Hello ‘new Barbie’. ?

Good for Barbie for celebrating women.

I wasn't a fan for a long time but i realise now that, Barbie is Barbie, doesnt actually affect the changing fashion for body type. Although I hope the current trend for big thighs and bottoms sticks around for my own sake.

Children are far more capable of understanding and accepting than people give them credit for. Any indoctrination has always come from adults around them into narrow minded views.

I remember when adults with narrow minded views were terrified children would be encouraged to be gay by education.... Rather than the truth, which was to be their authentic selves which isn't a choice and accepting of others differences.

From my experience, the age of children playing with Barbie and Action Man dolls, tends to be the 5-7 year olds.

At that age, none of this stuff is relevant, so I wouldn't be buying the "new" doll, let alone be discussing all this with children of that age.?

Let small children be children - Barbie dolls are just about dressing them up, and imaginative play.?

Spot on DiamondLily.

Kids will just see it as a new barbie*… *I think that's the point.
So it’s completely defeated the purpose by the fanfare of a trans doll why make it more than a new barbie by giving it a trans title
???oh my word hold head in hands and off to tidy the garden and talk to the birds

Yes indeed. So we have to ask who started the "fanfare" about it being a trans doll?

Clue: it's not Mattel.

Yes I agree too DL. My own memories of playing with that type of doll and observing my granddaughter with hers, there is a brief window of interest in them, yes roughly 5 -7 before children move on. It's all about styling the exterior, no interest in the body underneath or any imagined psych the doll might have. . My boys did ponder on the fact that Action Man didn't have a willy, insomuch as he wouldn't be able to go to the toilet, but quickly came to terms with the fact that he was a plastic inanimate object so he wouldn't need to, but small boys are very taken with the lavatorial aspects of life at that age, or the ones I knew at any rate.

psych psyche

It’s funny though, because even at a young age I preferred Sindy to Barbie.
Barbie always seemed a bit tarty to me ( & I was only about 7 or 8 ) Sindy seemed ‘nicer’ more normal somehow.
I’m only saying this because even if you’re only 7 or 8 doesn’t mean you can’t make judgements about what toys mean to you.
Regarding a fat Barbie with tattoos - I think the whole idea of the Barbie doll was to ‘want to be her’ or have her as your best friend. Very few young girls aspire to be fat with tattoos. Even if they eventually end up that way.

In the days when life was simple...?

I think that's why I preferred Sindy Kandinsky the way she looked was more realistic and achievable, not that I ever managed it.

Clearly a marketing ploy IMO. As has been said, for the children who play with it, it's just another Barbie and I agree with Bluebelle's earlier post that it will be purchased by adults ticking a box.

For any child who wants one, the fact that it's a representation of a trans woman will be neither here of there.

For any child who wants one, the fact that it's a representation of a trans woman will be neither here of there.

Isn't that good. What a wonderful thing to be a child who has no pre-conceptions about trans people.

They'd have to know that the doll is trans and what that means, so while I agree it would be a wonderful thing to be a child who has no pre-conceptions about trans people I don't think that this will achieve that.

I don't get it. I assume the box is labelled (?), but, other than that, it looks like a "female pop star Barbie".

So, any conversation about trans wouldn't really happen - to young children, it would just look like Barbie.?. There have been many different models - Action Girl Barbie, Barbie Princess etc

Unless it has male genitals, kids wouldn't even notice, so the impact, if that's what's intended, would be zilch.

Seems like just another virtue signalling idea, or a money making one to sell a different model.?

Its a dolly. Children might want to play with it. They might not.

They don't have to know that the person it's based on is trans. They just have to think its a nice dolly.

virtue signalling idea

Yes, just like the astronaut one, or the one in a wheelchair, or the black one. Maybe they are virtue signalling. But this one is no worse than any of the others.

Yes, it is. And I still don't understand what the point of politicising a doll is.?

Role models.

volver

^virtue signalling idea^

Yes, just like the astronaut one, or the one in a wheelchair, or the black one. Maybe they are virtue signalling. But this one is no worse than any of the others.

Well, to be fair, there are black children, at the right age of playing with them, and there are disabled children in wheelchairs of that age group.

So, I get that they might like a doll that sort of looks like them.

This doll just looks like every other Barbie.

The Astronaut one was just one in a range of "different jobs" Barbie, with an outfit.

I don't know many five year olds running around shouting they're in the wrong body...the discussion wouldn't have happened in most households.

I think it's virtue signalling and a money making ploy DiamondLily. Interesting point about what it may say on the box.

No need to explain on the packaging for wheelchair or black Barbie. Possibly for astronaut Barbie as that may not necessarily be recognisable for everyone.

I had a black doll when I was a child and a white (pink) one the same size. They were dressed in similar outfits which my Mum knitted.
I called them my twins.

Interesting that, many years later, there were twins featured on the front of National Geographic, one black, one white.

DiamondLily

Yes, it is. And I still don't understand what the point of politicising a doll is.?

It's all part of the drip effect. It seems to be saying that TWAW (Trans Women Are Women), and as it is indistinguishable from a female doll it is pandering to autogynephiles. A child playing with this doll (if s/he knows that it is a TransBarbie) will pick up the message that 'gender' is the same as sex, which is untrue. I'd be very interested to know whether 'ordinary' transpeople (ie those who just want to live as though they were members of the opposite sex, and are not invested in all the 'gender' stuff) feel about it.

Also, IMO it is one thing to have an astronaut Barbie and a Rosa Parks one, or whatever; but are children (and remember that this is a doll, marketed to the very young), really able to understand the intricacies of gender politics? They are difficult enough for adults to get their heads around.

When my daughter was Barbie age (about 5-7) all her different Barbies ended up interchangeable, however they started out. They shared outfits and were bathed, taken on car journeys and shopping trips, and looked like they'd slept in a hedge after a year or so. If she'd had TransBarbie, it would have met a similar fate, I'm sure. The only difference between it and Bikini Barbie or Boardroom Barbie would have been that she would have wanted to know why it was a Trans one, and (speaking for myself) I wouldn't want to have that conversation around a supposedly male doll that is indistinguishable from a supposedly female one, as I feel that it sends completely the wrong message and is anything but neutral on the subject of trans issues.

Wherever you (generic) stand on the subject, doesn't this seem to be a very on-sided view? I'm not saying that children need to be 'shielded' from transpeople, but that there is plenty of time to discuss the politics when they are old enough to understand, and that it's not a simple subject that can be dealt with by giving them a doll to play with.

Smileless2012

I think it's virtue signalling and a money making ploy DiamondLily. Interesting point about what it may say on the box.

No need to explain on the packaging for wheelchair or black Barbie. Possibly for astronaut Barbie as that may not necessarily be recognisable for everyone.

Multi million dollar manufacturing company in money making ploy.

Imagine.

Why else do you think they make and market dolls?

Personally, I think I would have guessed this was an astronaut.

Having never seen the astronaut Barbie I had no idea if it was obvious, clearly it is but the trans Barbie isn't is it, so is it being stated on the packaging?

Another excellent post Doodledog.

Google is your friend.

If you think its that important.

Not sure if Google’s my friend because now I’m confused. This latest addition to the Barbie family is not first transgender.