Tattoo Barbie or How you should be like everyone else
I dislike the Barbie concept – so perfect, perky, likable and pink. Gah. I’d be the last person to support anything Barbie, but the recent parental uproar over the “Tattoo Barbie” reminded me very much of what Doktor Sleepless was saying to the grinders:
“That stuff’s just fake.”
“Don’t get idea above your station.”
“Take that shit off”
“Dress properly.”
“Why can’t you be like everyone else”
Sure, these are dolls marketed towards children – but not every parent was upset about this doll. Reading bits and pieces across the interwebs, some parents felt this was their child’s’ generational image, much like how Elvis was controversial during their time. Still others thought it showed a greater respect for tattoos. Some people felt it was wrong to encourage children to get tattoos because real tattoos don’t wash off with soap and water and that children wouldn’t understand the difference.
Yes, because children would never ask their parents about the tattoos they have. They wouldn’t never noticed they don’t wash off with soap and water. They would never ask why they had gotten them in the first place. Tattoos aren’t proper creativity.
[...] grinding.be) « Cory Cudney To Guest At [...]
Of course there’s no uproar about the temporary tattoo kits that’ve been sold at the same outlets as Barbie’s for a bloody age, just like there was no uproar about action man murdering robots because children CAN make the distincion between man and machine, yet somehow can’t make the distinction between temps and tats.
Here here, Radio. Honestly, people don’t give kids credit. If a kid can’t tell the difference then it is more likely the fault of a negligent parent not explaining the difference… or those pesky *questions* kids ask not being answered. Holy crap, you’d think a kid asking a question was a bad thing.
@Radio – Yeah, the temps have been selling for years. What makes the difference in this case is the high profile “Barbie” toy.
@Midare
Honestly, people don’t give kids credit.
Yep. Adults don’t ask kids enough questions. The more they think, the better it is.
Well, I can only speak for the UK (but I assume it’s a similar story elsewhere), but you’re not allowed to get a tattoo over here unless you’re old enough (18, or 16 with parental consent, IIRC (i.e. I’m too lazy to look it up)). Soooooo, what’s the big deal? It’s not like we’re gonna have a load of 6-year-old girls running around with heavy blackwork and full sleeves. Plus I see way too many girls with utterly awful ink (“tribal” nonsense, slag-tags, meaningless katakana (was it the rapper Eve who had the katakana for the syllable “ka” as a tat?)) to think that things could possibly be affected much by this.
Besides, Mattel have a history of occasionally being quietly subversive with the Barbie line; who could ever forget Cock-Ring Ken (obv that’d be an NSFW google query)?
@Seej 500
- laughs -
I did forget about Cock-Ring Ken – thanks for the reminder. :)