7 ms·

Barbie Fucks It Up Again

56 points by daigoba66 12y ago

daigoba66 12y ago
Cached content in case it doesn't load: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:MjsZEYTwdacJ:pamie.com/2014/11/barbie-fucks-it-up-again/ http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:MjsZEYT...
- Already__Taken 12y ago
  This page stays white loading until I hit stop. I assume because of the images. w8.1x64 chrome 38.0.2125.11m x64
  - ExpiredLink 12y ago
    'Barbie' and 'f...' generate a lot internet traffic.
ChrisArchitect 12y ago
well we killed pamie.com, (or was it Brian & Steven), so content reposted over at tumblr http://pamiedotcom.tumblr.com/post/102960377050/barbie-fucks-it-up-again http://pamiedotcom.tumblr.com/post/102960377050/barbie-fucks...
- Robadob 12y ago
  They haven't rehosted the many images though, still linked to the server which has fell over.
Crito 12y ago
I've never heard of the Barbie franchise not fucking it up. "Math is tough" Barbie was more than two decades ago; the adults designing current Barbie products were likely playing with the Barbie products of that era, yet it seems like nothing was learned. At this point I think it is safe to say that Mattel honestly does not care how many people Barbie offends. They probably have sales numbers and market research that back up their approach. I can't imagine they would feel comfortable continuing down this path otherwise.
ChuckMcM 12y ago
Wow that is so lame, I wonder if the author [1] of the book is a real person. Basically the author sends the message that all Barbie will ever be good for is design and sending the 'hard stuff' out to the boys to get done. [1] http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/catalog/author.pperl?authorid=160068 http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/catalog/author.pperl?authori...
alexanderss 12y ago
Seems fairly analogous to the Barbie story that this woman's website broke and now other people are jumping in to help.
smoyer 12y ago
My daughter once broke the "family computer" trying to install "Barbie Dress Designer". In the late '90s, we had a relatively high-end computer with a reasonable hard drive but the kids had A LOT of software. When the installer told her there wasn't enough hard-drive space, she went looking for applications they didn't use and since "we never play win98", she deleted that folder. The computer was soon upgraded to WinXP and the kids had were provided with unprivileged accounts. This unfortunate Barbie story has a happy ending ... my kids developed a fearlessness when using computers which is precisely what I'd hoped. Next spring my daughter will finish a combined undergrad/masters degree in Biology (she's a molecular geneticist) and switch universities for a doctorate program. She's had no problem understanding the general logic concepts involved in computer programming including a rigorous course in bioinformatics (using Python). So how do we go from Barbie to CS? I'd say skip the Barbie completely, but if that won't work in your household, then temper it with equal time on nerdy pursuits. And if you ever run into the "Barbie Dress Designer" software? Buy stock in hot pink Inkject cartridges ... it will empty them at an amazing rate.
onaclov2000 12y ago
I understand the issues they present in the article and don't disagree, but if you look at it from another angle, that book describes a scenario that plays out regardless of sex, I've seen plenty of times people who are in positions that don't know what to do, get help from others and take credit. In a way this book is describing what hard working individuals (male AND female) go through when they do the work and others take the credit, and in fact it's encouraging it. I'll admit, the book is rough (this comment solely based on what I read/saw on the link that is here).
dang 12y ago
This post was killed by user flags, but since the thread is reasonable and people are reposting the story, we'll reopen it so discussion can continue.
dogsheet 12y ago
more pointless drivel spammed to HN and discussed by irrelevant morons.
kstenerud 12y ago
OK, I'm confused by all the vitriol. Barbie, a game DESIGNER, is going to enlist a couple of code monkeys to implement her design. Remind me again what's wrong with this? Barbie, your typical computer-savvy geek, keeps a flash drive with her backed up files. Remind me again what's wrong or unusual about this? So what if it's heart shaped? Barbie accidentally infects her sister's computer after being careless with her USB drive. Umm, yeah. Been there, done that, lesson learned. Once again, what exactly is wrong here? OH NOES! Her sister hit her with a pillow! How misogynistic! Maybe she should have used a crowbar? Or maybe, you know, she actually TRUSTS that Barbie can fix it, which is why she's not freaking out? And it even gets worse! Her two friends help out as she tells them what needs to be done (hook the drive up to another computer and copy the files). How shameful that her friends are male! Naturally, if she doesn't do everything by herself she's not a full person. Time saving is obviously evil. Sorry, but I just don't buy this critique.
- golgappi 12y ago
  Agreed that few things like pillow fighting are not at all misogynistic, but the title of the book should've been "Barbie The Game Designer" or similar. Saying that Barbie is a computer engineer and then having stuff like "Steven and Brian will do the coding" is nonsensical. Its like saying Barbie is an actress but Ron and Bob will play her character on stage. Make sense? Also, at the end Barbie doesn't credit the guys for fixing the issue, and take all the credit in front of her sister. While not all of it is against women, most of it is nonsensical, immoral and just something I wouldn't want to read to my girls if and when I have them.
  - kstenerud 12y ago
    Oh of course, the story is pretty lame, poorly thought out, and in general what you'd expect from a merchandising book mill on a budget. I'd be against buying it for my daughter on that principle alone.
- scott_s 12y ago
  It's fiction, that's supposed to be empowering to little girls. So, it can be about anything we want. They could have just as easily made her a designer and programmer. They could have just as easily made her capable of fixing her own computer.
kendallpark 12y ago
And you wonder why only 20% of programmers are female. EDIT: Love the Amazon reviews: http://www.amazon.com/Actress-Computer-Engineer-Barbie-Pictureback/dp/0449816192 http://www.amazon.com/Actress-Computer-Engineer-Barbie-Pictu...
ultrasaurus 12y ago
This looks like a decent alternative: http://www.helloruby.com/ http://www.helloruby.com/ but it's a year off
Jean-Philipe 12y ago
Dear men. The book says "Barbie is a computer engineer". Please read the title again, it says "computer engineer", not "game designer". So Barbie is a computer engineer that doesn't know how to code. If that's not sexist, I don't know what is. That this submission gets flagged by HN users just makes me sad.

56 points by daigoba66 12y ago

Cached content in case it doesn't load: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:MjsZEYTwdacJ:pamie.com/2014/11/barbie-fucks-it-up-again/ http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:MjsZEYT...

Already__Taken 12y ago
This page stays white loading until I hit stop. I assume because of the images. w8.1x64 chrome 38.0.2125.11m x64
- ExpiredLink 12y ago
  'Barbie' and 'f...' generate a lot internet traffic.

ChrisArchitect 12y ago

well we killed pamie.com, (or was it Brian & Steven), so content reposted over at tumblr http://pamiedotcom.tumblr.com/post/102960377050/barbie-fucks-it-up-again http://pamiedotcom.tumblr.com/post/102960377050/barbie-fucks...

Robadob 12y ago
They haven't rehosted the many images though, still linked to the server which has fell over.

Crito 12y ago

I've never heard of the Barbie franchise not fucking it up. "Math is tough" Barbie was more than two decades ago; the adults designing current Barbie products were likely playing with the Barbie products of that era, yet it seems like nothing was learned. At this point I think it is safe to say that Mattel honestly does not care how many people Barbie offends. They probably have sales numbers and market research that back up their approach. I can't imagine they would feel comfortable continuing down this path otherwise.

ChuckMcM 12y ago

Wow that is so lame, I wonder if the author [1] of the book is a real person. Basically the author sends the message that all Barbie will ever be good for is design and sending the 'hard stuff' out to the boys to get done. [1] http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/catalog/author.pperl?authorid=160068 http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/catalog/author.pperl?authori...

alexanderss 12y ago

Seems fairly analogous to the Barbie story that this woman's website broke and now other people are jumping in to help.

smoyer 12y ago

My daughter once broke the "family computer" trying to install "Barbie Dress Designer". In the late '90s, we had a relatively high-end computer with a reasonable hard drive but the kids had A LOT of software. When the installer told her there wasn't enough hard-drive space, she went looking for applications they didn't use and since "we never play win98", she deleted that folder. The computer was soon upgraded to WinXP and the kids had were provided with unprivileged accounts. This unfortunate Barbie story has a happy ending ... my kids developed a fearlessness when using computers which is precisely what I'd hoped. Next spring my daughter will finish a combined undergrad/masters degree in Biology (she's a molecular geneticist) and switch universities for a doctorate program. She's had no problem understanding the general logic concepts involved in computer programming including a rigorous course in bioinformatics (using Python). So how do we go from Barbie to CS? I'd say skip the Barbie completely, but if that won't work in your household, then temper it with equal time on nerdy pursuits. And if you ever run into the "Barbie Dress Designer" software? Buy stock in hot pink Inkject cartridges ... it will empty them at an amazing rate.

onaclov2000 12y ago

I understand the issues they present in the article and don't disagree, but if you look at it from another angle, that book describes a scenario that plays out regardless of sex, I've seen plenty of times people who are in positions that don't know what to do, get help from others and take credit. In a way this book is describing what hard working individuals (male AND female) go through when they do the work and others take the credit, and in fact it's encouraging it. I'll admit, the book is rough (this comment solely based on what I read/saw on the link that is here).

dang 12y ago

This post was killed by user flags, but since the thread is reasonable and people are reposting the story, we'll reopen it so discussion can continue.

dogsheet 12y ago

more pointless drivel spammed to HN and discussed by irrelevant morons.

kstenerud 12y ago

OK, I'm confused by all the vitriol. Barbie, a game DESIGNER, is going to enlist a couple of code monkeys to implement her design. Remind me again what's wrong with this? Barbie, your typical computer-savvy geek, keeps a flash drive with her backed up files. Remind me again what's wrong or unusual about this? So what if it's heart shaped? Barbie accidentally infects her sister's computer after being careless with her USB drive. Umm, yeah. Been there, done that, lesson learned. Once again, what exactly is wrong here? OH NOES! Her sister hit her with a pillow! How misogynistic! Maybe she should have used a crowbar? Or maybe, you know, she actually TRUSTS that Barbie can fix it, which is why she's not freaking out? And it even gets worse! Her two friends help out as she tells them what needs to be done (hook the drive up to another computer and copy the files). How shameful that her friends are male! Naturally, if she doesn't do everything by herself she's not a full person. Time saving is obviously evil. Sorry, but I just don't buy this critique.

golgappi 12y ago
Agreed that few things like pillow fighting are not at all misogynistic, but the title of the book should've been "Barbie The Game Designer" or similar. Saying that Barbie is a computer engineer and then having stuff like "Steven and Brian will do the coding" is nonsensical. Its like saying Barbie is an actress but Ron and Bob will play her character on stage. Make sense? Also, at the end Barbie doesn't credit the guys for fixing the issue, and take all the credit in front of her sister. While not all of it is against women, most of it is nonsensical, immoral and just something I wouldn't want to read to my girls if and when I have them.
- kstenerud 12y ago
  Oh of course, the story is pretty lame, poorly thought out, and in general what you'd expect from a merchandising book mill on a budget. I'd be against buying it for my daughter on that principle alone.
scott_s 12y ago
It's fiction, that's supposed to be empowering to little girls. So, it can be about anything we want. They could have just as easily made her a designer and programmer. They could have just as easily made her capable of fixing her own computer.

kendallpark 12y ago

And you wonder why only 20% of programmers are female. EDIT: Love the Amazon reviews: http://www.amazon.com/Actress-Computer-Engineer-Barbie-Pictureback/dp/0449816192 http://www.amazon.com/Actress-Computer-Engineer-Barbie-Pictu...

ultrasaurus 12y ago

This looks like a decent alternative: http://www.helloruby.com/ http://www.helloruby.com/ but it's a year off

Jean-Philipe 12y ago

Dear men. The book says "Barbie is a computer engineer". Please read the title again, it says "computer engineer", not "game designer". So Barbie is a computer engineer that doesn't know how to code. If that's not sexist, I don't know what is. That this submission gets flagged by HN users just makes me sad.