight of 110. Picture Anna Nicole Smith's breasts, suspended above Kate Moss' waist (after a fast) all resting comfortably on Cheryl Miller's frame (after a mid-life growth spurt). Reported a MotherJones article.

Then Barbie went and got a little-publicised maker-over. Her boobs shrunk and her waist got a little wider and her hips narrower.

"Our intention is for her to have more of a teenage physique," says Mattel spokesperson Lisa McKendall. "In order for hip-huggers [the new doll's debut outfit] to look right, Barbie needs to be more like a teen's body. The fashions teens wear now don't fit properly on our current sculpting."

Of course, they didn't take the average proportions of the average American teenage girl and mold Barbie to those. That would be way to healthy of Mattel.

Still I have conflicted feelings about Barbie. She's such a consumer and I don't like that. She gets the dream house and dream car, dream boat, dream everything. She doesn't appear to have a job or children, but she's guess she's not that dependent on Ken.

Maybe I'm just jealous of Barbie. How come Barbie got everything? Why does Barbie get to have such a freaking dream life? (It's kind of how I feel about Elisabeth Hasselhoff on The View, so easy to make judgements when you're sitting in a dream life.)

Then, a friend sent me an ebay auction Barbie for President, where Barbie was wearing a red powersuit and holding her own election sign. With Hillary running for President in 2008, I kind of wanted to buy that and give it to Ainsley. (Or keep it for myself.)

But, that's because I love the idea of a female president of the United States. Not because I think Barbie would make a good one.

So, I don't have a hard and fast rule about Barbie. The dream car is allowed because she was the only one selling a pink VW Bug at the time, the skate board got in because it was a garage sale find.

Ainsley used to have some Barbies and Barbie knock-offs, but I was thrilled when I found a Barbie graveyard on her bed one evening. It seemed to be a promising symbol of her emotional development. While, I can't back that up scientifically. I do remember being inexplicably proud that she had ripped the head and all the limbs from her little Barbie-like dolls.

There is hope for you yet, grasshopper.