Apparently barbie is 50 today. She certainly looks good for her age. Happy birthday Barbie from everyone. Oh… except West Virginia it seems. Apparently one of our bright-eyed wonderboys – Jeff Eldridge, a Democratic state legislator – has just proposed House Bill 2918 which is meant to bring West Virginia in line with Iran. In other words… ban Barbie – Iran being the planet’s only other political body that I know of that has taken such a step.
Apparently Eldridge thinks that Barbie and other similar dolls “promote or influence girls to place an undue importance on physical beauty to the detriment of their intellectual and emotional development.”
Wow. How well thought out. And how great it is to see public legislators doing their best to protect little girls from becoming emotional wrecks. Wait a minute though… what about TV? What about movies? Oh dear. Undue importance on physical beauty. Better ban TV and Hollywood too Jeff. After all, you only ever see “beautiful people” on there.
Next time you have a thought Jeff – do us all a favor and let it go.
That’s just another great example of blind stupid.
Not so much that Jeff Edlridge would propose it but that there could even be garnered enough support from the dumbed down general public to consider a law like banning barbie for the potential effects of her looks on little girls.
Of course your points on the overwhelming emphasis on physical beauty from every other sector of the media are sooooooo valid as to make one question the sanity and reason of some of our public officials.
And speaking of “the detriment of their intellectual and emotional development”, have you ever felt helpless pity for an American high school graduate trying to make change for you at the register?
Barbie was probably Jeff’s girlfriend when he was a lad.
Yes, I do feel helpless. Especially when I’ve made the mistake of giving an extra few cents in change in the first place so that I can get a dollar bill back rather than a fist full of coins.
“That which is not free is not responsible, and that which is not responsible is not moral. In other words, freedom is the condition of morality.”
Thomas Davidson in The Education of the Wage-Earners (New York: Ginn & Company, 1904), page 53.
In other words Jeff, you seem to be wasting yourself, my money, and hindering your fellow man’s access to his personal moral strength with things like your obsession with pretty pretty Barbie.