Barbies, Bratz, and Pussycat Dolls...Oh My!

Hasbro Inc. has pulled its idea to manufacture "Pussycat Doll" dolls. Now, as a woman and a mother, I agree that they are completely inappropriate for young girls, even teenage girls (but what teen plays with dolls?), but it is the parents responsibility to purchase appropriate toys for their children, period. Toy manufacturers can produce and market whatever toys they wish too; parents don't have to buy them. Apparently that is just too much for some parents, as I read in an article here:

Many parents still feel burdened by the task of shielding their children from such messages, but Monique Tilford, acting executive director of The Center for a New American Dream in Takoma Park, Md., says she expects more decisions like the Hasbro one. She says companies are lowering the bar so far that an outcry will follow, she says, and that groups like hers are coming together, on both the right and the left, to take collective action.

They feel burdened? Excuse me, but that is part of your job description as a parent. Just as it is your job to keep your children from eating fast food everday, or watching inappropriate programs on television. You hold the purse strings. If you feel that something, whatever it is, is inappropriate for your child, then don't supply them with it. Don't hold other people accountable for what you are responsible for. If your child pouts because (s)he can't have the latest gizmo or happy meal, tough. Let them pout. Yeah, it sucks to deal with it, but tough shit. Exert some parental control and, also, use it as an opportunity to educate your child on why a particular something isn't appropriate for children.