At Least One Bratz Babyz Has Abandoned Her Thong

At Least One Bratz Babyz Has Abandoned Her Thong

Susan Campbell
Hartford Courant
January 4, 2006

Just after the wrapping paper hit the floor on Christmas, Kendra Toodle-Register was suffering buyer's remorse. She and her husband bought their 4-year-old daughter, Dejah, a Bratz Big Babyz doll named Sasha. They'd done so advisedly. They know the Bratz line of dolls are dressed provocatively, but the Babyz togs are at least a little toned down. In the box, Sasha, with her perky pigtails and almond eyes, looked adorable.

That's the packaging. Out of the box, Dejah turned the doll over and discovered that beneath the khaki green skirt (and baby bottle attached to a bling chain), Sasha was wearing a thong. That's right. A black mesh one.

Dejah turned to her father and said, "Daddy, there's something wrong with my doll."

After furious whispers with her husband, Toodle-Register took the doll from her confused daughter. Later, the girl explained to the people at the day-care center, "Santa made a mistake. He put a strap on my doll." She also told them that Mommy was giving the doll back to Santa to fix it.

The mother took the doll to her workplace at a Manchester skilled nursing facility, where she asked, Am I dreaming? Is this doll wearing a thong? Yes, her colleagues said. Then they shared their stories of other be-thonged Bratz dolls and pre-teen nieces who will wear only lingerie purchased at Victoria's Secret.

"It's one thing for a doll to have trendy clothes," Toodle-Register says. "Little kids wear trendy clothes. But it was a bit much that a doll is wearing a thong. We were so embarrassed."

In the world of dolls, Jean Kilbourne, filmmaker, cultural critic and author of "Can't Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel," says the Bratz dolls are "beyond Barbie," and that is beyond shameful.

As Kilbourne says, "imprinting an adult version of sexuality on children sets them up for all kinds of problems directly related to the sexual activities that seem to be so common to teenagers. Girls are treated as sex objects, and boys don't even have to pretend there's a relationship." (There are also Bratz Boyz; note the z instead of an s. That gives it street cred, only it's encased in vinyl and packaged pretty for the marketplace.)

Kilbourne says parents are either unaware of the implications, or they think it's cute. Kilbourne's next book, "So Sexy, So Soon," explores how marketers use sex to pitch products to the pigtail set.

Dejah wanted the doll because MGA Entertainment, which makes the dolls, is among the companies that spent $15 billion last year marketing to children. And money talks. A year after the Bratz dolls were introduced in 2001, MGA was threatening Queen Mother Barbie for rule of Doll Land. They're available in 70 countries, according to MGA.

Recently, a company spokesman told ABC that the undergarment (or lack of it) is simply a strap for the doll's skirts. MGA also says people who take offense at their Bratz line have dirty minds.

That's laughable. The Bratz dolls' skin tone reflects America better than most dolls, but the clothes are fit for a slut-in-training. Bratz Babyz, says MGA's website, "know how to flaunt it, and they're keepin' it real in the crib!"

Say you're raising your little girl to be president. What does flaunting it and keeping it real in the crib (while dressed in a thong) have to do with running the country?

Dejah's mother figured she needed to find undergarments, say, training pants. I went in search of something chaste at the toy store. Manchester's Toys `R' Us sells an incredible array of Bratz merchandise, but the clothes are peek-a-boo or worse. Still, I found a Potty Time Tinkles doll whose terrycloth training pants roughly fit Sasha. And that's what Sasha's wearing now, borrowed training pants. Because, seriously: A thong on a toddler? I'm imagining a special place in marketing hell right about now.

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