Let's discuss Barbie, Bratz, Only Hearts, and Moxie Girlz, and other of their ilk

[Rabbit]

Mine had office clothes, ball gowns, and evening dresses. No slutty stuff. My mom and grandparents were the only ones buying for me, and they loved Princess.

[Heather Micaela]

Originally Posted by Herbwifemama

I agree- there is NO WAY my mom could possibly have known that I hoped to look like Barbie when I grew up. Or that I thought legs of that proportion were "normal", even though my mom didn't look like that. You moms who say your girls aren't affected, are they simply not affected by negative self image at ALL? Because I know I was crying into my pillow about being fat when I was 12 and a size 0. And no, it wasn't ALL because of Barbie, but still. I can't shield them from all media, but I can be VERY picky about what comes into my house. I think the only reason I don't mind the Only Hearts Club dolls is that my daughter WILL look like that when she's a preteen, but if she gains weight, I will try to hunt down something like the Emme doll with larger proportions for her. She's not likely to EVER look like Barbie, and she's even less likely to look like a Bratz, modesty issues aside.

This has been a very thought provoking thread, I have to say.

Thing is, we already talk about these things at length. And some of my dd's favorite women in the whole world are obese or borderline. So we talk about things like body image. My prayer is that the open conversations keep those things at bay. And the thing is, I have an emotionally fragile child already so I am often secretly sneaking in communication with her play to see where her thoughts are at.

Now I have mostly forbid any of the fashion dolls that have too much makeup and have outfits I find inappropraite and lean the princess direction. I hated all the frou frou stuff growing up, but my 6yo loves it. And that size dolls are about the best princessy ones.

However we recently thinned out most of them, replaced them with mini disney princesses and focused instead on her doll house for pretend play. (Smaller stuff to store) We also have given her a AG bitty twin for the whole dressing-up-a-doll thing. And she will get a full sized AG historical doll for her birthday. Just one and no accesories (That is what the doll house is for). But in the future she could maybe get a few key accesories or outfits as gifts and perhaps save up for another one or the best friend.

[Patrysha]

Originally Posted by Herbwifemama

She's not likely to EVER look like Barbie, and she's even less likely to look like a Bratz, modesty issues aside.

And yet, my youngest son evidently sees me as a Bratz doll. Two years ago for Christmas we gave the boys money to buy Christmas presents. I took them to buy Daddy's, Daddy took them to buy mine. Our youngest bought a Bratz doll that he thought looked like me...

She's long gone now (thank you dear doggy for chewing off her removable feet), but then I don't have any girls to worry about body image...just boys who are going to be sorely disappointed if they get in their head that the dolls have any connection to real life women (once they get to that stage)

[scrappyknits]

my daughter is 6 and she really likes Groovy Girl Dolls - and I like them, too!
I have never heard of "Only Hearts Club dolls".
There are some new "Precious Girls Club dolls" that we've seen recently in the Christian book store and also like, but we haven't any personally.

I don't like Bratz due to their clothing and such

I had Barbies growing up and don't have a particular adversion to them, except that if you have Barbies, baby dolls, polly pockets, groovy girls, ty dolls, moxy dolls, etc, etc, etc, it gets to be such a collection that's it's simply overwhelming and wasteful. We've chosen to stick with Groovy Girls and polly pockets (non-magnetic ones) as a way of streamlining our collections - the rest bypass our house.

[Teacher Mom]

I did not like the look of the bratz dolls. It was one of those decisions we make as parents and this was not one I felt was NOT worth the battle. I let her get them because her cousin and friends had them. Well, we never bought any for her, but she received them as gifts. We have laughed at the outfits and my dd knows what is inappropriate. They are for playing and using her imagination, but she knows that she will not be wearing any outfits like that. Again, it gave us lots of opportunities for great conversations.

I just remembered this. Years ago, we were at Niagara Falls and saw some teenagers walking by. In all honesty, the girl was dressed like a bratz doll. I didn't say anything, but my dd said that the girl's skirt was waaaaay too short for her. I was proud of my dd for recognizing that all on her own.

[jewelmcjem]

There was a set of teen twins at our church who came one day with the dark eye makeup and dark lips, one with jet-black hair & one with peroxide-blond hair (they actually have medium blond hair). My girls said "MOM! The B twins look like Bratz dolls!!!" I LOL'd every time I saw them after that. They toned it down after a while, lol.