Little Bratz

While on the discussion of the Barbie complex, I thought of something similar that worries me. It is the Bratz dolls. In my opinion, the Bratz have superseded Barbie in that they are posing as young girls, targeted AT young girls. They don't encourage growth, intelligence, or personality; they encourage makeup, belly shirts and shopping. The commercials show them in clothing only a vegas prostitute would wear, walking a dog and sipping a Starbucks coffee. In my mind, little girls shouldn't idolize plastic figures of materialistic adulthood. No wonder girls are 'maturing' so quickly. These are the examples they are given to play with, initiating each of their creative scenarios with a scantily clad teenager. Bratz go beyond the media driven concept that the perfect woman is Barbie, they begin to mold our young girls to be body conscious, media driven consumers. Don't get me wrong, I love a good cup of Starbucks, but there is a time and a place for growing up, and it is starting too early in our kids today. They have a few precious years to look and act like whatever they want, without worrying about fashion or appearance. Bratz dolls are taking this away at an earlier age than ever before, and in a way forces them to grow up much sooner than we did. When I was little I liked Barbies because they were adults, and we loved to pretend to be 'grown up'. However the Bratz are meant to be little girls! Which takes little girls who play with them out of a fantasy world, and influences them to imitate completely unrealistic idols. It is sad to hear that some 7 year-old girls want to go on diets, and are already wondering why they don't look like the bobble-headed plastic figure in their toy bin.

Bratz