Sleazy dolls prepping young girls for ... what?

The other day I swapped emails with a writer friend of mine who lives in New Zealand. She told me she’d just finished knitting a scarf for one of her daughters’ Bratz dolls.

“You buy your girls Bratz dolls?” I wrote back. “Aren’t those the really sleazy-looking ones?”

To which she replied, “Yep Bratz are totally slutty! Was hard work finding some that didn’t look like little ho’s. We have more of the sports extreme type than the skank type (wasn’t easy to find!!)!”

Sigh…

To even have such an exchange about dolls targeted at young girls seems a sad reflection of our world. That girls (and parents) succumb to marketing to such a degree that they prefer dolls that look like hookers is to me somewhat disillusioning. And that parents gladly oblige their children by purchasing such dolls seems an abrogation of some sort of parental judgment.

I know, I know. Every generation has some sort of controversial “it” toy. And I know, too, that Bratz are nothing new. I remember wandering the aisles of Toys R Us several years ago in search of “normal” dolls for a gift. My kids and I laughed for 10 minutes upon encountering the then-new Bratz line, so disbelieving were we that such a product made it to store shelves. We then spent 10 minutes trying to top each other finding the most outrageously trashy description for each of the different Bratz dolls then on the shelves.

Now it seems they’re almost tame in how they’re described. A recent perusal of some Bratz on store shelves included Sasha the hip-hop hottie and Jade the punk rock rebel. Wow, when I was little it was controversial for a baby doll to simulate a poo-poo. Clearly excrement is so yesterday! Now they’ve got to be hotties and rebels. What’s next — Rhonda the runaway, Sally the streetwalker, and Janie the junkie?

Overly made up and dressed to look for Mr. Goodbar — complete with fishnet stockings, rhinestone-studded micro-miniskirts, stiletto shoes, revealing belly shirts and tight, tight clothing — these dolls are targeted at the pre-school and early elementary school set. Whatever happened to Polly Pocket? Better yet, Mrs. Beasley?

My generation of little girls were weaned on the likes of doll babies that burped, wee-wee’d, and cried: all normal stages of infancy. One wonders if children today are instead being prepared really early with the likes of Bratz for the oppositional defiance of teens. All part of the ongoing push to force our kids to grow up too early?

One can only hope that is the rationale behind their provocative design, rather than envelope-pushing titillation. Because really, there is no need for titillation with children, in my humble opinion.

I wish someone would explain to me the desire for a doll tramped up to be the “girl most likely to” in the fifth-grade class. And while you’re at it, please tell me why these dolls also then perpetuate the societal expectation for girls to remain pitifully thin — even to the degree that they sport the telltale lollipop heads and emaciated physiques common to young women with eating disorders. Charming. The message we send to our girls is to paint your face like a lady of the evening, dress entirely too provocatively for your age, and oh, by the way! Don’t forget to not eat!

I know this year there will be much belt-tightening going on, and holiday acquisitions will be kept to a minimum for many people. The speculation is that maybe now is the time that people will rediscover more simple holiday pleasures and eschew material goods. Perhaps this too will be the year that dolls doing business as tramps will be on the way out. We can only hope.

Jenny Gardiner is a writer and commentator who lives in Albemarle County. She is author of the recent novel “Sleeping with Ward Cleaver.”