While at first glance this sort of blatant superficial, materialist game is pretty appalling, I think we are kidding ourselves that this isn't the sort of silly, stupid, let's pretend to be teenagers thing that little girls like. As someone that was raised by a fairly militant feminist, I wasn't allowed to have Barbies (until my grandmother snuck me one at 5, after years of me asking and then my mother couldn't pry it away), watch MTV (portrays women as sex objects), wear makeup (I shouldn't be wasting time altering my looks, being a sex object, etc), and the list goes on. In the end I just ended up feeling very different from my schoolmates and became even more shy and depressed than I already have a tendency to be.

My point is I think this sort of superficial stuff is pretty harmless and of little consequence. It is just the way little girls pretend to be adults. Yes women love to shop, I certainly do. I also am a professional with a lot of far more refined hobbies and interests. But I still love to shop, get dressed up and wear makeup. I think we have to get away from these bimbo/nerd stereotypes. People can have different dimensions of there personalities. One does not cancel out the other. Little girls can like sparkly purple cars that race to the mall and still be good at math. While I do sometimes worry about how the media/marketers impact our children and their perceptions of themselves, I feel they are given far to much credit. In the end it is the people closest to us and those we are with everyday that really impact who we are and what qualities we deem valuable.

this makes me so sad. i didnt grow up that long ago (i'm 30) but it seems to me like we should have made at least SOME progress since i was a kid. so boys still get toys that train them to be warriors, engineers, firefighters, or anstronauts, and girls get toys that teach them how to cook, take care of babies, and go shopping. fabulous.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s not as if I believe girl’s toys have been female-empowering until The Great Polly Pocket Fiasco. "Let’s Go Shopping" and "Mystery Date" are just two stellar board games for girls in recent memory.

But now, EVERYTHING seems to be reduced to shopping and makeup. When’s the last time you’ve seen an astronaut Barbie or a doctor Barbie? Nope, it’s all bling and shopping. I think the one redeeming character is Dora The Explorer, but she’s geared towards the pre-school crowd.

I just wish there were [non-electronic] toy options. Girls can go shopping but they can also run the store.

At least Polly Pockets is driving a race car and not, say, pushing a shopping cart. But Polly has a way to go to catch up with Barbie, who's had wheels for years and years and even comes in a NASCAR version.

As a new parent and a less new uncle, I'm a supporter of allowing the new members in our family to choose their own interests without reinforcing societally based gender roles. That being said, there's a fine line between reinforcing gender roles and imposing your own ideology.

I learned this 5 years ago when I gave my eldest niece a hot wheels track for Christmas. It was a flop, she only played with it when I remarked that I hadn't done that well with this year's gift: "No, look uncle Geoff, I'm playing with it!". Being patronized by a 5 year old was enough to convert me long-term to Barbie, Littlest Pet Shop and Strawberry Shortcake, although I'm still proud of how sensitive she was to my feelings. Now I basically buy my nieces and nephews what they want, not what I think would be socially progressive.

There's still room for judgment however. We try to buy Barbie's that are "active", we steer clear of dolls which aren't dressed appropriately, and when we bought Barbie a VW Beetle, we got it in purple (my niece's favorite colour), even though I told my wife that the silver one was more realistic. While its often disappointing to see what corporations are trying to sell to children, there is still a vital role to be played by their guardians.

The toys I buy for my nieces and nephews might not be breaking down the barriers to gender equality, but they're almost always well received. Regularly they meet the highest standard for any toy, and are taken to bed at night. While I want to do what I can to ensure my nieces and nephews are allowed to develop into what they want to be, not what society thinks they should be, the most important part of the equation is love, not the piece of plastic that set you back $30.

It’s the thought that counts after all.

Polly Pocket is great - my youngest gets a lot of mileage out of all of her Pollys. She's not restricted by the playsets - they go mountain climbing, etc.

Lighten up.

And is it too much to ask that Ms. Perfect Barbie, The Doctor, Astronaut, Fashion Model, who ran for president might admit to some kind of a human failing?

And is it so hard to think that if you are a young person who is finding math hard, it might be very comforting that someone as successful and together as your Barbie likewise struggeled with Math?

She obviously mastered the subject, I mean she's an astronaut for goodness sake, but still why do people have to harp on everything that shows some humanity and weakness to a charecter?

Am I overreacting? Yeah I probably am. Also, if you are a girl, feel free to play with Scarlet, Lady Jaye, Covergirl, Zatarnina or the Barroness from the GI Joe Collection. Or you can play with She Ra, Tela, the Soceress or Evilin from the Masters of the Universe Collection.

I've always noticed that "Boys Toys" always have girls represented in their universe, as equal partners to the adventure, where as girls toys often do not. Why is that?