Bratz anything are banned in our household. A few years ago the wife and I were at a store and we saw the Bratz Naughty Nights line of figures in the toy department. They were dolls dressed in Victory Secret-esque lingerie.

"typing, and more (no period)" sic

Apparently, it does not teach punctuation.

Swan: as a sentence fragment, a period isn't strictly required.

I think we should be less concerned about the lack of punctuation, and more about the word "pashion".

Only at Walmart. Imagine that.

OMG, Lol! BFFE

Did you know that in the Bratz movie there is a scene of a teen birthday party where they actually have a STRIPPER pole?

Bratz WERE banned from our house, I made an exception (since it was rated pg, after all) and now they are RE-banned. With a bullet.

nick...your comma isn't needed.
baci...what is BFFE?

FAIL.

no. no. no. and finally, no.

and being the dad of one two year old girl...no. i'm certain there are more positive 'role models' which my little girl can become momentarily infatuated with, without somehow embracing what really appears to me to be a shallow, vapid and materialistic value system.

in research, i have made a point to investigate by watching some of the saturday morning drivel, Bratz being one of them. Another descriptive I would attach to the whole Bratz fad after 10 minutes of viewing: pointless.

As much as the Wiggles and Barney and Elmo annoy the hell out of me, I'm certainly thankful that Hazel prefers to watch them.

Then again, she likes Napoleon Dynamite and the Wallace and Gromit films, too.

I am not a dad, but the Bratz have made Barbie look wholesome and intelligent, quite a feat to be sure. Now, based on the overwhelming condemnation from parents, and people with concern for the younger set I am sure they must be uber-popular.

uberpopular among kids whose parents lack the backbone required to refuse to purchase toys of this nature for their offspring, no matter how loudly they scream.

uberpopular among kids who refuse to be banned from things. I'm smelling a slingshot reaction here. Those darn marketers.

Bratz are banned from my house, too. I'm not worried about a backlash. The kids know that I would throw those things in the garbage, no joke.
I think Barbie dolls are fine. They're downright wholesome compared to Bratz.

I worked at New Moon Magazine when the BRATZ dolls first came on the scene (rhyme not intentional). As a feminist, I wanted to be anti-Barbie, but as a girl, she gave my life value. Role playing with Barbies is much more creative than playing video games, IMO.
But Bratz, they're just so more unreal than the Barbie. But than again, as girls, did we really see Barbie as an ideal? I know I didn't. I saw her as a doll.

budbratz -- Best Friends For Ever.

All the rest -- dont look at my above comment as an endorsement. Kiddo came back from junior K saying "Go! Bratz!" and making a super hero stance. I immediately played some Lawrence Welk videos on youtube and told her that Bratz will eat all he Halloween candy. Later I pulled out my Spock and Sigmund Freud action figures and she now LOVES to play "space counseling".

If only they made something *like* barbie (sparkly clothes, fun toys -- cars, boats, etc.) that girls could play with. We inherited a bunch of Barbies and the kids do love their sparkly skirts. We have zero shoes, no extra crap like the dreamhouse and the car, and have bought nothing Barbie ever.

My kids (3 and 6 yr old) think (and I agree) that the Bratz look scary.

stoner dolls are fun.

slut/stoner dolls are even better.

The Only Hearts Club dolls are a Barbie alternative. The dolls look like girls instead of busty women, and have the accesories, pet horses, etc., that girls like to play with. I think Target sells them -- in a different aisle than Bratz.

My son played with X-Men, but he didn't turn out like one.

I hope you're just trolling, but in case you're not, or in the case people would buy into your implicitly reductive argument, I'll take the bait.

X-men toys/characters use strength and their unique abilities creatively and purposefully, often in union with others. Individuality and strength are emphasized. Even the bad guys are fighting against persecution. There's danger there in the fantasy and violence components over-powering the positive lessons, but that's a decision for every adult guardian to make for his/her wards.

Contrast that to the values imparted by Bratz and their similar cohort. False images of beauty, doubled with an obsession of beauty.

I think it's interesting that their grotesqueness is drawing so much more attention that the grotesqueness of barbie. I'd think that the conspicuous exaggeration would make the fantasy all the more obvious, but I also understand the multi-media onslaught.

I can't think of any toy that is going to make a kid "turn out like one" but I believe that thinking critically about toy purchases and the values that those toys support/reinforce rather than just grabbing whatever is popular is an important step.