May 27, 2022

"The inclusion of a transgender personality for kids and adult doll collectors alike is groundbreaking. This is bigger than even Laverne Cox herself. This would ripple down many generations to come."

Said Tinu Naija, "a New York-based Barbie enthusiast [who] ordered the Cox doll," quoted in "Laverne Cox is first trans woman to have Barbie doll modeled after her" (WaPo). 

Cox herself said: "I hope all the kids who are feeling stigmatized when their health care is being jeopardized, whose ability to play sports [is curtailed], I hope they can see this Barbie and feel a sense of hope and possibility."

ADDED: I had an additional thing I was going to say. Then I checked out the comments over there and saw the top comment is pretty close to what I'd self-censored : "I thought Ken was the first transgender Barbie doll. Look in his pants."

Ha ha. I got the original Ken doll when it came out, and I was quite interested to see what was in his pants. It was 1961. I was 10. Should Mattel have dangled that in front of me?

77 comments:

Temujin said...

Just great. Just freakin great. Exactly what this society needs. I look around and think- what's missing?

Christopher B said...

I hope all the kids ... whose ability to play sports [is curtailed]...

Like Reka Gyorgy?

Christopher B said...

Should Mattel have dangled that in front of me?

My sister had a Barbie, and I can attest that she ain't exactly anatomically correct, either, in multiple ways.

Enigma said...

India has had a 3rd gender (transgender) known as the hijra for 4,000 years.

They routinely face hostility and discrimination, but per the link below the Indian government "has tried" to stop this. Key word: tried. I thereby expect hostility will "ripple down many generations" in the US too. There will be no happy ending to this story.

https://theculturetrip.com/asia/india/articles/a-brief-history-of-hijra-indias-third-gender/

David Begley said...

When “The Rise and Fall of the United States” is written in 2100, the trans movement will get an entire chapter.

Does Mattel expect to make money on this abortion?

David Begley said...

“Mattel is an IP-driven, high-performing toy company, committed to creating long-term shareholder value.”

Cox gets a cut of every doll sold.

rhhardin said...

It must have been around 1986 when anatomically correct dolls were a thing and anatomically incorrect dolls were suggested to confuse the kids.

David Begley said...

Mattel wants to convert kids. Short Mattel.

“Each of our products and experiences is designed to deliver an intrinsic value that inspires, entertains, and develops children through play. This is made possible by the high level of engagement and emotional connection consumers have with our brands. More than seven decades of this pursuit as a trusted partner to parents and families has informed a perspective on toy innovation that we call Purposeful Play.

Through Purposeful Play, we harness the cultural impact of our brands to promote and influence behavior on key social and environmental issues to create a better world.”

Jersey Fled said...

The atrocities that some justify in the name of "health care"

Kai Akker said...

---Cox herself said: "I hope all the kids who are feeling stigmatized when their health care is being jeopardized, whose ability to play sports [is curtailed], I hope they can see this Barbie and feel a sense of hope and possibility."

Be sure to print that out and include it in the time capsule with the dolly.

Andrew said...

>Sigh<

My contemplation of moving to a different country grows stronger.

wendybar said...

Have you ever seen Ken naked?? He is transgendered already and was when I was a kid in the 60's

Howard said...

Good. Let the market decide.

M said...

The gays said they weren’t coming for your children. They just want them groomed from the cradle into thinking LGBT is superior to their square normie breeder parents. They want them to play with drag Queen dolls and learn how to masturbate from their green haired gay kindergarten teacher who wants to talk to them about his boyfriends. They want to have trans closets in elementary schools where kids can either “pac” or “tuck” depending on who is sexually abusing them this week. Yeah, they aren’t coming for your kids. They are already there, destroying them from the inside.

What's emanating from your penumbra said...

"Mattel wants to convert kids. Short Mattel."

Yup.

Owen said...

David Begley @ 6:57: “… Cox gets a cut of every doll sold.”

Usage!

Owen said...

Does the new doll come with pretend medicines and syringes and scalpels, so the kid can help it achieve transition?

Critter said...

Prediction: This will go away quietly after sales fail to meet expectations for the crucial Christmas season. Mattel can put out a lot of colorful words about what they are attempting to do by introducing this doll, but in the end they are a sakes-driven company.

Eleanor said...

Most specialty Barbie dolls are bought by adult collectors. This is not a celebrity most kids will even recognize. Some little girls will have them gifted to them, but not because the doll was on their wishlist. My granddaughter was given a "curvy" Barbie as a birthday gift from a friend. When I asked my granddaughter why she never plays with that one she said, "Because none of my Barbie clothes fit her. It's like they're telling me fat girls shouldn't be allowed out of the house." Not the "body positive" message Mattel and the mother of the little girl who bought the doll were hoping to send.

Heartless Aztec said...

Adult Barbie? There should be a line of Ken's clothes that Barbie can slip into after a sleep over at Ken's pad. She would look smashing in a long sleeve tailored shirt that hangs just below her ass. The sleeves turned up and a couple of buttons undone to alert Ken that it's time for a morning tryst.

Mark said...

their health care is being jeopardized

Who's doing the jeopardizing? It is Cox and others like him that are telling kids that their bodies are inherently defective and diseased.

Heartless Aztec said...

Addendum: Back in the early 1960's my friends and I would torture my younger sisters by taking their Barbies and staging fights between Ken and our GI Joes for Barbie's affections. Ken always got his ass kicked and GI Joe would put Barbie in his Jeep and run over Ken on the way out. My sisters were always horrified that sweetie pie Ken came to such a brutish end.

Mark said...

All across Hollywood, they have gotten rid of the former term and are using "female actor" instead.

Of course, taking a look a google, Laverne Cox gets to be called an "actress."

Once again we see women being cancelled and replaced by men.

John henry said...

Does the doll have dangly bits?

Does Cox?

John LGKTQ Henry

Robert Cook said...

My guess is it doesn't sell well. The population of actual trans kids (or trans-sympathetic kids) is too small to support the product.

Coop said...

So I google-fued the Laverne Cox Barbie and the fully clothed in the box photo looks like the typical female glam doll in the box. Not sure what is under the hood but it’s a matter of millimeters width between Barbie and Ken.

Barbie could have saved a lot of money and still got the Trans seal of approval if they just redesigned the Ken and Barbie dolls with a new quick release head for either to be interchangeable on any doll body in the collection.

Robert Cook said...

"When “The Rise and Fall of the United States” is written in 2100, the trans movement will get an entire chapter."

Maybe. Who knows if there will be anyone to write a "Rise and Fall of the US" in 2100? And, if so, it might be described as a positive development. It might even be considered too insignificant to warrant a full chapter; maybe subsection of a chapter. It's too soon to know what will last and what will be ephemeral...or how current social issues will be perceived.

In other words, don't get your Depends in a twist; for all things there is a season.

Robert Cook said...

Does Mattel expect to make money on this abortion?"

Given that this social action figure has been born into the world, how can you call it an abortion?

chuck said...

what's missing?

Circumsized?

Cox gets a cut of every doll sold.

Like I said.


Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

while we swirl down the Democrat-Soros-Soviet Toilet - what Temujin said. This is just what we need.

Robert Cook said...

"Mattel wants to convert kids."

That is, they're hoping to help children develop acceptance of those who are different.

(Well, that's what they're essentially saying, and some in management may actually believe that, but they're primarily hoping it will make money. Trans is hot right now; next year, it might be "Swingin' Seventies" dolls.)

Kevin said...

Does Mattel expect to make money on this abortion?

Not only that but Barbie's Planned Parenthood office will be this year's Christmas sensation!

Feminist Ken will be brought along to pay, but everyone else will know GI Joe is the father.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Insert “Ken’s never had a penis and Barbie never had a vagina” joke here.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Eleanor highlights one of Mattel’s shortcomings, their lack of planning. Make a thick doll, but all the aftermarket and Mattel clothes are made to fit regular Barbie. I worked for them in a low level marketing position while I was in college and learned a lot, a big chunk of which was learning what not to do. Pretty different times. Our star action figures then were He-man and She-ra!

Beasts of England said...

’Ken always got his ass kicked and GI Joe would put Barbie in his Jeep and run over Ken on the way out.’

I didn't have a sister, so we had to make due with running over the black GI Joe…

Gahrie said...

I'm waiting for bulimic and anorexic Barbies myself.

Lurker21 said...

Yes, it's probably a collectable that adults will buy and keep in the box hoping it will be worth something someday. And yes, there aren't that many trans kids or kids interested in trans issues. But if you are a boy who thinks he's a girl or a girl who thinks she's a boy, you aren't modelling yourself on trans women or trans men but on real members of the other sex. Mattel gets to call this a historic first, but it's a poor substitute for what trans kids really want, and play is about using your imagination, isn't it?

Eddie Murphy made similar comments about the Ken doll on SNL back in the Eighties. This was long before either gay acceptance or trans mania, and his joke would be considered homophobic nowadays and get him banned.

Douglas B. Levene said...

I thought when I joked that the Democratic Party motto ought to be “Pervs-R-Us” that it was a joke. Little did I know.

Maynard said...

My guess is it doesn't sell well. The population of actual trans kids (or trans-sympathetic kids) is too small to support the product.

I think you underestimate the number of trans-sympathetic kids. My wife is a HS Art teacher in a middle-to-upper middle class suburb. She is amazed at the number of kids (girls mostly) who identify as Trans or Non-binary. It seems to be a way for teenagers to deal with their normal sexual confusion.

Kevin said...

I think you underestimate the number of trans-sympathetic kids.

I think you underestimate the number of "needing to stay on top of the virtue signaling pyramid" parents.

Bragging rights don't usually come shrink-wrapped and delivered by Amazon.

Joe Smith said...

'Dangled.'

Ha! I get it!

Pushing this trans agenda on kids is really fucking evil.

Joe Smith said...

Cox?

Really?

Robert Cook said...

"I thought when I joked that the Democratic Party motto ought to be “Pervs-R-Us” that it was a joke. Little did I know."

Mattel is not the Democratic Party.

Robert Cook said...

"I think you underestimate the number of trans-sympathetic kids. My wife is a HS Art teacher in a middle-to-upper middle class suburb. She is amazed at the number of kids (girls mostly) who identify as Trans or Non-binary. It seems to be a way for teenagers to deal with their normal sexual confusion."

Yes, but (I assume) the target audience for Mattel's Barbie dolls is predominately a younger age group, years away from high school or even middle school. Am I wrong?

gahrie said...

She is amazed at the number of kids (girls mostly) who identify as Trans or Non-binary.

Five years ago, all of those girls were lesbians. Ten years ago they were goth. Fifteen years ago they were emo. Twenty years ago they were bulimic. In 1692, they were witches.

There is nothing to be amazed about.

gahrie said...

I didn't have a sister, so we had to make due with running over the black GI Joe…

If you really are from England, you didn't grow up with Black G.I. Joes. In fact you didn't have any G.I. Joes...you had Action Man instead.

Robert Marshall said...

"She is amazed at the number of kids (girls mostly) who identify as Trans or Non-binary. It seems to be a way for teenagers to deal with their normal sexual confusion."

If this is true (and there seems to be a lot of evidence that it is), then what the dominant culture (including the Biden administration) is doing is mutilating and poisoning kids for having 'normal sexual confusion.'

'Feeling sexually confused, young lady? That's because you were born in the wrong body; you were actually meant to be a boy. The only way for you to avoid early death by suicide is by going on hormones that will prevent you from maturing in the normal way, including sexual maturity, probably make you infertile, maybe rob you of normal brain development and bone density; then having a double mastectomy, and topping that off with a phalloplasty (aka, appendadicktomy). Oh, and don't tell your parents about our plans!'

They call it 'health-care.' It is simply child abuse.

Beasts of England said...

’If you really are from England…’

It’s a nod to Animal Farm, my favorite faerie tale. I’m in America, and kidding about the GI Joe.

Bob Boyd said...

Groundbreaking?
You're trying to tell me Mr. Potato Head wasn't trans? Horse feathers.

If your Mr. Potato head wasn't trans that was a failure of imagination on your part and you robbed yourself of the full Potato Head experience as a child.
Mine was totally trans.

ccscientist said...

Kids don't have the slightest idea about sex. To young boys, girls have cooties. To girls that age boys are gross. They don't even play together much less have boyfriends/girlfriends. It is important that they have childhood innocence maintained because none of it makes sense until your hormones kick in. If a child (ie before puberty) thinks they are trans or even gay, there are adults involved suggesting it.
We do not let children or even early teens vote, drive, buy cigs or booze, get tattoos, join the army, buy a house, run for office, buy a gun, or much of anything because we all agree they are not able to make adult decisions. But they can decide on hormones and surgery that will make them sterile (among other horrific things)? Belief in aliens makes more sense.

Heartless Aztec said...

Black GI Joe was the coolest but by 1965 I had discovered surfing and real life Barbies hanging at the beach wearing less than their underwear. Goodbye GI Joe and hello real life Barbie beach babes. Wuff!

Bob Boyd said...

My sister had a Barbie who lost both her legs in a cannibal attack.

Michael said...

This doll is for adults who plan to groom their child.

Yancey Ward said...

Cox optional dolls.

Heartless Aztec said...

@Bob Boyd.

We also has a working weighted guillotine that would lop off the heads of our sisters dolls. Got in trouble with mom for that one. And Dad was zero help through his stifled laughter.

Bob Boyd said...

girls have cooties

That may be one of the diagnostic criteria. Say you're doctor with a child in your office presenting as a girl, but she's negative for cooties. Boom!

Lurker21 said...

Tomboys have been around forever. Very few of them tried to live as males once they grew up. Most of them probably weren't lesbians. It was something like a phase girls went through. So yes, the notion that they are really boys and should become boys as soon as possible is quite new, but the underlying constituency has been around for a long time. That moment in old movies where the tomboy realizes that she really is a girl who likes boys and likes girly things has been replaced by a very different message from society.

Once again I marvel at how quickly and easily the idea that you can like sports and trucks and still be a girl was replaced by the idea that having such interests make girls boys, and I marvel too that while boys are going through so much trouble nowadays there are still girls who actually would like to be boys.

PM said...

In some future movie, a bedridden Bill Murray will scream at his great-grandson for opening the box of his prized collector doll - which is all this is.

PM said...

I must add:
"In addition to the new transgender Barbie, Mattel also offers its Inspiring Women Series. The Series “pays tribute to incredible heroines of their time… who took risks, changed rules and paved the way for generations of girls.” It features dolls made in the likeness of civil rights activist Ida B. Wells, former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, and tennis player Billie Jean King."
I don't believe the Eleanor Roosevelt Barbie will be disrobed.

Joe Smith said...

'Mattel is not the Democratic Party.'

In '19-'20, Mattel donated $10k to democrats, and $3k to republicans.

Real American said...

show me where on your body the doll touched you...

gahrie said...

It’s a nod to Animal Farm, my favorite faerie tale.

I quote Animal farm quite often here, and have even given some of the regulars nicknames from the book. I find myself saying "four legs good, two legs better" a lot these days. It's interesting to watch people react. The ones who get it and agree smile secretly.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

“Well, that's what they're essentially saying, and some in management may actually believe that, but they're primarily hoping it will make money. Trans is hot right now; next year, it might be "Swingin' Seventies" dolls.”

For an imbedded, deep-cover, stay-behind, Comintern operative, Cookie sometimes has some good insights into the ways of corporatists. The very faddishness of Trans guarantees that it will be routinely scoffed at by the young in a few years time. I expect “fag” to make a big comeback as the teen epithet of choice.

“I didn't have a sister, so we had to make due with running over the black GI Joe…”

Such a brilliant riff on the times that you could write a Master’s thesis about it.

CWJ said...

Transgender and POC points as well!

KellyM said...

I had lots of Barbie dolls as a kid, including Ken. They all lived in the Dream House, complete with furniture, and the dog. Ken was the butler.

n.n said...

The politically congruent ("=") are normalizing a conflation of sex, gender, and social concepts through surgical, medical, and psychiatric corruption of individuals and the general public for profit, for-profit.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Teachers who Tik-Tok have taken the top ten thousand places in line for trans Barbie.

Michael K said...

This is an adult phenomenon which titillates perverts. The effect on children will take years to learn. It will not be good.

Joe Smith said...

'In addition to the new transgender Barbie, Mattel also offers its Inspiring Women Series.'

Do any of them build houses, pave roads, put shingle on roofs, fix tractors, dig sewer lines?

MikeD said...

David Begley - Cox and cut should never be in the same sentence.

Robert Cook said...

"In '19-'20, Mattel donated $10k to democrats, and $3k to republicans."

For a big company, either sum is paltry. They may have been hedging their bets, assuming the Democrats would take the White House. Most corporate entities donate generously to members of both parties, to ensure whomever is elected will owe them to some degree.

John henry said...

Apparently Cox is not enough of a "woman" to cut his penis off.

He's just a larping crossdresser.

Any man who claims to be a woman but is not committed enough to cut his meat and 2veg off is just a poser.

John LGKTQ Henry

Jupiter said...

"I got the original Ken doll when it came out, and I was quite interested to see what was in his pants."

I wonder. My father grew up on a farm, and I would guess by the time he was seven he was not in any doubt about how hogs and horses came to be. That humans are just another mammal is a modern position, based upon Darwinism, in opposition to an earlier, religiously based view that humans were unique, the Crown of Creation. But a society that lived in close company with farm animals would have to have been well aware of the limitations of that view.

Jupiter said...

"'In addition to the new transgender Barbie, Mattel also offers its Inspiring Women Series.'

Biologist-certified?

JAORE said...

Equity = Barbie and Ken having identical genitalia.

Functionless, aesthetically bland genitalia.

Progress!

Joanne Jacobs said...

In the early '90s, Mattel came out with the very gay "Earring Magic Ken." Apparently all of Mattel's Ken design team was gay men. The doll was very popular with some adults, not so much with kids. https://www.intheknow.com/post/earring-magic-ken-gay/

Bunkypotatohead said...

The people making these decisions at Mattel don't care about profit.
They like to curry favor with their fellow true believers. Like the woke Disney officer who insisted on promoting queer agenda and lost the company $340 million.
They didn't build the company and don't even know why it was successful in the first place.