🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Oct5.192433.10231@thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu> rags@triples.math.mcgill.ca (Robert A. G. Seely) writes:
)
)One thing this thread makes clear is that there are lots of folk out there
)who won't object to Mattel's message - even those who ought to know better
)(IMO)...  I had not originally planned to act on this, but now I reckon that
)we (ie those who share the opinion that women-in-math bashing is not to be
)encouraged) perhaps ought to make sure our view is recognised by Mattel -
)and others - and so will send a polite but firm protest as the original
)poster suggests.  If you agree, maybe the time spent to that end is more
)fruitful than another posting to this thread...

I've added some more lines to the newsgroup......

It seems to me that children (and even adults) are constantly bombarded with
various positive and negative messages like this - and not only on math.
Some are a lot more subtle and much more prevasive.

If you have kids, I think the best thing to do is to talk to them about
math, about what they like and what they want to do, rather than to worry
about what 'Barbie' says.

I do think it would be quite reasonable to listen to what your kid's Barbie
says, and seek a replacement for it if you don't like what it's saying
strongly enough - something strikes me as being a bit 'wrong' about
trying to 'censor' all Barbies everywhere.

I think it would be good for people who don't like what Barbie says about
Math to seek equivalent replacements from Mattel - I was surprised when I saw
quotes from them saying that they'd provide only lower-grade (non-talking)
replacements.   It doesn't seem like a good way to build customer good will
to me.  (My understanding is that not all Barbie's are programmed with the
same phrases - so only 1 in 25 or so of the talking versions are the
'Math Phobic' ones.)

If worst comes to worst - toss the Barbie and tell your kids that you're
doing it because *you* don't like hearing that message.  I know that
personally I regretted not taking some 'hard' courses - in my case, though
they were humanities courses and not 'Math' courses which I always liked -
later on.