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Grow Up! By: Robyn Barnette
Parents really hate Bratz dolls, don't they? Ever since toy manufacturer MGA Entertainment introduced the Bratz dolls in 2001, Bratz has grown at an incredibly phenomenal pace. And ever since I purchased my first two Bratz dolls in July of 2004, my interest in Bratz dolls and the Bratz universe has grown at an incredibly phenomenal pace as well. These dolls have helped me rediscover my love and passion for photography, and MGA Entertainment deserves a tremendous amount of praise and recognition for having created this outstanding product. My creative talents have exploded into something challenging and exciting with the Bratz dolls and have taken on a medium where I am able to express my love of dolls through photography. For that, I am eternally grateful to MGA Entertainment and its president and CEO Isaac Larian. My Bratz Doll Collection includes all seven dolls in the Bratz Funk Out! collection (Nevra, Fianna, Dana, Cloe, Yasmin, Sasha, and Jade); all five dolls in the Bratz Style It! collection (Yasmin, Cloe, Sasha, Jade, Dana); one doll in the Wild Life Safari collection (Meygan); the Target Exclusive 1st Edition Bratz 4-pack dolls that made their debut in 2001 and were resurrected in 2004 (Yasmin, Cloe, Sasha, Jade); all five dolls in the Bratz Treasures collection (Yasmin, Cloe, Sasha, Jade, Roxxi); one doll in the Bratz Fabulous Las Vegas collection (Tiana); one doll in the Bratz Wild Wild West collection (Kiana).... Basically speaking, I have too many Bratz dolls in my Bratz Doll Collection as it is, but I intend to add more Bratz dolls to my Bratz Doll Collection as new Bratz collections are introduced and released. However, as much as I truly enjoy my Bratz dolls, I find it absolutely infuriating that many parents have blamed these dolls for the downfall of society and for everything that is wrong with the world today. These parents are the catalyst for why Bratz product sales have not been as good in Pennsylvania and the northeast portion of the United States as they should be. I go to my local Target, Wal-Mart, Toys 'R' Us, or any other department store, go to the toy section where all the Bratz dolls are located, and there they are: Tons of Bratz dolls, sitting there on store shelves, waiting to be purchased by pre-teens and teens, or little girls who have gotten tired of Barbie and were ready to jump on the Bratz bandwagon. But the children who MGA Entertainment have marketed Bratz to are found in the other aisles of the toy section, with their moms and dads, purchasing My Scene, Secret Central, Zodiac Girls, Winx Club, and other doll products from other toy manufacturers. They stay away from Bratz, because parents brainwash their children and make up all these fictitious stories about how Bratz was invented by some sleazy kingpin famous for making porn flicks. Furthermore, these parents state that Bratz do not inspire children to become a doctor, or a lawyer, or a politician, or something else that they want to see their children become. While that is true about the Bratz dolls, Bratz do inspire children to be themselves and stay true to themselves without society manufacturing and manipulating them into something they do not want to be. If the Bratz dolls look like these urban hip-hop characters from the neighborhood and have that urban hip-hop appeal to them, then that's what the Bratz dolls are. At least Bratz dolls do not try to emulate or bastardize that urban hip-hop cultural environment — unlike what happened to MGA Entertainment's rival Mattel, with their discontinued doll line Flavas. Parents are responsible for teaching their children by setting examples. They try very hard to prevent their children from doing the same things teenagers did in their time, and perhaps the reason why they do is because they have seen what all that does to ruin those tumultuous years of teenage adolescence. These parents want to properly raise their children and watch them grow up to make something of themselves in life. Yet, there are those parents that have done a lot of manufacturing and manipulating of their own with their children, getting their children to participate in all these silly talent shows and beauty pageants and spending tens of thousands of dollars to dress them up in all this makeup and sexy clothes. They must think that there is something so cute about seeing little nine-year-old J'Ana-Breanne strutting around on stage during the Greenland Mall Holiday Fashion Show, wearing a short skirt, a crop top, all kinds of jewelry including a belly piercing, and tons of makeup that recently bankrupted L'Oréal out of business. These are the same parents who have castigated the Bratz dolls for looking like prostitutes, but they see absolutely nothing wrong with dressing up their young daughters in the same manner. All right, so young pre-teen girls may not have dreams of becoming Jade, or Dana, or any of the other Bratz dolls. Fine. I can fully comprehend how Bratz expressing themselves with their passion for fashion is not exactly the most powerful statement ever created in the history of modern feminism. However, these young pre-teen girls are just that: Young. They have dreams of becoming a princess like Barbie, or even Cinderella, and they want to realize and fulfill their dreams. But whose dreams are they when the parents of these pre-teen girls step in and embellish all this makeup and stuff on them? What inspires that wacko soccer mom Mrs. Hubbard to stick her gigantic butt in J'Ana-Breanne's business (as well as everyone else's) and dress up her daughter to look like a clone of pop music artist Britney Spears? Was it that music video "...Baby One More Time," with Spears strutting around the hallways of a local middle school in a sexy Catholic schoolgirl outfit? Meanwhile, I have a Funk Out! Jade Bratz doll that is far more of a princess than what these parents have dolled up their daughters to be. And I did not have to spend tens of thousands of dollars for it — just $12.58 at WalMart. Parents want what is best for their children, but they take it way too far because they only want what is best for themselves. Perhaps it's because parents have all this money and power, so they're used to throwing their weight around and having everything their way, since they think the whole world revolves around them. They want to see their children participate in all these talent shows and beauty pageants, just so their children can put a couple of smiles on their faces and they can go around town flaunting to their neighbors and friends what great parents they are. Deep down inside, however, children are not smiling. There is a sense of innocence lost within them, since they never have the opportunity to look within their minds and their hearts to discover for themselves what truly interests them and what they want to become in life. Instead, children allow parents and other members of society to influence them to become what they want them to be, and they end up crying tears at night because of it. It is very sad. Shame on these parents and shame on how they have condemned Bratz. They think they know what is so good for the world with their "moral values." I would like to know what their definition of moral values is, because their idea of "moral values" seems to make the world much worse than what it already is, in their futile efforts to preserve the status quo. Parents have become such obnoxious and conservative morons, living in a universe so entirely different from reality that I often wonder if they are real human beings. Perhaps they should not be considered human beings, because their moral values are not moral in any sense or meaning of the word. After all, these people voted for George W. Bush as President of the United States, so that explains everything we need to know. And since men are from Mars and women are from Venus, why don't these conservative moms and dads all live there? And allow real human beings such as their children — and myself — to live here in this beautiful place called Earth so we can all be ourselves and have fun with our Bratz dolls. | ||
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