Bratz dolls giving the wrong message?

My point exactly! A + for you! Thanks for the reply.

This is exactly how I feel. It sends out the message that this is how a girl is SUPPOSED to look-- and that is not true. These dolls are not targeted to a teenage audience-- they are meant for little girls or girls in their pre-teen/early teen stage. It's disgusting that these products are being marketed to children! I do not want my little sister to think that she is supposed to be "sexy." I mean, she's eight! But from the time she was seven, she's already worried about her weight. It's so crazy. She's a little girl, but she wants to wear make-up, worries about her weight, and all that stuff... I'm not saying it can all be blamed on Bratz dolls, but the attitudes they have been given certainly promote such behavior.

It is getting harder and harder to find appropriate clothes for little girls anymore. I, personally, love flared jeans. But low-rise...Why does my 6 and 4 year old girls need low rise jeans? I have to search through them to find ones that fit right. And the tops really bother me. I do not allow cropped shirts (for the most part). I even ban shrunken shirts for school. Before my 6 year old leaves for school I make her raise her arms above her head and if her belly button shows she is not allowed to wear that shirt. I do not think it is appropriate for her to be exposing her belly at school. She can still wear them at home but I usually make her change if we are going out to play and she won't have a coat on. It is hard to find shirts that aren't meant to do that. Some of the shirts I have seen are so short to begin with they wouldn't even touch her waist. I also have a problem with low cut shirts and shirts that are obviously versions of clothes for teens (the style). They also do not wear heals. The biggest my oldest has is like 1/2 inch and they are a wedge style so more stable and not a separate heel. I want them to be kids, not little teens or something. The one thing that I always had a problem with but changed my mind was the low-rise undies. For the life of me I couldn't understand why a 4 year old would need low rise underwear but I noticed my oldest had a problem with her underwear showing above her pant line. When she wears them they come way above her belly button. So now I buy her the low rise which help a lot with that problem. She is so skinny and tiny that they still cover a lot and are pretty big so I am satisfied, lol. I would never get them for my 4 year old because she has a different body type and the regular undies fit just fine for her.

I guess I just have issues with their whole attitude and the fact that these dolls are wearing revealing clothing and heavy makeup. I would not let my 10 year old dress this way much less my 3 year old. Call me old fashioned but I just don't think it is ok to teach little girls that this is what beauty looks like.

You have that right. Barbie also has a totally unrealistic body shape. I read somewhere that for people to actually have a waist that small they would have to have some ribs removed. It is crazy huh?

I would rather have my child playing with a flight attendant barbie doll than a doll that looks like she should be standing on a street corner.

Exactly! Is this how we want our little girls to be when they are teenagers?

Do you think we would have less problems with young girls going to extremes to enhance their beauty if we had role models(dolls) who were naturally beautiful instead of ones that wore heavy makeup?

I did get my 5 year old a Bratz backpack for school and made her a Bratz birthday cake, but only after trying to talk her into something else. I know the little girls love them but I think the toy manufacturers should take more responsibility in the messages they are giving to our kids. Thanks so much for responding. Although we don't agree your input is valuable.

I hope you are right.

I would say that it probably won't do anymore damage then the Barbie doll has done look how many kids wanted to be like barbie and starved them selves to be like her and had surgeries. So I am hopeing that it will be just a phase they will go through but don't follow through with. It's when htey are 12 and up and wanting to look and dress like the bratz dolls is when we have to worry about them the most. Maybe by the time yours is old enough the bratz dolls will be a thing of the past and they won't have much remeberence of them. I think they should change the make-up and I think also it is how a child is brought up if you are strict in your teachings of your children by what is permissable and what is not permissable for them to wear it will be okay to let them have their fun with the dolls and be confident that they won't want to grow up and be like them.

I guess I just find it sad that it socially acceptable among teens to dress like that to begin with. They look like hookers. I don't remember dressing like that as a teen and the girls that did were looked down upon. I only graduated from high school 11 years ago. What happened in 11 years that made it okay to look like a stripper? I remember being in the mall about 5 years ago and saw some kids from my high school. I knew they went there because it was a Catholic school and I recognized the uniforms. These girls made me sick. They had their skirts unbuttoned and rolled up so they were barely halfway down their thighs, but then they pulled the whole skirt down so that the waist was around their hips so they could show off the top of their thongs. They also bunched their shirts up above the waist--making perfectly clear they had on neon pink thongs. Their shirts were unbuttoned to their bras (which were also brightly colored). It was so sad. And I noticed this style on half the girls at the mall (not just those three from my high school). I just don't get it. I don't get why my 6 year old needs low rise jeans (most of the styles are low rise) and shirts that show her midriff (try to find a t-shirt that doesn't show a little belly). She is 6 years old for crying out loud and I have to shop in the toddler section to buy her appropriate clothes (luckly she can still fit into a 5T shirt and a 5T pants with adjustable waist) because the stuff in the girls department is usually too trashy for her.

my father alwayz taught me classy not trashy :]

You make a very good point about dolls in general. When I was little (a million years ago, lol) I always pretended to get married before I pretended I was a mommy. That is not the way people think these days.

I agree. No wonder so many young people have eating disorders.

Have you seen barbie lately she is frail especially the my scene dolls.

I agree. Is this how we want our little girls to look?

I agree with you. Is this how we want our little girls to look?

I hear you there. I know a five year old who gets her hair streaked occasionally, has double pierced ears and wants to get her belly button pierced. It makes me want to scream.

Their whole"bling" attitude is what bothers me the most.

I feel it is a bit like listening to cuss words or seeing a murder on tv. After a while the shock wears off and it doesn't seem so bad. You get the idea everyone is doing it so it must be ok. I would rather they had better role models.

That is exactly what I am talking about. I am not a complete prude but I don't think it is cool for our children to aspire to be like Paris Hilton and Brittany Spears.

I appreciate you putting in your two cents! I have a tattoo myself and I don't think I am trashy either. My children have received many of them as gifts which is ok I guess but I just think there are better choices. When my middle child turned 5 she wanted a Bratz birthday cake sooooooo bad. It was all she talked about. Well, I didn't want to break her heart so I did make her one but I really would have preferred her to choose something else. My point is that if we start teaching the little girls that this is the way "big girls" look, We are going to have a hard time changing their mindset when they are 14 and want to go to the mall dressed like that. I simply wish there were better images out there for young girls.

You have much wisdom for a 14 year old person. You are correct about toy companies trying to promote blatent sexuality. Little kids should not be concerned with that!