{"id":118,"date":"2008-04-13T02:22:41","date_gmt":"2008-04-13T02:22:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/onecity\/2008\/04\/bimbos-and-bratz.html"},"modified":"2008-04-13T02:22:41","modified_gmt":"2008-04-13T02:22:41","slug":"bimbos-and-bratz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2008\/04\/bimbos-and-bratz.html","title":{"rendered":"Bimbos and Bratz"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Now that I\u2019m working with elementary school girls, I\u2019m immersed in current girl culture, where tamogochis have been replaced by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.missbimbo.com\">Miss Bimbo<\/a> and Barbie looks wholesome next to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bratz.com\">Bratz<\/a>.<br \/>\nFor those out of middle school, Miss Bimbo is an online game where players create an avatar and compete to be the \u201creigning bimbo.\u201d According to the site, some of the goals of the game are:<\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\">\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\u201d&gt;Shop for &lt;b&gt;the latest fashions&lt;\/b&gt; and become the most &lt;b&gt;trendsetting &lt;\/b&gt;bimbo in town! &lt;\/span&gt;&lt;\/span&gt;&lt;\/li&gt; &lt;li class=\"> Become a <strong>socialite <\/strong>and <strong>skyrocket <\/strong>to the top of fame and popularity!<\/li>\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\"> Date that <strong>famous hottie<\/strong> you\u2019ve had your eye on and show the Bimbo world the <strong>social starlet<\/strong> you are!<\/li>\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\"> Even resort to <strong>meds<\/strong> or <strong>plastic surgery<\/strong>. Stop at nothing to become the reigning bimbo!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Bimbos lose happiness points for eating too much chocolate, and try to get a high-paying job so they can afford boob jobs. It\u2019s like creating paper dolls out of US Weekly or a videogame out of TMZ.<span> <\/span>And the game is marketed to girls as young as 1<sup>st<\/sup> grade.<br \/>\nThe game was created by two guys in England, who have responded to the predictable criticism by saying the game \u201cmirrors real life in a tongue-in-cheek way.\u201d The site has responded to the backlash by posting a warning on the front page, and proudly proclaiming the ability to purchase diet pills with the game has been dismantled.<br \/>\nIn the girls\u2019 school where I\u2019m working,  some coloring sheets of Bratz dolls flashing flirtatious in black and white were confiscated from the lunch room this week. Bratz are scantily clad dolls, with strange alien-anorexic bodies and &#8220;a passion for fashion.&#8221; These dolls were designed for girls aged 4-8, and have been criticized for promoting a \u201csexualized image of girls.\u201d  They now sell more than Barbie.<br \/>\nIt seems everyone has forgotten age 8 = kid and kid = child, not a market. Seeing more landmines in the path of girlhood saddens and angers me\u2026.things are tough enough in the way of self-development, compassion for self and other, and learning to value brains over passive beauty without adding fuel to the raging media fire. I witness so much inspiring energy, curiosity, and will for positive change in the girls I meet\u2026so many young activists and artists who are passionate about the world around them. I hope their energy doesn\u2019t get misdirected<br \/>\n*p.s.  I&#8217;m sure things aren&#8217;t great in boy-media, either, but I don&#8217;t get to hang around it everyday\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Now that I\u2019m working with elementary school girls, I\u2019m immersed in current girl culture, where tamogochis have been replaced by Miss Bimbo and Barbie looks wholesome next to Bratz. For those out of middle school, Miss Bimbo is an online game where players create an avatar and compete to be the \u201creigning bimbo.\u201d According to&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":336,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-and-media"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Bimbos and Bratz - One City<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2008\/04\/bimbos-and-bratz.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bimbos and Bratz - One City\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Now that I\u2019m working with elementary school girls, I\u2019m immersed in current girl culture, where tamogochis have been replaced by Miss Bimbo and Barbie looks wholesome next to Bratz. For those out of middle school, Miss Bimbo is an online game where players create an avatar and compete to be the \u201creigning bimbo.\u201d According to&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2008\/04\/bimbos-and-bratz.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"One City\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-04-13T02:22:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"streetlegalplay\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Bimbos and Bratz - One City","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2008\/04\/bimbos-and-bratz.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Bimbos and Bratz - One City","og_description":"Now that I\u2019m working with elementary school girls, I\u2019m immersed in current girl culture, where tamogochis have been replaced by Miss Bimbo and Barbie looks wholesome next to Bratz. For those out of middle school, Miss Bimbo is an online game where players create an avatar and compete to be the \u201creigning bimbo.\u201d According to&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2008\/04\/bimbos-and-bratz.html","og_site_name":"One City","article_published_time":"2008-04-13T02:22:41+00:00","author":"streetlegalplay","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2008\/04\/bimbos-and-bratz.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2008\/04\/bimbos-and-bratz.html","name":"Bimbos and Bratz - One City","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-04-13T02:22:41+00:00","dateModified":"2008-04-13T02:22:41+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/#\/schema\/person\/7fc6b1ccb57fb49633d9177384f2559a"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2008\/04\/bimbos-and-bratz.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2008\/04\/bimbos-and-bratz.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2008\/04\/bimbos-and-bratz.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Bimbos and Bratz"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/","name":"One City","description":"The Interdependence Project","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/#\/schema\/person\/7fc6b1ccb57fb49633d9177384f2559a","name":"streetlegalplay","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"streetlegalplay"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/author\/streetlegalplay"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/336"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}