Barbie promoting gender confusion

Posted by Evan Derkacz at 8:06 AM on January 3, 2006.

Yes, Barbie, that standard-bearer for the destruction of the gender binary is at it again. First she's out there driving her own car and now she's carelessly pulling at the threads of our society's delicate fabric with her vexing questions.

Concerned Women for America has spotted a suspicious wrinkle in a question on the Barbie website [upper left] asking for your child's gender and offering the third option of "I don't know." CWA writes: "The iconic Barbie Doll has become another tool for promoting gender confusion among children." Curiously, the spokesperson for the Concerned Women of America -- on this issue at least -- is one Bob Knight. Talk about gender confusion.

SM Dixon extends a snarky helping hand to the CWA:

"As your organization seems to lack a basic grasp of how companies collect data for marketing purposes, allow me to explain what's going on... Mattel chose 'I Don't Know' rather than 'I Don't Want to Say' because 'I Don't Know' might make the user afraid of looking silly.. so the unspoken message is that you're stupid if choose that option. By doing this, the company is trying to subtly encourage people to set aside their privacy concerns and surrender that bit of information."

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Evan Derkacz is a New York-based writer and contributor to AlterNet.