Friday on my mind
A pointy haired Barbie, now there's a thought that makes me shudder, where's my pink cattle prod.
Useless 'computer engineer' Barbie fired in three-way fsck row
Toy giant Mattel has withdrawn from sale its painfully sexist Barbie book I Can Be A Computer Engineer after a storm of protest. It apologized for making the anatomically-impossible doll incapable of fixing a PC without two lads' help – let alone program any software for one. "The portrayal of Barbie in this specific story …
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Friday 21st November 2014 07:48 GMT nsld
i look forward to more real world barbie books
Such classics as:
Barbie the mumsnetter - an everyday tale of a toxic life in nappy valley punctuated with lattes and deep conversations with other barbies about how awful ken is.
Barbie the career women - nothing gets in the way of her flight to the top, so Ken ends up banging the nanny, his personal trainer and barbies best friend
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Friday 21st November 2014 07:52 GMT Michael H.F. Wilkinson
To paraphrase Marvin
I get a headache trying to think down at the level of those storytellers (prhase used without prejudice).
The "quality of that story reminds me of a snoopy cartoon, where snoopy gets a rejection letter for a story he has submitted, together with a rejection for the next story he might want to submit.
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Friday 21st November 2014 19:28 GMT Craigness
Loser
There was a similar storyline in an episode of Lost: The Hot Blonde One was asked to gather sticks for a fire but turned on the charm and got The Fat Guy to fetch them instead. Her brother complained that she'd not fetched the sticks but she pointed out that she actually had. She and Barbie are equally empowered but feminists won't see it that way because they want equal representation only in safe, well-respected, high-paying jobs like Programmer and will never demand equality in lumber yards.
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Sunday 23rd November 2014 07:16 GMT Anonymous Coward
@Stuart
I for one hope that someday people will grow back a bit of common sense and stop looking for meanings which aren't there in the first place.
So just because Barbie is a girl you can't write up a story about how she doesn't understand computers because she's a girl and therefore its sexist? However, you can write up such a story when the main character is a male? So how is that not being sexist?
I'm getting annoyed too; with the double morals being uphold.
So when someone writes a story about how a girl doesn't know anything about a computer its an outrage (even though, shudder, some people (who cares about gender in the first place? you? you sexist!) actually really don't know shit about computers).
Yet when someone writes a story about how certain women allow themselves to be degraded to mere party / company or heck: sex slaves (Fifty shades of grey anyone?) then it's quickly turning into a best seller. Oh I know: "that's different because its targeted at adults".
Sure, however; this Barbie book was targeted at teens and from what I can tell only a bunch of stuck-up adults actually had problems with it. So... different? How?
In my opinion some people should be forced to watch The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs. A South Park episode no less. One of the many reasons why I think the older seasons were /so/ much better than what we got now.
SO basically; the boys write a book, with the only intend to make it as offensive and disgusting as possible. A mother (don't want to spoil the plot ;)) finds it, gets disgusted with it yet still thinks she understands "what the meaning of the story is".
While in fact there was none. Just writing up a disgusting piece of work for fun. Using as many "no no" words as possible.
This is IMO no different. Just because Barbie is a girl some people consider it sexism if she doesn't know shit about computers. Apparently those people are even totally incapable to realize that the target audience would never get those ideas of sexism.
Unless of course you bring them into contact with such. Like, for example, making a huge fuss about it and making all the kids believe that this actually is a BIG deal, even though they never would have thought so in the first place.
And voila; now all of a sudden you realized the exact opposite of what you tried to do; because now the people involved get into the stereotyping that "writing stories about girls who don't know IT is bad".
Why it's bad? Would anyone ask that question at the risk of being called a sexist?
So now we're down to "girls aren't bad with IT per definition, because 'we' said so".
Gee, and when I put it like that it sure as heck sounds like dictatorship to me!
Who cares about allowing people to decide for themselves if they think the story is suitable for their children or not?. Naah, who cares about freedom of choice anyway? This is all for the common good after all!
Yah, and that last sentence is what most dictators also use to justify their actions. Just saying....
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Sunday 23rd November 2014 09:16 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: @Stuart
The irony of course is that in the real world women can and do get jobs in IT. Many quite high up. On the other hand if a guy goes to interview in a skirt suit with pink nail polish he'd be lucky to get past reception. If we're going to properly deal with gender equality it's going to take more than a barbie doll and an angry mob...
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Friday 21st November 2014 10:33 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Pink crapfest
Or having daughters, who, despite our best efforts, love all things Barbie.
I feel a trial at the Hague is due for the creators of Barbie, Pokemon and whatever that stupid show is called where the kids mingle with animated "beings" who can't talk properly "LaLa not like"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Probably more to add to the list but that's a good start..... crimes against humanity... a pox on their houses....
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Friday 21st November 2014 10:44 GMT Ragarath
Re: Pink crapfest
Take a walk down the girls' aisle of any toy store and you'll see that the only change is the prevalence of pink LEDs.
You will find that most things are pink because that is what the majority of girls like. It is not people forcing them to do it (most of the time).
My daughter is pink mad but we thought she would grow up a tomboy. The first year of her life with two older brothers was all about army and lego and dinosaurs (the sterotypical boy toys though she does like them too). The strange thing, pink, she loves it and dolls and all the sterotypical girly things, though as mentioned she gives the boys as good as they get with the boy toys (note the boys play with her dolls too and we encourage it).
Basically what I am trying to say here is that the companies that make these things know that the majority tend to be this way because of our biology. Hence they try to cater towards what is going to sell the most, hence pink.
This book is obviously belittling Women. We are trying to teach our kids they can do anything but, the pink thing stands, most girls like pink and it is not people necessarily forcing them to like it.
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Friday 21st November 2014 11:37 GMT Meerkatjie
Re: Pink crapfest
Not entirely - most of the pink preference is due to culture not biology. http://www.theguardian.com/science/2007/aug/25/genderissues
My grandfather preferred pink and red related clothing when he was alive and when we were in Thailand I saw more pink in the men than I did on the women.
If "women love pink and men blue" was completely biological then most or all cultures would have a distinct preference between the colours.
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Friday 21st November 2014 14:22 GMT Ragarath
Re: Pink crapfest
@Meerkatjie
Thanks for that link, but what does this opinion piece have to do with what I observed in my own kin?
A bad survey done badly (and with older people with a bias already), proves nothing but neither does the opinion of the writer in denying it.
In fact reading that article where it mentions cultures, it is actually talking about different races, so there may even be biological differences. Or, are you trying to tell me that all the races evolved in the same way?
I and a friend had a pink phase when we were in our teens, how does that relate to a younger person / baby choosing one thing over the other? How do you tell what is conscious and unconscious? Can you please point me to a scientific paper on this and not a newspaper opinion piece please?
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Friday 21st November 2014 20:39 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Pink crapfest
> If "women love pink and men blue" was completely biological then most or all cultures would have a distinct preference between the colours.
Indeed. I seem to remember reading somewhere that pre-Victorian times, pink was the usual colour for boy baby clothes and blue for the girls, the exact reverse from how things are now.
The "girliness" of pink seems to be a fairly recent innovation.
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Friday 21st November 2014 08:13 GMT Dr. Mouse
Not far off
I have spoken to many "software engineers" (male and female) who match the Barbie of this book more closely than anything else. They come up with an idea, draw some pretty pictures, then hand it to a team of programmers who do the real work. Then they claim all the credit.
These are just like the architects who draw pretty pictures, then hand them to a team of civil engineers to actually make it work. But the architect, obviously, gets the credit, not the people who turned a drawing not too dissimilar to those produced in crayon by a 5 year old into a real design.
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Friday 21st November 2014 11:20 GMT Dr. Mouse
Re: Not far off
I've actually had a lot of that from my father. He's a civil engineer, and has banged heads with many architects over his time. There have been several instances where the "design" (i.e. pretty picture) is either impossible to build with current technology, or so eye-wateringly expensive it may as well be. This never deterred the architect, and my father's "diplomatic skills" (or lack thereof) often ended up with him quitting, being fired, or being pushed sideways into another project. He would often later find out that the architect backed down, and the alternative design he had proposed was accepted when someone who didn't just p*** everyone off proposed it in a more diplomatic way.
BTW I know that this speaks volumes about my dad's likeability and employability. I don't like him much myself at times, and certainly wouldn't want to work with him!
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Friday 21st November 2014 15:07 GMT VinceH
Re: Not far off
"BTW I know that this speaks volumes about my dad's likeability and employability. I don't like him much myself at times, and certainly wouldn't want to work with him!"
You should ask him if he ever had another child about 46 years ago who he never met. Maybe I'm your long lost brother - I must've inherited a similar attitude from somewhere!
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Biting the hand that feeds IT
