The thing I find most disheartening is that I know this product reflects our current child-rearing culture.

Even before the (possibly manufactured) Beastie- brouhaha, I did not see the product as being the “antidote” to the princess-ification of America’s girls. It seems like it is still very “princess” oriented when you look at the big-eyed, beauty–pageant- haired cartoon girl on the box. The tag line is “more than…

The gender division in toys these days is almost hard to believe. There are separate "girl" sections in lots of toy catalogues - edged in pink just to make sure you are clear that these are for girls.

I agree with your points about Goldie blocks. I don't have a problem with them, it just makes me sad that this is where we are culturally - that the best way to get parents to buy engineering/ building type toys is to make them "girl" toys.

I love this version of the song, and I think that a strait -up parody would have been OK (fair use and all). BUT here the song is being in a commercial for a company to make money by selling "girls toys" (that girls should be able to get ANYWAY - no reason engineering /building toys have to be marked for girls).

Yes. That District Attorney was punished and disbarred. He seriously undermined people's faith in the justice system.

I followed the case closely. There was not any sexual contact between her and the three guys charged at all. One of the guys was not even there (which was corroborated by security cameras at a bank at the time the alleged assault occurred). She appeared to be mentally ill and delusional - that is why charges were…

The purpose of this letter was for the teacher to express her frustration. I do not - for one minute - think the intent behind this letter was to help the children or her family. If her intent was to be helpful, she would have handled the issue differently.

Meh, I have two boys and they are dirty again almost as soon as I get them out of the bath. Dirty does not equal neglected.

I hope none of them are anti-gravity - it is so annoying when people start floating up into the air at the holiday table.

I am pretty sure I saw the EXACT SAME slide show in my public school health class in North Carolina.

A big THANK YOU to this thread for introducing me to "Velvet Goldmine"! Watched in on Netflix last night - it was amazing to see my love of glitter, crazy outfits, handsome men, and Lou Reed & Brian Ferry all smushed into one film. SO SO worth my time!

This just hearts my heart and makes me sad. No matter what we achieve, and how smart we are, we are reduced to our appearance.

OH! I have never even heard of that movie - but I must go watch it RIGHT NOW! Thanks for the title - it looks awesome!

You know, if you have to be perfect (or even pretty good) to be a feminist, there are not going to be many feminists.

Oh. I just looked at that link and I think that I need to clean my eyeballs out.

It is like when Jonathon Swift suggested that the Irish should eat their children: He did not ACTUALLY think they should eat their children. It was intentionally outrageous to make a point.

Wow. I must not watch a lot of videos, because to me the dancers were SO over the top it was really outrageous and obvious satire - like, let's-eat-babies satire. The fact that so many people don't see it as satire makes me really wonder about what non-satircal videos are like.

As I have recently decided to OWN the word “bitch”, this is now my new theme song. And I plan to sing it in a non-satirical way.

I believe it is intended to be satire.