no offence to you guys, but your kinda older and all talk about “back when you were little..” which is fine, and yeah you have kids who you can talk too aswell but still, ive been with both : )

i remember having fairy princess barbie, in her long pink puffy dress, and vet barbie and inflatable blow up chair barbie (yah…it existed) plus there was the pink house and the beach jeep and the farm animal set to go with em all! with bratz i had rockstars, and couture pirates and surfer chiks. in my eyes, bratz were cooler.

now that i look back on it they are kinda yucky lookin and the clothes are racy, but you dont notice that as a kid much. its just the clothes that are given with the cool new doll, are cool aswell. and i reckon if the makers of bratz marketed NEW clothes, less “racy” ones, girls will still like them. i mean people on tv and in the world wore racy clothing and acted “lewd” sometimes too when you were little right? its just that doll companies didnt have dolls dressed up as topless hippies or something like that.

oh and id also like to say that strawberry shortcake looks adorable with her makover! so what if she doesant have a cat! is that gonna suddenly make her a bad influence to kids? and cellphones arent bad are they? i mean your duaghters have probs seen you use a mobile yourself tonnes of times. plus arent parants always goin on about their kids eating more fruit anyway!

Actually, if you look at some of the TV archives, some of the retro cartoons are equally sexed up…Betty Boop and the teeny weeny waisted black and white ad icons of the 50s, and color iconic Jetsons and Wilmas and I Dream of Jeannies of the 60s, etc.—But the difference to me is this:

Our current media POP CULTURE in general is so overtly hypersexualized that the CONTEXT shifts into toxic terrain…
What might have once been ‘just a cartoon’ is now an aspirational model of expectation and normative cues with surround sound exposure of shoulds and coulds and ‘oughtas’ which we didn’t have blaring in Dolby back then.

In fact, when the S.F. Chronicle ran this article re: overhauling the Nancy Drew icon and ’sexed her up’ to maker her relevant for ‘today,’ I wrote this letter to the editor:

“Nancy Drew needs updated body image” Editor — Kudos to talented artist Sho Murase for the superhero update (”Now 75, sleuth Nancy Drew looks younger, hipper in graphic novels drawn by S.F. artist Sho Murase,” Sept. 2), but why not update body image messaging while we’re at it?

It saddens me that the worldview for our daughters repeatedly gravitates to the doe-eyed, chest-thrusting, teeny-waisted teen as an “aspirational” illustrative icon.

Granted, Sho’s new Nancy Drew is at least fully clothed (unlike the cleavage-baring, nearly naked “Lara Croft, Tomb Raider”), but the ample bosom drawn under her tight sweater-hugging style will feed an entirely new generation of angst-ridden girls wondering why they don’t look like that.

Let’s show some responsibility in our media messaging. I’m not asking for “realism,” but if we’re going to overhaul outdated images and story lines, the least we could do is make the new characters more positive.”

Oh, yeah, in case you want to see what Miss Nancy looks like in anime now, check her out here:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2005/09/02/DDGN5EF0BM79.DTL&o=2

AMY JUSSEL, Founder, Exec. Director Shaping Youth.org

The new, “improved” Strawberry Shortcake’s adorable chubby cheeks have been noticeably thinned out, her pudgy nose realigned into a perky little point, her signature red kinky hair straightened into hot pink silky tresses, and her frilly bloomers replaced with, well, I don’t even want to speculate on what’s beneath that mid-thigh-high dress — even her cat is thinner.

Good thing that cartoonish body images don’t affect little girls! Oh, wait. Never mind.

Marketing to kids has become a competitive business. So here’s some great! ideas! on how to capture kids’ attention! But please, if I read one more article on marketing to children with the tagline it isn’t child’s play I’m going to throw up.

Dr. Robyn

Does it have an impact on our kids? BIG TIME. I just had a conversation with a
co-worker whose perfectly fit and healthy 9-year-old daughter mentioned that she
would be in the basement “working out her abs.”

Should toy/cartoon developers move with the times to remain relevant? Certainly..but
with everyone offering the same, limited ideals (youth, beauty, fame, wealth, and
“hotness” as king) our kids are getting a raw deal.

Anyway, I think you are correct in saying that our children today are moving at the speed of light– learning more than we ever could and in such unique ways. We do need to evolve and make sure pop culture evolves along with them.

My concern is– what becomes too much? As Vicki was saying, when we continue to push the envelope, when will it go too far– or will it? As parents we will now tolerate so much more that our parents and their parents would have. If we could pop into the future, will Strawberry Shortcake wind up with a horse that looks like the Struts (w)horses? Hmmm.

For now, there are some positive changes (i.e. fruit. no more yarn hair) but I wonder where it will all go. What’s with the “more muscles” in the TMNT? Necessary? Longer eyelashes and less belly fat in the care bears? I mean, they are just sweat little teddy bears– not work out bears. Who wants to give a squeeze to a hard, boney bear?

There are positives and negatives to most of these advancements. We’ll just have to see where it goes in the future. Hopefully, the adults will keep their heads and childhood will still reflect some important concepts…innocence and fun.

Dr. Robyn

[...] Of Tots, Tweens, Tarts & Tummytucks Posted on June 12, 2008 by pdxmogo Ah, childhood. The fun, the games, the high heels, the weight control regimens, the thong underwear, the moms and tots classes for practicing come hither looks. In case you haven’t been paying attention, the products being marketed to our kids have gotten a major facelift (and lipo), and the ‘tudes they’re promoting have become more than a little sexualized. When I saw this article (free registration required) in the NY Times about “beloved” characters being “reimagined” for the 21st century, I was inspired to write about it, but then I saw that Dr. Robyn over at Kiss My Assets beat me to it and wrote a great post analyzing this new trend. [...]