Thursday, November 06, 2003

THE ANTI-BARBIE

Tired of handing your daughter a Christina Aguilera doll? Then try something different:
American Girl is part Disney, part Barbie, part Nancy Drew and part Tipper Gore. Its great cause, other than making money, is the defense of girlish innocence. It presents its characters as wholesome alternatives to the trash-talking, navel-baring role models who dominate television and pop music.

"Girls are growing up too fast," said Ellen L. Brothers, president of Pleasant Company, American Girl's parent, which is in turn owned by the toy giant Mattel Inc. She described her products as "age appropriate" and "not for the 8-year-old who wants to be her 14-year-old sister."

We fathers of daughters are concerned about these things.

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