Wednesday, July 11, 2007


You've won this round, Bratz
Grace is not a girly-girl. She rarely wears skirts, more rarely wears a dress, can’t stand pony tails or any other form of hair decoration. She has only a few times requested to have her nails painted and doesn’t show any interest in getting into my make-up. We have Barbies and dolls, but they are pushed aside for puzzles and building blocks. She was bored in ballet and is ecstatic that she can now do a round-house kick thanks to her dedication to karate. This all sits well with me. I want to raise girls who are confident, not image conscious and who don’t feel the need to fit into any one mold. For my part, I’ve stopped buying my beloved fashion magazines (and I hide my Star weekly) so they aren’t exposed to those unrealistic beauty expectations.

Imagine my chagrin this week when Grace started coming home with these weird drawings of girls. I asked her about them and she said she was tracing pictures of Bratz, and that she actually kind of likes Bratz now. I feel so let down! At the toy store, Grace and I would laugh and mock the row of Bratz, asking each other who would ever want to buy one! Well, now she’s mixing with the older girls in Grade 1 and I guess they are introducing her to all kinds of nonsense now. I will continue to boycott these dolls and refuse to buy her any licensed apparel with their name/logo on it. I’d like to roundhouse kick the makers of these icky, creepy slutty little dolls. They look like eight year old plastic surgery victims with their plumped up lips, bad hair extensions and clothes from Fredericks of Hollywood. What’s equally annoying about them is that every product from Bratz has a “z” at the end of it: they don’t have pets, they have petz. They don’t have babies, they have babiez.

I hope she gets over this fade quickly. I have to play my cards right, if I show her how much it bugs me, she’ll only want Bratz more.

2 comments:

alison said...

Hee. My mommy friends and I call them Slutz. I don't care for them, but Rae has 2 that were given to her as birthday presents. What are you gonna do? I try not to make a big deal out of them, and she seems to want to play with Hot Wheels at least as much as Barbies, so I figure it's all good.

Welcome back!

Anonymous said...

Karen, I can RELATE TO THIS!! My 5 year old Morgan, who actually IS quite a girlie girl (wants little designs on her toe nails, enjoys clip on earings, lipsgloss and barettes), also, surprise surprise, wants a Bratz doll. I, like you, REFUSE to buy a slutbag little tramp child. Even for Xmas, when all she asked Santa for was a Bratz, I could only bring myself to put a bratz pez dispenser in her stocking, just to keep the magic alive, you know? I was even impressed that none of her little bratz-crazed friends gave her one for her birthday! Much to my chagrin, however, last weekend, as I lounged around my house alone, wondering how my girls and their daddy were making out on their camping trip, the phone rang. It was Morgan, and she told me excitedly that it had rained so hard that they "had" to go to Giant Tiger to keep dry. She said "camping is so fun! I got my first Bratz doll!" So, of course, I said "put your daddy on the phone". He played dumb, claiming that he didn't know these were the dolls that I am opposed to. So, now she has one, and it's lying in the corner somewhere already forgotten (thank the lord). Yup, the new little Brat is all alone with her heavy mascara, and her baby bottle tied around her bare midriff by a chain.

We have so much more in common than our name!!