It's beginning to look a lot like a kegger

Wide-eyed and excited, a little girl walks down the aisle at Toys "R" Us in Irvine. She stops at the Bratz section and picks up one of the heavily made up dolls who's sporting a mid-drift and thigh-high stockings.

"Stop right there!" I shout, startling her. "Put that down, NOW!" I scream as I lunge toward her and knock the trampy doll out of her little hand. Then I turn her quickly to the sweet My Littlest Pet Shop display. Whew! Future teen disaster averted!

Well, okay not really. But that's what I felt like doing last week. Walking down the girl's aisles at toy stores can sometimes feels a little like MTV's Spring Break. The level of inappropriate attire and activities gets jacked-up year after year. It makes a mom wonder what kind of little girls these toy producers are targeting.

I'm not one to blame the media or toy makers entirely for the trend--as parents, I think it's our responsibility to moderate what our kids consume and not make others responsible--but geesh, taken as a whole, I feel the sexualization of little girls is getting out of hand. It seems every year the boundaries get pushed a little further, dragging our daughters down the road to adulthood at a quicker rate than they are equipped to handle.

It's the growing floozy-fueled trend that bothers me, not the desire for a little girl to act girlie. I let my six-year-old daughter play with Barbies. I let her do her nails sometimes. I let her have a little bit of a heel on her fancy black shoes. Bottom line: I let her be a little girl. I liked being a little girl. Being a little girl is a lot of fun. But I draw the line at Barbie's Hot Tub Party Bus. I think the concept behind it is too exceedingly tart-like to support.

Fun in the sun is one thing--which I enjoyed endlessly with my Malibu Barbie Country Camper--but throwing my daughter on a "Party Bus" with all of her half-dressed friends to soak in a hot tub with Ken and his buddies is another.

(See the original commercial for Barbie's Country Camper here...Sigh...)

This subject of guarding our daughters from vile merchandise is near and dear to my heart. You might remember the subtle mandate (paradox intended) I wrote calling for the boycott of Juicy Couture because of their despicable products made for young girls--remember their "Trust Fund Generation University" line of purses? This holiday season Juicy has teamed up with Barbie to make supermodel Barbies for just $125 a doll. Which would probably be these girls going rate on "the street." ***wink***wink***

Juicy also offers "A Week in the Life of a Juicy Drama Queen" underwear for little girls. So, for only $58, your young daughter can have clever "Juicy" puns splashed across her bottom for...um, I would hope no one to see. And isn't Juicy considerate to promote the trait we ALL encourage in our daughters--DRAMA!

The sales gal at Nordstrom in the Spectrum assured me I would "be surprised" at how many they sell. She's right. I'm always surprised when parents throw their money away on inane products for their kids. (You can read my Juicy Couture Rant here. I go into detailed about why all their products should be tossed into an angry sea.)

I know I must sound like the ultimate mommy buzz kill, and maybe I am a bit. But I didn't sign up for this whole parenting thing just to make and impress friends and I certainly didn't do it for the pay or the hours. I want my daughter (and my son) to have a total blast as kids, but sometimes it takes a purposeful effort on the parents' part to help them define what a "total blast" should look like.

Now let's see...I pointed out the evil trend of trampy toys marketed to our daughters....I showed you pictures of disgraceful Bratz dolls...I reiterated my disdain for all things Juicy...I encouraged you to dump unseemly products into an angry sea...I think my work here is done.

Have a nice holiday...and don't forget to try buying handmade.

This was written for my blog at The Orange County Register, "Mommy's Mind is Not a Toy."

Here are some other things I've written there that are bossy, snarky, and sometimes, usually by accident, downright true!

I'm afraid of wimps and you should be, too

Okay kids, time to break out the french maid costumes!

Social Etiquette 101 or Don't ever, ever under any circumstances ask a women if she is pregnant 101

Comments

[Catherine]

I'm with you. 100%.
Fortunately, my daughter never asked for one of these presents. I can't explain why but I haven't had to advice about it. She was just that kind of little girl that doesn't want to play with pink-bling-girly-things.
I wouldn't have loved to see her turning into a parody of the consumer society.

[jennifer]

Ditto...
I was totally struck by the choices we encountered while shopping for Chirstmas dresses for my daughter. There were definitely the cute little dresses appropriate for a 5 year old to wear to visit Santa but some were just jaw dropping. In fact, my daughter learned the word "slinky" (no, not the toy) that day...she doesn't really get it but knows it means something that she should not be wearing. She tried on a dress and told me she was going to wear it to a "slinky" party. What a "slinky" party is to her is yet to be determined. She said she would "slink" there. LoL.

[Mental P Mama]

Luckily, I introduced my daughter to Audrey Hepburn at the age of 5. It's been a cakewalk ever since. Seriously.

[Kate]

I am quite disturbed by the Barbie Party Bus Hot Tub debacle. What on earth do they imagine Barbie would get up to in the hot tub? On a bus. During a party. Euw.

[Suz]

Yeah, my thougts exactly. What are we teaching our kids if we condone these sorts of things...just rediculous.
Up next: "Barbie gets tatoos and piercings."
"Barbie gets knocked up in the funtime hottub camper"
"Barbie and her challenging VD problem"
I want my girls to be girls too. For as long as they want to be....at 13 and 15 we are looking pretty good still. :)
Great post Suz.

[kelly george]

I am right there with you. I have had a MAJOR boycot on Bratz dolls from day one. In fact I was in WalMart the other day purchasing a new DS game for Shelby for Christmas. I wanted "Cooking Mama" the sales guy (about 60 years old) said how about the Bratz game. When I politley (well, as polite as I can be) said we do not allow Bratz in our house he looked at me STUNNED and said WHY????? To that I answered (probably too loud) because they are trampy and slutty and I do not like that image for my daughter. "Oh" he said and quietly gave me my cooking game :) Long live strawberry shortcake and raggedy ann and andy :)

[The Glamorous Life]

The only good thing? Bratz are NO MORE. Big lawsuit. Barbie designer created them while still at Mattel blah, blah, blah and last week a judge ordered a cease and assist (but after holidays)........so they are NO MORE. I am sure someone will fill the gap. But still...I hate those little creepy hooker looking dolls.

Again thanking the heavens I have BOYS. Now I only have to worry about what kind of girls they bring home. And not the ones they play with. Wait.scratch that.....that came out wrong. Oh crap- you know what I mean right?

[Debs]

You win for most clever title of an article! So funny!
I hear ya! It is so sad to see a little girl dressed like a tramp. Or playing with one. I used to LOVE my barbie. But, I won't be buying the Barbie Hot Tub Party Bus either.

[Daryl]

First, thanks for the visit!

I am semi laughing at this ... when I was a kid I adored my Barbie and I have to admit I often created clothes for her a lot like those Juicy outfits but then I am a New Yawker.. our hookers dont dress that well ...

[Bakers love]

Great article Suzanne! Bratz always gave me the willies.

[Gloria]

Love the article...reminded me of a day about 40 yrs ago when a single college friend was visiting and Andrea handed him her Barbie...he took one look and said, "ooolala"...

[Serendipitous Girl]

Oh my LAWD. A Barbie HOT TUB PARTY BUS?! What is this--the Fisher Price version of the show Blind Date? You're not a buzz kill, you're an intelligent, thoughtful mommy. Keep kids, kids. They have plenty of time to go on party buses. That's what college is for.

[Big Hair Envy]

I've got your back sistah! Hot Tub Party Bus? Really? Thank goodness all I had to boycott was those awful Bratz dolls.

Hubby enforced a "no clothes with writing on the butt" rule in our house the day they started making those things. Other parents, who did NOT enforce such a rule, now have 16 y.o. daughters running around with "juicy" on their butts. Great message to send to those teenage boys with raging hormones....I could go on for DAYS!

Oh, I wish I still had my Barbie Country Camper:)

[Jen Broas]

Outstanding post! More parents need to stand up to this world! Way to go Suz!

[Elaina]

Okay, so I don't have kids. But before I went to college, while in school and then shortly thereafter, I worked as a nanny. I found myself constantly frustrated by how fast some of the children in our little worlds were growing up. While for the most part the families I worked for did a good job of letting their kids be kids that wasn't true of their friends. It was disturbing to me. And now, with my friends having children, I've listened with sadness, at some of the scenarios they've encountered with their kids at school. What bothers me so much about the toys is that little girls are exposed to the Britney's (and all the rest) of the world too. So accompanying the Bratz Dolls (and whatever else) are the images and actions of these young women who children idolize. It's not just about the toys. It's about them watching these real life drama queens live out their drama in front of them too. That's a powerful combo. Of course impressionable minds would want to be like that in the absence of the alternative. If I do have children, I've already tried to figure out how to protect them, without being overprotective, from those images so they can actually be...imagine this...children! Stepping off soapbox...

[MommyTime]

You're a woman after my own heart.

My sister's mother-in-law gave a toddler-sized stuffed Bratz doll to her toddler, and my sis refused to let the child have the trampy thing. My mother went to visit and made a Little House on the Prairie outfit with long dress and bloomers to cover the painted on FISHNET stockings and bustier that the doll was wearing. Now my nieces love the doll.

As for the Barbie Tramp Hot Tub? I actually thought that was a joke until I saw the picture. Now I'm just speechless.

[fancy feet]

I am soooo with you!! I loved this post because, 1) it was so well written, 2) you brought up many good points and 3) I loathe Bratz dolls. I just dragged my five year old daughter away from them at the toy store as well. They freak me out...I mean really freak me out. And the underwear - that freaks me out too.

[kelly]

this is what scares me about having a girl! boys are so easy... they just want to play cops & robbers. i can't believe those outfits on those dolls! crazy!

[Predo]

O.M.G.

And some say that society is not playing a part in the "image perception" of our youth! Jeeeeeeze!

[Well Behaved Krissy]

Ain' nuthin' like a hoochie mama!! I rant on my college students about this kind of stuff all the time and, oddly, they all seem to be appalled by it as well, however, they still seem content to wear it into my classroom. I call this the Brittney Spears generation, scarred into being sexy way before its age appropriate. And their moms are BUYING them this trash. My FIL works at a company that designs displays for department stores and he swears that they are selling THONGS for 7 year olds in Limited Too! That makes me wanna barf.

[Susan]

AMEN.

[carissa... brown eyed fox]

you hit that nail square on the head!
tell it sista! LOVE this!

[PJ]

I raised a boy so I didn't have to face this. I'm so glad you decided to speak to a wider audience through your column but I have to wonder, if the mothers allow it then maybe they don't understand why this is so wrong. How do you address that? I can't imagine bringing one of these home, I just can't. Sheesh!

[grant Forest]

Yes, yes, very good headline. But the content outshines it. I wish all parents would see the damage these products cause.

[foolery]

I'm with you, Suz. Bratz have been strictly banned from my house . . . until my best friend, whose family was in serious financial straits at the time, gave my daughter a Bratz doll from a yard sale. It was for Sparky's birthday, and the family had no money for a gift. Rather than coming empty-handed she bought the doll at a yard sale. The doll is now part of our family.

But I use every opportunity to explain WHY I don't like the doll. The worst of it, for me, isn't the clothing, which can be changed, or the body image, which is not much worse than Barbie.

It's the ATTITUDE. The girls understand that that half-open eyes glare and smirk is VERBOTEN at our house. And they know that there will be no more Bratz dolls forthcoming.

Great post, Suz. The title KILLED me! ; )