Too bad I was born an adult and never had the benefit of child-like insight.

Now, given the fact that I’ve been exposed for being a stupid adult, I’ll give in and won’t pretend to have answers. I’ll just ask some questions.

1) Say I have a serious health concern–or heck, just want to get my teeth cleaned. Would I rather be worked on by a 15 year old or a 40 year old?

2) I want to watch a movie. When I go to the local video store, will I find more movies directed by 40 somethings or teens?

3) I’m a world leader and our nation has a big problem. Do I call a 50 year old or a 20 year old to work on a solution?

4) I want to go to a museum to look at art. Do I want to see art by a 5 year old or a 36 year old?

Now to reality…

I guess I’m speaking to the stupid adults now.

Honestly, like all but one contributor to Laurie and Debbie’s blog, I too am greatly disturbed by the proliferation of Bratz dolls and the seemingly related changes to Barbie.

Besides the fact that Bratz are hypersexualized dolls dressed for a career as a pole dancer, one more telling argument against them is to see just how illiterate and illogical their one supporter (on this blog) is. Yes, she’s just 14, but she’s only 4 years away from being a legal voting adult and getting very close to sexual maturity. How does she dress?

Does how a teen female dresses impact how she is approached and treated by teen males?

Do teens make judgments on one another based on dress? Do adults make judgments on one another based on dress?

Is teen pregnancy a problem in the US?

Again, I don’t have the answers, but these questions do come to mind.

What does the choice of online moniker say about oneself? I could have my acronyms mixed up–I am blonde like Barbie–but when I see the initials WTF, I think “What the f—.”

How important are reading, writing and critical thinking skills? If my goal is to be a real live incarnation of a Bratz doll, a la Britney Spears or Paris Hilton, are those important skills to have?

Just so no one gets the idea I’m a dowdy, stay-at-home, book worm, I was in a competitive sorority at a competitive college–and yes, looks were valued. And yes, we had one sister who was the living incarnation of Barbie! But education was equally stressed. Our pledge class had future scientists, teachers, doctors, accountants and artists.

I don’t see that in the Bratz value system. Barbie’s marketing copy, god love her, at least pretends to have an interest in a self-supporting and fulfilling career.

I also worked for a record label and toured with Lollapalooza–no kidding. But I don’t want my daughter playing with Bratz dolls.

Are Britney Spears and Paris Hilton happy people? Where will Britney and Paris be at age 40? What contributions does each make to the world? Who do they care about? Who cares about them? Other than paid staff, who takes care of them when they are sick? What happens after Paris Hilton has bought everything she ever wanted?

WTF – since you are sooooooo smart, then surely you are up to taking one of the following imagination challenges! They would be so easy for your brainy head.

1) Imagine you won the lotto. Who doesn’t think that is a fun little daydream? You now have more money than Donald Trump. What would you do with the money? Fast forward 5 years. What would your life be like? In 5 years, would you have a lot more or a lot less money than you started with? What would you do after you’d done everything you wanted and bought everything you wanted?

2) Imagine you have died (I know tough to do at 14–but you are sooo smart and you yourself stated that Bratz dolls contributed to your life by stimulating your imagination–so imagine this). So you’ve died and you are hovering over a crowd of people at your wake/funeral/memorial service. What would you want people to say about you?

So I’m still a stupid adult. The following sites are sure to have much smarter (and consequently probably younger) folks than me providing fodder to entertain you.

The “Satisfaction With Life” index on Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satisfaction_with_Life_Index

Oh, did you notice where the US is on that chart? What puts the top countries on top? Maybe the following article will shed some light. Hint: The “C word” could have something to do with it.

A scholarly article on happiness from 4 different view points:

http://www1.umn.edu/umnnews/Feature_Stories/In_search_of_happiness.html

One last request–for you dumb adults, if you haven’t seen the movie Parenthood featuring Steve Martin, you have to watch it. Favorite quote is:

“You know, Mrs. Buckman, you need a license to buy a dog, to drive a car – hell, you even need a license to catch a fish. But they’ll let any #$^&*%$ be a father.”

Being a parent is the most interesting, fun and important job I’ll ever have. Don’t want to f—- it up!

I went to Mattel’s customer service page to complain about this change of head size, but found that you have to call them up to send any feedback, you can’t just write an angry email.

As for the Bratz – I find them jut as sickening. They have no noses, they wear tight clothes, they have too-obviously fake lips, and, over all, are ultimately slutty.

Why they’re popular at all escapes me, but maybe that’s just because I’m a bit biased, what with Barbie at least being a foot tall and not a short, chubby prostitute.

I M A G I N A T I O N

E*

I think you’re right about the dolls and gender attitudes toward toys getting even worse. They do teach very bad lessons.

And fortunately there are many girls like you were, who use Barbie’s for their own stories.

Good luck to both of with your writing!

Likewise, the darkest-skinned dolls I was seeing all had brown or hazel eyes.

http://www.newamerica.net/publications/articles/2006/little_hotties_4487