Social Commentary OR What's up with Bratz?
Have you walked through the toy section of a Wal-Mart or through a Toys"R"us lately?
Well I have. Just the other day, in fact.
And what did I notice? Barbie has a new, slightly more realistic shape; a youthful adolescent look (+1 for team grrrl). And that the popular doll for girls seems to be the Bratz. Or dolls similar in size, shape and style to the Bratz. The shape/size/style being an unusually large cartoonish head, small stick-like bodies, an abundance of make-up, and an excess of bad hair and clothing.
My general comment to whoever was listening in the toy section of Wal-Mart: Why are these dolls wearing so much make-up? What does this teach our children?
Well let me tell you...
I had the sudden misfortune of finding the Bratz show on television this morning (now I am an expert on tween-culture). The Bratz are present-day role models. "Fashion Superheroes" is what they call themselves. Their trademark is "The Only Girls with a Passion for Fashion".
FYI: the phrase "passion for fashion" sends a slow shiver down my spine. It brings me back to a particular conference room at Ryerson University, fresh out of high school, as the head of the Fashion department spoke on the importance of fashion and how prestigious it was to have been accepted into their program. For the following four years, that program (and group of highly educated professionals) tried to convince me that appearance was the only important thing in the world (I was not fooled).
The meaning of life? Passion for Fashion! (mystery solved).
We went through arduous training on superficiality and the mistreatment of foreign labor (I mean... um... design and production). We learned how to time and break down the construction of a garment. To measure thread usage for factory control purposes. We learned how NAFTA greatly benefited our bottom-line. How to use present-day trade regulations to acquire cheap manufacturing (read: sweatshop). We learned that in dealing with foreign manufacturers ("They don't speak English, and, like, can barely read" says our pseudo-professor) that we should mail them a copy of our pattern-drafting textbook as reference. We got to interact with previous graduated/graduating years and then have them ignore us out in public. Everything we needed to learn to perpetuate the cycle of waste and oppression.
I'm really not bitter. No, really!
I had enough insight to counter my fashion learning with classes on Environmental Ethics, Politics, Psychology, Women's Literature. I read Naomi Klein's "No Logo". I applied my newly acquired fashion-illustration techniques to illustrating for various Feminist zines. I attended demonstrations against raising tuition fees, against poverty, against war. I reclaimed the streets. I began working for an NGO. Etc. etc.
Moral of the story: I made it out alive, with my morality still in tact.
But what about the young girls of today? Do they have something to balance out the superficiality of their television "Fashion Superheroes"? I have the sneaking suspicion that the Bratz (and similar pop phenomena) are the equivalent to the Ryerson Fashion Design program, but at a younger, more vulnerable, age. How do these kids learn that spending, make-up, weight, and trends aren't really what life is about?
I know that the answer is "parents"... But I'm feeling skeptical. Hey, has anyone seen the cartoon "The Tofus"?
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