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.

I really missed something.

My toys had no ethnicity.

Doh.

Given the choice of Bratz over Barbie I'd take Barbie any day (not that my kids would mind you).

Anyone seen the Bratz movie (not sure which one, they all look the same) -- where the Bratz give us deep insights into the human condition such as "if I lost my fashion sense I don't know what I'd do". Well thanks for that bratz #1. Barbie may have been an all American blonde but at least she showed dolls could be more then mothers (as a side note, Barbie inventor wanted a doll for her daughter who was just a mother figure; couldn't get one and so Barbie was born).

Bratz seem to be saying that you can be good looking and slutty no matter what your skin colour -- brains are no object (or help in the Bratz world). Barbie may have my pumping a blonde message but at least she showed you could be a doctor or an airline pilot as well.

Having said this, I don't actually think it make much difference to my daughters what colour or occupation the dolls have, bratz, barbies and baby born all end up naked at the bottom of the toy box.

As Shakira opens Pandora’s Box on a culture that has been vastly popular, teen doll collecting lets reflect on what drives these super toys. Given that Barbie in her heyday sold up to half a million every few hours, we can’t dismiss her as a failed icon, simply the winning theme after decades on top was best refreshed by a rival. But what’s it all about?

Original fantasy or private adult nostalgia these dolls are all about who we are today, a plastic encapsulation of our weirdest moments. Every bit of it is just sheer indulgence made possible by modern mass production, the slickest of marketing and the weakest of doting customers, crazy stuff from the outside, maybe.

Mattel like Meccano ran with a creation for decades. To reach their pinnacle both depended on fine engineering of the time for their basic structures. Then came fashions and seasons all in miniature. Now some can’t resist that can they? Everything we ever wished for in a shoe box at a reasonable price, fantastic!

As expected many alternative tried to compete and there were casualties. Lifestyle itself becomes the issue and that requires producing the background extensions. Not all teens including dolls make it to maturity soon enough in this most competitive world. Note too the frustrations start with our infants. Who still has their old Barbie mint and without bite marks? I bet your parents started it though.

Mattel seems to have grabbed a German Lilly doll after the war and reproduced a version in Japan for the US market first patented in 1958. Japanese toy manufactures encouraged this way did not stop. Engineering and robotics went on in all sorts of ways with other toys. Bandai figures had a life of their own for quite a time, and then there was the moonfaced girl Blythe. One went back to Japan still in its original packet from a big country town in Australia for a good figure, well over $5000 and its special air fair as an extra. Bratz can catch up later.

Today in Japan there are big dolls for adults and their technology goes on and on. Each one may have some sort of life in and out of the limelight and they sure go to parties and conventions with their creators and playmates young or old just like Barbie did.

Barbie had a huge following with many countries getting in on fashion design, production and assembly of odd issues. This is why collectors, resellers, dealers and make over artists tried to cash in at highly organised conventions. What ever happened to wooden peg dolls, and when do silicone models take over from the vinyls??

BTW the first official Black Barbie was patented in 1980, late acceptance in the US but they never quite made it downunder then or later. I reckon Shakira still has a bit of a problem.

Very interesting article. I could relate with many things; I too was desperate for multi-ethnic dolls as a child. My mother would search far and wide for ANY ethnic fashion doll (or even a doll without blonde hair)but that wasn't easy to come by especially in the 80's.

I am grateful to MGA Entertainment; they broke the vicious cycle of blonde haired, blued eyed fashion dolls that dominated the market for years. I don't have a problem with dolls that look that way but when it's all a company offers, it can make ethnic children feel indifferent. They need a doll that represents them; a doll they can relate too. As a little Latina girl I was craving a doll that looked like me and the women in my family. The Bratz dolls are the dolls I dreamed of as a child and I highly enjoy collecting them.

These dolls should be praised for their ethnic diversity and other toy companies should take note.

~Lady Yuna's Bratz Group~

http://www.bratzfanz.com

Everytime someone brings up an issue such as this, some people automaticlly think that the ethnic people are the ones with the problems ,or the ones with low self esteem.Just because they don't fit into a bias and narrow minded society.
Europeans spend alot on plastic surgeries,blonde hair dye,skin tanning, etc,not to say that women of colour don't do things to change their looks,but people say they (the ethnic people)are the ones with the self hate issues.When it goes both ways. Nicole Kidman has straighten her hair,dyed it blonde and gotten botox. This move will never be seen as self hate,only a make-over to boast her career to some.
I see beauty and un-attractiveness in every single race,but if things where shown with this light to society,people would become bored with looks, and that would mean bad business to beauty companies.The difference in beauty around the world would make the barbie doll "lose its appeal",not a barbie anymore. Barbie and Bratz are cute dolls, but people create dolls and what they look like

Heavens, Maybe John Howard should dress as a “Bratz” doll. (Do “Bratz” dolls have a bent towards non-truth anyone)? Well, he should certainly fit the description for “Bratz” depth of character. Seems both were conceived in a tadpole pond.
Somehow I don’t think John would be happy with the incongruous position of the creator of the “Bratz”, an Iranian Jew. Or would Johnny whisper in Georges ear , “Blow them all away”.

diver dan - "Maybe John Howard should dress as a “Bratz” doll" - I really wish I hadn't read your post. There is no way I will sleep tonight with this image in my head! :-)

I have three sisters who grew up with some Barbie dolls, and they have grown into beautiful responsible adults, and they have more between their ears than some of their fellow friends who grew up with teddy bears.

Don't deprive your children of some toys, if only for just the sake of letting them have some fun. They don't see a Barbie doll as a role model, however what you will find when they are young is they will imitate, and imagine what it would be like to live in a pink house and have a pink caravan, the same goes for the Bratz dolls, let them have their fun free from any prejudices.

Our children have some Bratz dolls, and I see the scenario played out again as I did with my sister, my wife and I know that letting them have their "toys of the day" (within reason of course) will not do any detrimental harm to them. Settle back and let's put things into perspective, the children will grow up and out of their "Barbie days" or "Bratz days", and trying to be too Politically Correct can really spoil the fun for children these days.

I loved this article, Shakira.

As a parent, I am not keen on Barbie or Bratz but allowed my daughter to move from one to the other in accordance with her whim. She 'outgrew' Barbie before even starting primary school and by Year 2 wasn't interested in either. I think by taking a feminist stance on it, I probably would have made both seem much more appealing. While I do take your point about Bratz at least providing access into mainstream 'girl culture' for those who don't fit the blonde haired, blue eyed stereotype (as a dark haired Anglo-Aussie, I could also never relate to Barbie as a kid).

However I really do want to add a vote for the Japanese Barbie equivalent, Ricko-chan, who is small and flat chested and resembles a young girl rather than a pneumatic 50's housewife or skanky ho like Barbie and Bratz. She also has a great wardrobe and (flat) shoes that actually stay on her feet!

Again a very insightful, well presented argument from you Shakira and a pleasure to read. I feel so sorry (not!) for those intellectually stultified 'post-ers' that failed to perceive the reality of their own stupidity!

What a shallow indictment they are of society and a sad role model for the future!

On a recently televised 'Oprah' segment, a research project showed girls with 2 dolls to choose from - one white, the other black. Almost unanimously the girls chose the white doll as the 'nice' doll, regardless of their own ethnicity.

Secondly the girls were asked which doll was the 'good' one. Again, overwhelmingly the white doll was chosen regardless of the girls ethnicity.

Overwhelmingly, regardless of ethnicity, almost each and every girl identified the non-white doll as 'bad'. Sadly these girls were asked to define themselves as 'good' or 'bad' solely on the basis of their skin colour.

Sadly the 'Barbie's' and 'Bratz' dolls also provide a similar choice - 'good' because they have great figures and dress very fashionably or 'bad' because they don't have the right 'brand name'. Shallow and callow.

What a role model to be guided by, given that parents are forced to spend increasigly less time with our kids!