Barbie and puppies
I mentioned the other day on a reel (FB and IG) about how I have been trying to get our daughter to watch a couple educational videos to improve her speech. The point of the video was the fact that the ends don’t justify the means (i.e. just because something works doesn’t make it OK to use). However, since I was watching a few of those educational children’s videos, we of course had to sit through various ads. And one of them that really had me thinking was Barbie.
You can see the ad of concern for yourself HERE. There are so many things to tease out in this video (my WORD!), but the first that stood out to me was what in the world was Barbie doing with a dog carrier strapped to herself? Normally, we would see a baby strapped onto a mother like that. But nope. Puppies.
No Barbie Mamas
This made me think about how feminism has warped what we even offer our daughters as toys to play with. You may think this is a stretch, but I would argue it absolutely is not. I went on the Barbie website and you can’t even find one Barbie mom doll. You can find a babysitter or a little sister (Chelsea is her name – who knew?), but a mother? Nope. Apparently, “You can be anything” (the slogan for Barbie), EXCEPT a mom. That must be too traditional. Puppies are great. But babies? Not so much.
What’s mind boggling is that just from a pragmatic perspective, we all know the US population is on a dangerous decline. The birth rates keep falling. Yet we still push our daughters to climb that corporate ladder and serve others rather than their own family. Building and pouring into the lives of other people’s children is OK too, but not our own children. We are subtly teaching our daughters that’s beneath them. Climbing the corporate ladder of success and reaching financial goals is taught to be the most important thing to focus on.
I say this is a one time in my life believer in this dogma. I don’t think I would have said it in those exact words, but that was how I was living. Do I regret getting a college degree? Absolutely not. I don’t write this to dissuade women from being educated. On the contrary, we need both our sons and daughters to be life long learners. They should continue to build their knowledge and skills long past formal schooling, whether that’s HS or higher education.
Not on the LORD’s side
But what I’m trying to bring to other’s attention is that the culture is not on the side of building up families. Once upon a time, we didn’t have to think about what our children were watching (or at least, not as much). We didn’t have to worry about school’s teaching our kids ideologies that tear at the very foundations of what we hold dear. But we do now.
Just as so many other areas in life these days, we must be our family’s advocates and lead our families with great intentionality. We don’t have the luxury of putting it on cruise control and not worrying about what our kids are spending time doing. Even when they’re watching ads between children’s videos.
Hold the line
It’s with all of these compromises to the culture in the past, that we find ourselves in the cultural confusion we are in today. We must hold the line. I’ve always thought Barbie was garbage for a number of reasons, but it’s way worse now. I’m sorry (not sorry) but directing our girls’ innate nurturing bent towards puppies rather than babies is absolutely ridiculous.
Will all of our daughters be mothers one day? I am clearly not God, so I have no idea. But to completely marginalize (or really, exclude) what is the foundation of our civilization and teach our daughters to pursue other worldly things is pure insanity. Of course girls can achieve incredible things. But to teach them to prioritize their “limitless possibilities” (Mattel’s other marketing slogan) to the exclusion of being a mom is again, insane.
Mamas are amazing
Yes, women can do amazing things. But mamas can too. One of the most incredible gifts of our lives is bearing and rearing children. There’s plenty of time to work and achieve goals. However, women can’t put off having children endlessly. Just ask the hundreds of thousands of women with fertility issues because they started too late.
There is a time and place for everything. Women are not men, and clearly no – it really isn’t “fair.” But the LORD never promised life to be fair. He never designed it to be. Women are different than men. There is overlap to be sure, but there are also clear distinctions.
The culture right now wants to remake and re-imagine a whole lot of things. Creativity is a gift from God. However, rebellion from God’s design is sin. Barbie is just one small and subtle way of the encroachment of this destructive ideology. But it’s a little like death by a thousand cuts. Barbie just illustrates one of the many swipes against our children and the Biblical definition of family.
Celebrate marriage! Praise the LORD for families! We must teach our kids the goodness of God and His wonderful design. Here’s one book suggestion for adults and one for kids about marriage. Don’t let the culture have the last word.
