This is my annoyance of the week, found on Pinterest.  Perhaps I spend too much time there.  But THIS!!!

I mean painting a bathing suit on Barbie with nail polish or sharpies so that she is modest.  Really?!  I am all for modesty.  I am a modest person.  But is our society that prude that we can’t possibly look at a naked plastic doll without being traumatized?  Our kids are to be taught that nudity is inappropriate and weird, even when changing our clothes?!

No.  I reject this completely.

Of course it’s up to each individual how we raise our children.  I respect that.  This is a bigger issue than just naked Barbie – it’s parents not wanting to face topics of nakedness and sex and all those talky subjects.  We, as parents, are uncomfortable.

As a kid, it was never a thing that my dolls were naked.  I don’t remember it standing out in my mind.  I didn’t think about Barbie’s non-nippled tatas or her lack of vagine.  Certainly, I was very naive for a long time, which is what we kind of hope our kids will be, but if we make nakedness a thing, then it will be a thing.  Ya know what I mean?

I realize some kids are much more interested in sexuality than others, and I will see what we have to deal with as Stevie gets older.  And it’s tough.  It’s not something I look forward to talking about!  But as kids who play with Barbie dolls?!  This is a silly place to bring attention to that sexuality – by painting over her non-sexual plastic body bumps.

It reminds me of when the Katy Perry & Elmo video was banned from Sesame Street because parents thought she was showing too much cleavage.  Listen.  If your child is at an age where he really appreciates Katy Perry’s perfect jiggly cleavage, then he’s probably a little too old to be watching Sesame Street.  This reaction is all adults being hyper-sensitive about exposing our kids to too much.  By bringing attention to it, you are, again, making it a thing.  Otherwise, it should not be an issue for a 3 year old.  They’re not going to notice because they don’t understand.

Now don’t misinterpret what I’m saying.  I’m not suggesting you let your 12 year old run around in public naked (or even half-naked for that matter).  There is a time for modesty to be made a big deal.  I just don’t think it should be when they’re little.

We don’t have what I jokingly refer to as a “naked house”, but maybe if our kids are brought up to be OK with nakedness, and ask questions about it, and have an open dialog, then maybe it wouldn’t be so forbidden. Maybe it wouldn’t be so sought out and secretive and naughty when they are a little bit older?  MAYBE. Maybe girls would learn to respect their bodies instead of be disgusted by them.  Maybe they’d know that they can make decisions about how they want their bodies to be treated.  Maybe boys would learn to give girls more respect, if they were taught that all women’s bodies are beautiful in many different ways.  Taught right from the beginning. And maybe we’d give our children the gift of being able to have mature discussions about sex with their partners.  Maybe things would be easier in the long run if we let things happen naturally and discuss those talky subjects, instead of sweeping it all under the rug and pretending we don’t have sexual organs or thoughts. Just saying.

Painting a bathing suit on Barbie.  Good Lord.  You would never see this in Europe.  So stupid.

Rant over.