Well you are right they finally show that other hues of skin and hair color are beautiful. They are also supposed to be teens so they would not be job holders like Babs - but if you follow any of the Bratz storylines (which most people don't even bother to look in to):
They saved up money to buy their own car
Started their own school paper and then their own magazine where they compete with adults
They start their own successful band and travel the world
They help rescue animals
They are not just focused on fashion but of course people just like to look at the boxes and point and say nasty things based on surface appearance alone. And their appearance is of a cute doll line that uses lots of colors and pretty hair, which is what a doll line is supposed to be- fun. If they came in burlap sacks people would bash them for being too ugly.

~*~
Bratz World
http://www.bratzworld.tv

I am glad (sarcastic) you see no problem with bringing up your children to idolise dolls who love fashion, and with no personal knowledge of these dolls, ones who by your article appear to be sexually promiscuous. Great influence on kids (barby was almost as bad).

but as long as they are seeing sexually promiscuous dolls represented as multicultural, thats ok.

nice parenting!

Wow. Way to read the article.

"Nothing would have warmed my angry little heart more than knowing that a streetwise multi-ethnic girl gang was going to come along and kick Barbie’s skinny white arse so hard that she (or at least, Mattel’s marketing department) would be reduced to a snivelling, pathetic wreck..."

What a lovely child you must have been - I hope you do not still have the same attitude towards pretty white girls.

I am not exactly enamoured with Barbie either but cannot bring myself to buy any toy with a name like "Bratz" - particularly one dressed like a prostitute.

Heh. I really liked this article, even though I was very pro-Barbie as a kid. I even liked the Ken doll who for some reason had no control over his limbs (they constantly fell off). But kids do like dolls in their 'image'- I loved my dark-haired dark-eyed Barbie friend much more than the California girl barbie with her long blond hair and bright blue eyes. That said, my little cousin with her blonde curls just LOVES her multi-racial Bratz, and thought the "internet cafe" playset we gave her for Christmas was just fantastic.

So what if they dress less than wholesomely? They have bright colours and fun accessories. It is not dolls that teach kids what is and is not acceptable behaviour, they are inanimate objects. Its families and society that teach kids how to act.

That article reads like a piece of personal therapy.

Thusly, this post will not make any logical critique, instead joining the author in the gutter of personal attacks and vitriolic projections.

Starts out lamenting her own perceived physical short comings.

Goes onto a bit of politically correct racism (slag off the white bread).

Pretty much not saying much other than the author is jealous of beautiful girls (beauty always having been very narrowly defined) and has issues and baggage about it.

Look out Micheal Jackson... new brat on the block here.

ps... Online Opinion seems to be scraping the bottom of the barell lately when it comes to author contributions, particularly when it comes to alleged gender issues. Lift the standard, please. Its slipping, badly.