{"id":28157,"date":"2016-01-29T02:01:16","date_gmt":"2016-01-29T06:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?p=28157"},"modified":"2016-01-29T10:15:14","modified_gmt":"2016-01-29T14:15:14","slug":"time-for-this-millennial-mom-to-buy-some-barbies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/01\/time-for-this-millennial-mom-to-buy-some-barbies.html","title":{"rendered":"Time for This Millennial Mom to Buy Some Barbies!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Okay, okay, so the title of this post is slightly over the top. This past Christmas was a bit more heavy on consumerism than I\u2019d planned and I\u2019ve sworn off getting my children new toys until their birthdays, but I have to say, I am pleasantly impressed with the new direction Mattel is taking Barbie. The toy company has just announced \u00a0a move away from its classic look toward a greater embrace of diversity in body shape. The dolls in the image below are only some of the 33 new Barbies\u00a0the company is releasing.<\/p>\n

\"Barbie\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What prompted the change? This, apparently<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Barbie is to receive a dramatic makeover in 2016, toy company Mattel has revealed, as a new range includes three optional body shapes \u2013 petite, tall and curvy \u2013 as well as seven different skin tones and 24 hair styles.<\/p>\n

Marking a radical change from the blonde, blue-eyed appearance and implausible proportions of previous models, the updated dolls are intended to better reflect the diversity of the product\u2019s audience and appeal to the shifting expectations of what Mattel called \u201cmillennial moms\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were seeing that Millennials are driven by social justice and attracted to brands with purpose and values, and they didn\u2019t see Barbie in this category,\u201d Tania Missad, Mattel\u2019s director of global brand insights, told the\u00a0Telegraph.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

\n

And from later in the article, this:<\/p>\n

Compared to\u00a0Baby Boomers and Generation X parents<\/a>, \u2018Millennial moms\u2019 were more likely to question institutions and harbour anti-consumerist sentiments. \u2018Girls still love Barbie,\u2019 says Missad. \u2018But moms, and specifically Millennial moms, were having a real crisis about whether they wanted their children to play with Barbie or not.\u2019 Mattel cannot afford to lose Millennial moms. \u2018It\u2019s currently a small group, but it\u2019s a growing group,\u2019 says Missad. \u2018It\u2019s the future.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Let me explain why I find this so hopeful. I have complained, many times, about the increased gendering of children\u2019s toys (and children\u2019s clothes, and, well, children\u2019s everything) in recent years. I\u2019ve talked about how the girls\u2019 toy aisle in most stores ends up a wash of pink and purple, and about the ways gendered toys affect girls (and boys). Presumably toy manufacturers have been marketing children\u2019s toys this way because it\u2019s what sells. This move by Mattel suggests that that may be changing. Maybe\u2014just maybe\u2014my generation can turn things around.<\/p>\n

Yes, toy manufacturers can try to garner sales through advertising and efforts to convince parents that they should buy their products for their children, but they also conduct focus groups and listen to parents in an attempt to determine what parents want to buy.\u00a0I think this is the first time I have seen a toy manufacturer speak openly of \u201cMillenial moms\u201d as a target market\u2014and as a market that matters. And as a proud \u201cMillenial mom,\u201d that matters a lot to me.<\/p>\n

After reading several articles on the new rollout, I turned to my husband.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we may need to get Sally a Barbie for her birthday,\u201d I told him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s something I never thought I\u2019d hear you say!\u201d he responded.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s rather the point.\u00a0But then, I can\u2019t say for sure what we\u2019ll purchase. Barbie will have to compete with GoldieBlox<\/a>, Miss Possible<\/a>, and Jewelbots<\/a>, some of the many startups designed by Millenials in an effort to spark girls\u2019\u00a0interest in science and technology and compete with more stereotypically gendered toys. Still, before this new rollout, I never even would have even considered Barbie in the running as a\u00a0birthday present for my daughter. And that? That mattered to Mattel.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=vPETP7-UfuI<\/a><\/p>\n

[Edit 1: In response to some things mentioned\u00a0in the comments, I should note that I am not huge on preventing children from having toys all of the other children in their lives are playing with. I grew up in a home where TV was forbidden, among other things, and that left me feeling odd and out of step with my peers. My children currently have a number of Barbie dolls, some given them as gifts and some purchased at thrift stores. What changed with this new line is that I would be more likely\u00a0to\u00a0consider buying a Barbie doll new, and as an official gift. Before this, that would not have been on my radar, not because of an ideological boycott so much as\u00a0because there are so many other quality toys available.]<\/p>\n

[Edit 2: I am not against girls playing with things that are pink. I wrote a blog post critical of the Lego Friends line a while back, but have since purchased some of their sets for my children. They may have an overload of pink and purple, but some of the sets are quite nice and have interesting concepts. I also don\u2019t object to my children playing princess. I let my daughter dress as she pleases, and her style is very feminine. I am, however, concerned about a sort of overarching color segregation that risks communicating to girls which toys they can acceptably play with and which they cannot.]<\/p>\n

[Edit 3: While Barbie has released 33 new dolls in a range of shapes and colors, it is true that their new\u00a0move still has its limits. Even the curvy dolls only represent the lighter\u00a0end of large, and\u00a0even then only in conformance with idealized body shapes in their proportions. I would also have liked to see some effort to create a doll with disabilities. Even with these limitations, I am impressed with how far this move has taken from their original product, and I appreciate the effort they have put into this new rollout.]<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Okay, okay, so the title of this post is slightly over the top. This past Christmas was a bit more heavy on consumerism than I\u2019d planned and I\u2019ve sworn off getting my children new toys until their birthdays, but I have to say, I am pleasantly impressed with the new direction Mattel is taking Barbie. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":28162,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,108],"tags":[135],"class_list":["post-28157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feminism","category-parenting","tag-gender"],"yoast_head":"\nTime for This Millennial Mom to Buy Some Barbies!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Okay, okay, so the title of this post is slightly over the top. This past Christmas was a bit more heavy on consumerism than I'd planned and I've sworn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/01\/time-for-this-millennial-mom-to-buy-some-barbies.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Time for This Millennial Mom to Buy Some Barbies!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Okay, okay, so the title of this post is slightly over the top. This past Christmas was a bit more heavy on consumerism than I'd planned and I've sworn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/01\/time-for-this-millennial-mom-to-buy-some-barbies.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Love, Joy, Feminism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-01-29T06:01:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-01-29T14:15:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/166\/2016\/01\/Barbie.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"651\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"735\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Libby Anne\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Libby Anne\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/01\/time-for-this-millennial-mom-to-buy-some-barbies.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/01\/time-for-this-millennial-mom-to-buy-some-barbies.html\",\"name\":\"Time for This Millennial Mom to Buy Some Barbies!\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-01-29T06:01:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-01-29T14:15:14+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2\"},\"description\":\"Okay, okay, so the title of this post is slightly over the top. This past Christmas was a bit more heavy on consumerism than I'd planned and I've sworn\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/01\/time-for-this-millennial-mom-to-buy-some-barbies.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/01\/time-for-this-millennial-mom-to-buy-some-barbies.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/01\/time-for-this-millennial-mom-to-buy-some-barbies.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Time for This Millennial Mom to Buy Some Barbies!\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/\",\"name\":\"Love, Joy, Feminism\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2\",\"name\":\"Libby Anne\",\"description\":\"Libby Anne grew up in a large evangelical homeschool family highly involved in the Christian Right. College turned her world upside down, and she is today an atheist, a feminist, and a progressive. She blogs about leaving religion, her experience with the Christian Patriarchy and Quiverfull movements, the detrimental effects of the \\\"purity culture,\\\" the contradictions of conservative politics, and the importance of feminism.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/author\/libby\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Time for This Millennial Mom to Buy Some Barbies!","description":"Okay, okay, so the title of this post is slightly over the top. This past Christmas was a bit more heavy on consumerism than I'd planned and I've sworn","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/01\/time-for-this-millennial-mom-to-buy-some-barbies.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Time for This Millennial Mom to Buy Some Barbies!","og_description":"Okay, okay, so the title of this post is slightly over the top. This past Christmas was a bit more heavy on consumerism than I'd planned and I've sworn","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/01\/time-for-this-millennial-mom-to-buy-some-barbies.html","og_site_name":"Love, Joy, Feminism","article_published_time":"2016-01-29T06:01:16+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-01-29T14:15:14+00:00","og_image":[{"width":651,"height":735,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/166\/2016\/01\/Barbie.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Libby Anne","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Libby Anne","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/01\/time-for-this-millennial-mom-to-buy-some-barbies.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/01\/time-for-this-millennial-mom-to-buy-some-barbies.html","name":"Time for This Millennial Mom to Buy Some Barbies!","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-01-29T06:01:16+00:00","dateModified":"2016-01-29T14:15:14+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2"},"description":"Okay, okay, so the title of this post is slightly over the top. This past Christmas was a bit more heavy on consumerism than I'd planned and I've sworn","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/01\/time-for-this-millennial-mom-to-buy-some-barbies.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/01\/time-for-this-millennial-mom-to-buy-some-barbies.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/01\/time-for-this-millennial-mom-to-buy-some-barbies.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Time for This Millennial Mom to Buy Some Barbies!"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/","name":"Love, Joy, Feminism","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2","name":"Libby Anne","description":"Libby Anne grew up in a large evangelical homeschool family highly involved in the Christian Right. College turned her world upside down, and she is today an atheist, a feminist, and a progressive. She blogs about leaving religion, her experience with the Christian Patriarchy and Quiverfull movements, the detrimental effects of the \"purity culture,\" the contradictions of conservative politics, and the importance of feminism.","sameAs":["http:\/\/patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/author\/libby"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/845"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}