Lawmaker Wants To Outlaw Barbies

Just an idiot lawmaker who wants to be noticed by someone. Any law like this would be quickly shot down for constitutional reasons. Freedom of speach, 1st Amendment. He knows this. He just wants to make a fuss so someone will listen to him. He just needs the attention.

This is stupid and indicative of how skewed priorities are in government.

If a Barbie doll is going to trigger a girl into a maelstrom of body issues, chances are, those issues were already simmering under the surface. It's pathetic that modern society blames everything but the source of their failings/problems, whether that source is the individual, their parents' lack of parenting, or a mental issue.

If parents took a bit of control and interest in their children rather than coddling them or neglecting them outright, they would raise their little girls to have a healthy sense of self esteem and see themselves as more than something meant to please and be pretty. Then perhaps girls wouldn't look at Barbie, runway models, or attention seeking starlets as role models they strive to imitate.

I seriously doubt this bill will be passed, but seriously, isn't this a bit more nannying, PC garbage than people really need? A lot of little girls like Barbie, and it should be up to her parents as to whether or not she should play with the stupid things, not the state.

I really don't know. I had Barbies growing up, and I turned out fine. For young kids, dolls are great because they are symbolic play, and symbolic play is a much higher mental concept than just stacking blocks. It's older girls, maybe 7-12, that dolls like Bratz and Barbies can be harmful to. 7-12 year olds are beginning to develop self esteem and self image, and having a perfect looking barbie doll probably won't help.

I agree. Where is he going to find substantial evidence to even go through with it? Barbies are a girls best friend!

Wrestling made me self-conscience about my weight/body type as a child, can we make it illegal too. Oh, and He-man, GI joe, TMNT.

I turned to the Simpsons for a look at real Americans.

Personally, I'm not a fan of Barbies, particularly for girls over 6 as Sadie said. However, I think this sort of thing is ridiculous. It should be a parent's decision to let children play with Barbies, not the government's.

Every girl no matter what she plays with will have some sort of self esteem issue. Its the way of life and puberty. Not having Barbie isnt going to change that. Now those Bratz dolls are the devil. Ban those.

Women and little girls have had issues with their looks and with beauty versus brains issues since LONG before Barbie was invented. Barbie or no Barbie won't make a bit of a difference.

Oh my god, whatever. I grew up with Doctor Barbie.

"Wrestling made me self-conscience about my weight/body type as a child, can we make it illegal too. Oh, and He-man, GI joe, TMNT."

teenage mutant ninja turtles made you self conscience of your body?? dude i'm not trying to offend here but WTF do you look like when turtles make you feel bad about how you look?!

A little of column A...a little of column B. Outlawing them is ridiculous although I don't think I'll b buying them for my daughter(s).

Let's outlaw bad parenting instead!

I wonder how he selected his wife, if indeed he is of that persuasion.

Phew. I thought he wanted to outlaw babies when I read the title.

I'd be more concerned about Bratz, check out this video about them
http://www.theonion.com/content/video/bratz_dolls_may_give_young_girls

Seriously though, little girls are exposed to far worse representations of women in the Bible than anything Barbie could possibly do. I'd hide the bible before i took away Barbie.

This proposed law is no better than many middle-eastern countries' bans on Miss Piggy, chess, kissing in public, etc.

Kev, the Bible? For real? Sigh...

As for this Democrat... Oh man, just another invasion of the nanny state. The government keeps trying to tell us what's good for us... smoking bans in privately owned bars / restaurants, trans fats bans, fast food restaurant location restrictions, and now this.

People said Bush was an enemy of civil liberties - poppycock, I say! The most insidious attack on our civil liberties is going to come disguised as people "looking out for the safety and interest of the public!" And we want to let these people run our health care system?

Like someone said above, there was (maybe there still is?) a doctor Barbie, vet Barbie, police officer Barbie, teacher Barbie, etc etc etc. I think that reinforces that girls can be what they want to be.

Plus, a few years ago they changed the proportions of Barbie's. I don't know how much difference it has made, but they aren't impossible proportions anymore, as far as I know.

But, yes, I agree with a lot of people here. It's based on the parents, not the law.

Perhaps we can outlaw lawmakers from West Virginia--at least those with the mental acuity of a Barbie doll.

I'm just curious as to why Barbie specifically is targeted as being stereotypical or harmful to girls' self-esteem - nobody ever heard of the BRATS dolls?

SeyrWeyr... I think this idiot is just doing this because it's Barbie's fiftieth anniversary. I guess when the Bratz dolls become more iconic like Barbie is, then people will attack them too.

That or they've never heard of Bratz dolls in West Virginia...

you said it SeyrWeyr. The Bratz are a lot worse then the Barbies. Talk about influential whores!

While I don't agree that Barbie is the cause of all this, I do agree that young kids today focus WAY too much on the way they look.

I think it will be more beneficial to outlaw idiot lawmakers.

It's said that instead of giving money to our schools and increasing the pay of teachers we are bailing out greedy companies that can't manage their money. It's also sad that instead of doing something truly helpful for our education system, lawmakers come up with these useless kinds of ideas to help kids.

I agree with Le_Petit_Poi
Barbie is not the cause, Maybe part of it (a teensy little bit) But, kids today focus WAY too much on the way they look.

Sindy Trendy Girl doll is where it is at anyways.

And the man's statement has had exactly the effect he wanted...we're all bitching about him around the water cooler.

It's like an annoying TV ad. You can't figure out why they don't realise that it sucks, but you're still talking about it.

I've never understood those who view Barbie as a child's guide to looks. Sure, the doll has adult features. But, she is supposed to. When children are growing up there are very important phases that need to be gone through to form a mature adult. One of those is "playing adult" We've all seen pictures of little girls dressed in mom's dress and shoes, clomping through the house. This is just another extension of that.

Barbies can also provide useful when girls experience the need to show maternal concerns. (Although, baby dolls would be more fitting.)

If barbies came in "Stripper Barbie" "High School Dropout Barbie" and "Streetwalker Barbie" I would be more concerned.

It's good for us Democrats to remember that the Republicans haven't corralled all the dumbasses. We still have a few of our own.

Joe's right.

And it's not a question of whether the dolls are bad for children. It's a question of liberty. In my opinion, it's better to have made a wrong choice, than never know that there was a choice at all.

Ban Bratz? From the Wiki: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bratz)

"On December 3, 2008, U.S. District Judge Stephen Larson granted a permanent injunction requested by Mattel against MGA.[17] The injunction was to have been enforced on February 11, 2009 at the earliest, the same date that Mattel and MGA would once again be in court to present their cases for appeal,[18] and mandated that MGA must remove, at its own cost, all Bratz product from store shelves, reimburse retailers for the product, turn over the recalled product to Mattel for disposal, and destroy all marketing materials and molds and materials used in the production of the dolls.[19] The judge made exceptions for a very limited number of products, under the condition that they be packaged separately from the allegedly infringing toys.[20] MGA immediately filed an appeal and was granted a stay in the enforcement of the injunction through at least the end of the 2009 holiday season. MGA is currently seeking appeal of the 2008 judgement and a permanent stay of injunction."

Looks like you got your wish (sort of). Hideous things though.

Let's ban Paris Hilton, instead.

This guy can suck it.
I had 15 Barbies, 2 Skippers, and 3 Kens.
I also had the awesome camper, I desperately wanted the pink Barbie Dream house but never got it (that's a childhood issue for another day).
I am finishing a dual degree in Computer Science & Computer Engineering.
I am a girl who played with Barbie and values education and critical thinking.
Barbie didn't damage me, but I did like to try to run over my little brother with the camper, so she may have damaged him.

"teenage mutant ninja turtles made you self conscience of your body?? dude i’m not trying to offend here but WTF do you look like when turtles make you feel bad about how you look?!"

Seriously, Shredder was ripped. I'm sure there might have been some girls who thought all women look like April O'neil.

Barbies's suck, but should not be banned. Its up to the parents whether or not to allow their children to have Barbies.

Like many little girls in the Western world, i had lots of Barbies when i was young. My mother, a single parent, was certainly against stereotypes and is a feminist, but i'm glad she let me play with the dolls. When children are very little, they do not make the connection between dolls and the fact that they're supposed to represent real people. Yes, they understand that they're human figures, but do not make any meaningful associations apart from that. (This is why "show me on the doll where the bad man touched you" is no longer accepted as testimony in court). I enjoyed my Barbies. They are well-made and interesting to play with. By the time girls are old enough to make the kinds of associations adults do, they are probably already bored with their dolls.

It's a doll. Let the children play.

I think he's absolutely right.

Barbie isn't just pretty hair and clothes. Barbie has at least 50 jobs, ranging from teacher, doctor, astronaut, and rock star. She is whatever the girl playing with her wants her to be, and in a way whatever that little girl herself wants to be. How is that sexist? If anything, it's thousands of times more progressive than all the baby dolls she replaced. All you can do with those is play mommy.

This num nuts jackass...makes all West Virginians just shake their heads...There is no "evidence" whatsoever that Barbie is a danger to American femininity. My beautiful wife is a high school principal, my daughter is a medical lab technologist, Barbies are all over the place here at my home...my beautiful grand daughter has the electric powered jeep with working FM radio, we have the horse farm, the movies...cool stuff!

I am a radio disc jockey, (morning mouth)..and have 90 hours in clinical psychology graduate school finished...I want to see this jackass's fricking DATA! No damned research design...verbal masturbater! I hate this crap that demeans our otherwise pretty good legislature...and our beautiful state where we DO often wear Allen Edmonds shoes...and no, I did not marry my cousin although she IS a knockout...LOL

God please spare us from the jackasses! I did read a post in the Charleston Gazette that this Delegate, was the owner of a bar called JJ's in Madison, West Virginis...I'm checking it out, I think it was some sort of bar that did not enhance the value of women as it's stellar mission...I'm checking it out...would not surprise me at all if it's a gentlemen's bar...LOL

I don't know for sure, I'm still checking...if I find out it's true, I'm busting him! Citizen's arrest! LOL