Monday Mashup: Barbie’s Got A Brand‑New Body
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Every week, we scour the web to bring you interesting bits and pieces from around the world. Enjoy!
Barbie’s Got A Brand-New Body
Faced with falling revenues from Barbie sales, toy company Mattel exhaustively debated nomenclature and took an extreme (and overdue?) step to offer a wider variety of Barbies bodies: petite, curvy, and tall. While on one hand, we think it’s great to see more body diversity among the dolls, on the other hand, we ask: Why bother with body labels at all? Read more about the evolution of the world’s most famous toy here.
A Tale of Two Feminisms
Anne-Marie Slaughter writes of the clash (and complement) of two feminisms at the World Economic Forum — the one of theory and the one of practice. They both lead to the same thing: Women only making up 20% of representation at the forum. We particularly like that she acknowledges up front this is a developed world conversation and among much of the world, feminism must start at an even more basic level.
Another Reason To Give Them Books
A recent study found that babies who play with electronic games and gadgets — even those billed as good for language development — engage less in the kind of back-and-forth with parents that actually builds language skills. More on this fascinating study here. (If it makes you want to look for ways to help build your kid’s language skills, check out our article on the same!)