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Barbie launches six new dolls celebrating female scientists
- eplanit 5y agoI'm taking bets on how much time elapses between now and when Mattel comes out with a transgender line.
- HorizonXP 5y agoEh, I'll take that bet. They're still a company, and by the numbers, I would think it represents a very small minority. The sales probably wouldn't make it worth it. It might be worth it as a marketing tactic though, who knows.
- puppet-master 5y agoTrans advocacy is a policy game at every level, not a numbers game. At the national level for example, the UN universal periodic review began recently including trans rights in its methodology. It is far more likely Mattel would respond to this kind of pressure from some kind of industry group than any expectation of high sales (although given a decade of this kind of influence organic sales will be a natural consequence, which is why advocacy efforts are so important to watch to understand the future of society)
- dragonwriter 5y ago> I'm taking bets on how much time elapses between now and when Mattel comes out with a transgender line. Er, how would that differ? Its not like Barbie’s sex-assigned-at-birth is included on a certificate with the doll in the first place, or like the doll is so anatomically correct that one could determine what that likely was from the kind of genitalia and whether or not they had the telltale signs of surgical modification.
- puppet-master 5y agoSex is observed, not assigned, this is true even in the case of intersex individuals. The modern construct of gender is largely a function of environmental and media exposure. Unlike sex, no falsifiable tests exist for it. Don't confuse the two.
- dragonwriter 5y ago> Sex is observed, not assigned Various indicia are observed, sex (more accurately, “socially ascribed gender”, but the established terminology is “sex”) is assigned based on some subset of sex-related indicia. > The modern construct of gender The modern understanding of the distinction between sex, ascribed gender, and gender identity may be new, but the things themselves aren’t modern constructs. Biological sex (or at least the individual traits that make it up), socially ascribed gender, and gender identity have always existed.
- puppet-master 5y ago> Various indicia are observed, sex (more accurately, “socially ascribed gender”, but the established terminology is “sex”) is assigned based on some subset of sex-related indicia. This is an intentional and politically motivated conflation, that I notice you have attempted in several different threads, and it's why I replied here at all. Sex is a hard attribute that can be measured empirically at the chromosomal level, stop attempting to redefine it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex
- HorizonXP 5y agoThese look great! Can't wait to buy some for my son, he'll enjoy playing with them.
- disabled 5y agoAgreed, and great point, LOL! This doesn't solve the actual problem at hand. It's more like a token like "hey you can do it too". It does not give you the skills you need, like spatial skills, for example, which you learn from playing with Lego, etc., which is crucial for success in engineering. If you don't have these skills, you will be in for a ride in formal engineering school. Yeah, you can learn it during your weed-out courses, but have fun! I am female and I have a twin brother. Fortunately my parents were awesome and I didn't have to deal with as much gender bias as other people. I got to play with all of my brother's toys and I had no interest in dolls. I also got to play with computers, which was the best, LOL! In order to actually help solve this issue, unlike Mattel, here are some useful tools (toys): Here, if you have a child who is a girl, get her GoldieBlox in order for her to intuitively develop spatial skills. GoldieBlox is designed by a Stanford Engineer and has free virtual STEM Camps: https://goldieblox.com/ https://goldieblox.com/ Here is a Wikipedia post about GoldieBlox: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GoldieBlox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GoldieBlox I also learned coding from Lego Mindstorms. It's spendy (expensive) but it's worth every penny. It also teaches you advanced interfacing in an intuitive manner: https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/robot-inventor-51515 https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/robot-inventor-51515 Also look on Etsy for intuitive gender neutral STEM toys.
- lordnacho 5y agoThis gives Mattel way more credit than they deserve. They're making these dolls because society has figured out that we need to value women's contributions, and everyone agrees. Mattel is lagging, not leading on this issue. Go back a bit in time and when society had different values, Barbie had different professions.
- HorizonXP 5y agoFair, but they still have a large cultural impact and this is still a net positive impact. When kids run into the toy section at Walmart, they still see a lot of Barbie. So having this happen is still an overall good thing, even if it's late.
- gsich 5y agoWill children care or even know?
- krapp 5y agoThe goal is (or should be) that they will learn, and be inspired. Nothing wrong with that.
- obmelvin 5y agoFrom one perspective, they won't know or care either way, so that's why it's important to showcase diverse careers and individuals, so that it can just become "normal".
- ekianjo 5y ago> why it's important to showcase diverse careers and individuals You see people of all genders of every profession on TV and everywhere else already, a few dolls parading aside won't make much impact.
- madeofpalk 5y ago
- xchip 5y agoThey are not scientists, they are doctors. Four have an stethoscope, the other one looks the same but without the stethoscope and there is another one looking like a business woman. So, where is the software engineer Barbie?
- minitoar 5y agoAt least 2 of them are doctors that do research. Are they not scientists?
- xchip 5y agoResearch is done by researchers, and they hardly carry a phonendoscope. For the record: Duties of a doctor Monitoring and caring for patients in hospitals and clinics Investigating, diagnosing and treating the health conditions of patients Prescribing and reviewing patients’ medication Taking accurate notes, as a legal record and for other healthcare professionals to use Working with other doctors, healthcare professionals and management staff Educating people about their health Teaching and supervising trainee doctors. More senior doctors may also: Manage a team or department and organise workloads Research and review processes. source: https://www.bellerbys.com/guides/careers/hospital-doctor https://www.bellerbys.com/guides/careers/hospital-doctor
- watwut 5y agoQuoting article: British woman Sarah Gilbert, a 59-year-old professor at Oxford University who co-developed the AstraZeneca vaccine, is another scientist to be honoured with a doll. This is one of dolls. Quite odd choice of person to gatekeep as a scientist.
- minitoar 5y agoI don’t understand what you are criticizing. These dolls are modeled after real people, some of whom are scientists. Are you saying these people don’t deserve to be called scientists?
- rsynnott 5y ago
- trynumber9 5y agoAlways wanted a Kengineer.
- rglover 5y agoHe's well intentioned but always makes mistakes. Comes action packed with three built-in excuses.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- racl101 5y agoHa ha this is the Lisa Lionheart thing for real. Simpsons predicts the future again.
- majewsky 5y agoIt's not Lisa Lionheart, it's the copy cat doll that the big corp released at the end of the episode, when they realized that there was a market for something like Lisa Lionheart.
- staticman2 5y agoThere was no copycat doll in that episode. Malibu Stacey gets a new hat but is as sexist as ever. https://comb.io/RHnRVl https://comb.io/RHnRVl
- majewsky 5y agoYou're absolutely correct. It appears my memory of that episode was way too rosy.
- n4bz0r 5y agoIs there something wrong with me or the strong scent of irony is real with this one? *cough* body-positive feminism *cough*
- h2odragon 5y ago> The first Barbie astronaut outfit, "Barbie Miss Astronaut," was released in 1965, according to this about the 2013 "Mars Explorer" version: https://www.space.com/22247-mars-barbie-doll-nasa-mattel.html https://www.space.com/22247-mars-barbie-doll-nasa-mattel.htm... I didn't find a first "doctor" but ive delved deeper into Barbie history already this morning than anticipated. There's much more information to be had.
- chestertn 5y agoI remember when similar techniques were employed by the Soviets (posters of woman in the army, posters of woman making weapons, etc.) We now consider that to be propaganda. I am a profesional in the science industry and the profession is so debased I would not recommend my children to get into the field. We all talk about burnout and loss of meaning. We see other eras (eg. the 50s-60s in IBM, Bell Labs, etc.) as a past golden age. This seems to be something generalized and across technical fields. Instead of focusing on figuring out what happened we have all the HR people working nonstop to try to pump more people into the field and painting it as a rosy.
- madeofpalk 5y agoIncredible that something has trivial as "a doctor doll" is seen here as controversial or propaganda. Makes me wonder what propaganda is going on in the comments.
- chestertn 5y agoOh, come on. There have been Barbie doctor dolls and astronaut dolls since at least the 80s. That is besides the point. The point is the constant drilling of this topic in every form, painting the woman as oppressed superheroes and males as privileged oppressors. This with the goal of getting more people into a debased field while salaries and family-work balance keep getting worse.
- watwut 5y ago> painting the woman as oppressed superheroes and males as privileged oppressors Which part of article is painting women as oppressed and which one even mentions men? And also, the amount of scientists is limited by open positions. There is literally no need for anyone to higher up supplies of those, you have dozens of PhDs for every post doc position.
- madeofpalk 5y agoYou seem to be projecting a lot on to the article that wasn’t actually there. I would question why you feel the need to do that.
- cblconfederate 5y agoWhen there's a gold rush, shovels sell well