The One Million Dozen Moms are going to lose their minds over this and we can’t wait. Toy-maker Mattel has teamed with fashion house Moschino to create a stylish new Barbie and in a true act of progress their half-minute ad features two young girls playing with the limited edition of the iconic doll, but it’s their little male friend who steals all the attention by telling viewers that this Barbie is “so fierce.” So is this kid.
Watch it below and order yours here.
H/t: Attitude
Matt Turner
Emily Bartlett this will be your son 🙂
Emily Bartlett
That is my son.
alphacentauri
*yawn* who cares. No wonder “men” in North America are pussified.
ingyaom
What every gay boy needs – a $150 Barbie doll. Stock up, fellas.
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
I’d be deeply disappointed and ashamed of all three of ‘em. Mrs Patsy Ramsey kind of disappointed
Masc Pride
This inadvertently shows how forced and exaggerated effeminacy can be. He could be a boy that is genuinely more interested in dolls and playing with girls, but the super gay hair, using terms like “so fierce” and other mannerisms have clearly been taught. Kids that age don’t know how to express how gay or “genderqueer” they are. It all looks pretty fake and unofficial. I’m guessing this isn’t something that will actually air on TV, which is smart.
Gigi Gee
Hi Moschino Barbie. The year 2000 called and they want their cellphone back.
Gigi Gee
@ingyaom: SOLD OUT!
Rimmington
I hope he’s gonna be home schooled, cuz he’s gonna get the shit kicked outta him before he ever gets off the damn bus.
Gigi Gee
@Masc Pride: You obviously don’t spend much time with kids that age. They listen to and mimic everything around them. My nephew’s favorite expression is, “Are you kidding me right now?” He’s four. He demands that his mother style his hair much like the young boy in the commercial, will only wear clothes that are shades pink or purple and at the moment won’t wear anything on his feet but yellow rubber boots. No one in his life has “taught” him to be like this. He is who he is and we love him unconditionally.
Gigi Gee
@Rimmington: Not necessarily. It depends where the kid goes to school. My nephew is precocious and quite flamboyant but he’s one of the most popular kids in his JK class. A few days after he started wearing rubber boots to school many of the other little boys demanded that their parents bought them rubber boots as well. Quite the little trend setter.
Adam-Michael James
Yay! So now we can teach children of all genders and orientations to be shallow and materialistic.
gollygeegaygoy
Absolutely the best thing I’ve seen this week. The boy is a star.
AtticusBennett
remember, folks – every commenter who complains about “effeminacy” is really saying one thing: they need to not be “like that” in order for their sh***y bigoted Daddy to tolerate them.
every gay man who denigrates and complains about “effeminacy” is just telling the world that they never grew the spine needed to stand up to their homophobic father.
so keep it up, trolling wimps.
Vegas Tearoom
A six year old with a dye job is just freaky. Aside from hyper feminizing this kid, did they really need an actor with a speech impediment too?
rextrek
Im sorry but NO doll is worth 150$
gollygeegaygoy
Vegas Tearoom, don’t breed.
AtticusBennett
@Gigi Gee: “masc pride” is an anonymous wimpy trolling liar. if he’s so “masc” and so “proud” he’d show himself. he’s neither.
robho3
Oh my!
alphacentauri
@AtticusBennett: My parents are not bigots and I happen not to be femme/effeminate but even if I was they would still be fine with me. You really do need to stop trolling with BS you know nothing about. I have to wonder if your dad and mom berated or psychologically abused you you because you’re effeminate or you feared this before you came out since you obsess over it so much when you troll.
AtticusBennett
@alphacentauri: you’re reading comprehension struggles are not my problem.
fun fact – the only gay men who denigrate perceived “effeminacy” are broken cowards still hoping their sh*t parents will tolerate them, conditionally.
and they’ll never be man enough to show themselves and back up their boastful claims. ever.
AtticusBennett
*your
dwes09
@alphacentauri: “No wonder “men” in North America are pussified.”
Other than displaying ignorance of the natural breadth of gender expression, and an intellectually suspect disdain for what is typically considered feminine, what is your point? Never forget that no matter how “straight acting” your constructed persona is, a significant percentage of heterosexual men (who share your intellectual shallowness) will ALWAYS see you as a nancy boy. Please try to do your part to NOT spread that kind of ignorance yopurself!
There are many reasons to criticize a new barbie doll, few reasons to criticize a child for their current preferences, and no reasons at all to display both misogyny and internalized homo-hatred in one silly comment.
dwes09
@alphacentauri: “My parents are not bigots and I happen not to be femme/effeminate but even if I was they would still be fine with me.” Your “pussyfied” comment gives lie to this subsequent statement of yours. Like Donald Trump and Ben Carson you seem to forget that we can see the comments you have previously made. You make it quite clear that you have distaste for those things seen as conventionally feminine.
Get a clue. To a lot of the population at large if you have ever had a man’s penis in your hand or mouth you ARE intrinsically effeminate.
Gay men need to have each other’s backs, not be backbiters. And especially not backbiters based on a lame hierarchy of heterodefined masculinity.
CWM85
Meh… I took to Ken doll. Styled his hair, changed his clothes. Barbie meant nothing to me lol
dwes09
@AtticusBennett:
“remember, folks – every commenter who complains about “effeminacy” is really saying one thing: they need to not be “like that” in order for their sh***y bigoted Daddy to tolerate them.
every gay man who denigrates and complains about “effeminacy” is just telling the world that they never grew the spine needed to stand up to their homophobic father.
so keep it up, trolling wimps.”
No offense, but there are any number of reasons that some gay man are vocally uncomfortable with effeminate men. The don’t always have to do with rather Freudian analyses. For some it simply pisses them off that otherwise attractive men lose all sexual attraction. Others might see it as conformity to an outmoded model of homosexuality (as many young dykes are turned off by the 80’s Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival image of what lesbianism is supposed to look like).
And if one has just a sexual aversion to androgynous or feminine men, there is nothing wrong with that at all. Sexual preference in partner choice is not subject to political analysis, otherwise (for example) all gay men can be defined as misogynists.
dwes09
@Masc Pride: ” He could be a boy that is genuinely more interested in dolls and playing with girls, but the super gay hair, using terms like “so fierce” and other mannerisms have clearly been taught. Kids that age don’t know how to express how gay or “genderqueer” they are. It all looks pretty fake and unofficial.”
My little cousin started dying his hair purple and wearing bizarre hairstyles when he was 5 or 6. and his parents are straight enough that this was not a projection on him from them. He is very heterosexual (now 30) and not at all effeminate (and at the age of the kid in this commercial androgyny is the rule, conventional masculinity would be the forced situation).
@Vegas Tearoom: As a kid who had several speech impediments (a lisp and r-l-w impediment) it is great to see kids like this not ridiculed, nor to see the impediment considered “cute”. Thankfully I had a great speech therapist in 3rd grade, years of instruction in choral singing and had to take public speaking in college. All incredibly valuable. If this kid continues in commercials, he will likely have the same level of speech coaching.
Personally I don’t see the interest in playing with dolls (or “boys action figures”) and never did. My friends and i preferred to play make believe where we were the characters, not dolls.
Verlaine
But your honor! I SWEAR…. The boy WINKED at me! And he said he was 18…
Dennis Hull
You give me LIFE!
Brian
Let’s not encourage Mattel and the deplorable Barbie stereotype that has been promoted for years. Long flowing hair, ultra-thin waist, long thin legs…these are not realistic ideas to be promoting to young girls. Gay men should be criticizing it, not encouraging it.
A lot of the self-image issues that women have can be traced back to the Barbie doll and the appallingly sexist and unrealistic stereotype she promotes.
Gay-identifying men are known to push stereotypes of women – such as the Barbie doll – that are very unhealthy to women. It’s a form of misogyny.
Brian
The Barbie doll is a form of child abuse in my opinion. She’s a money-making scheme that is marketed to young girls, and which promotes unhealthy and inaccurate stereotypes of the female body. No wonder so many young women are screwed up by the time they hit their teens.
Anorexia is one of the problems that occurs to female teenagers as a result of the brainwashing that goes on.
If gay men want to encourage child abuse, it speaks volumes about the mental state of gay men.
Greg Garavani
I fucking love it.
DDstar1me
Awww…this was so cute lol. Although, I have to admit, it does seem a bit forced. lol!
Look, the reality is I did play with my sisters dolls and it allowed me to escape into my own little world of play lol.
Why is it ok for girls to be told that they can be firemen, police officers, Gi-janes etc…but this kid gets so much negative hate. Fair is fair. If your gonna switch up gender roles it should be equal footing. Am I right?
SeeingAll
I know Barbie is an American icon, but the Monster High dolls are much cooler.
SeeingAll
@Brian: Well….there WAS that one lesbian who blamed womens’ weight problems on gay men. “The fashion designers only design for slim girls because they like their little dolls to play with..” (something like that).
GTT
Atticus is correct that homophobia and/or disdain for non-conforming gender characteristics or behaviors is learned – for the most part. But there are exceptions. He does not want to deal with that.
GTT
Human-identifying Brian is now a feminist
alphacentauri
@AtticusBennett: I do not have issues with reading comprehension but you sure do LMAO, you don’t know anything about me or my family, and you’re just some random internet troll that spouts the same old tiresome BS daily at total strangers he knows nothing about. I’m out as bisexual, have been for decades longer than you have been alive, and my parents happen to be fine with me being bisexual. I’m on facebook and completely out there and other sites but why would I show a troll like you my personal info?
@dwes09: Am I somehow supposed to care what society thinks about me or my sexuality? I stopped that decades ago. I never said it’s bad for this kid to play with dolls if he wants to but you do have some parents that want their young kid to be gay/trans, etc. and intentionally dress them certain ways, teach them to act in what they think is a stereotypical gay/trans manner, etc. More often than not these kids do not wind up being LGBT at all, and unfortunately have nutty people who should not be parents as parents.
SeeingAll
Anyway….he could just as well turn out to be one of those straight kinky guys who likes to tie Barbie up.
Robert Barber
He is on the way and has the hair to do it!
Masc Pride
@Gigi Gee: I have one of my own as well as four nephews and two nieces all under the age of 10, so there goes your theory. As far as the kid in this particular video, “so fabulous” and some of his other mannerisms are learned/encouraged behaviors. Even naturally effeminate boys aren’t quite this flamboyant on their own. They have to learn lingo and “fabulousthnessth”. He is meant to be an exaggeration of effeminacy.
alphacentauri
@SeeingAll: Very true.
Masc Pride
@dwes09: I don’t think your cousin coloring his hair is all that odd. Sometimes they just go through insignificant phases. My nephew went through a pink phase my brother-in-law wasn’t too wild about. However, his sister’s room and lots of her furnishings were pink, and he was always in her room because that’s where the Wii was. Mystery solved! The kid in this video just seems more coached, not natural. Someone taught him to be a miniature Carson Kressley. I would even say adult men who are that over-the-top are forcing it somewhat.
AtticusBennett
@dwes09: orientations and concepts of attraction and beauty and worth are not the same. you’re not a sexist misogynist for being gay, but your preferences within your orientation may well indicate that you are indeed also a sexist miogynist.
we live in a world that worships Straight White Men above all else – hence “no fems asians or blacks” – preferences and orientations are not the same. preferences exist within the orientation, and preferences are shaped and affected by society, and culture; the good news is that they can be altered and broadened…at least for those who have the ability to self-interrogate.
I’ve never met a gay man who denigrates “gay stereotypes,” or perceived “effeminacy,” or who tosses around terms like “nelly queen” or “flamer,” that came from a family that was not anti-gay, or who didn’t hold as an item of faith that there are rigid rules about gender-appropriate behavior and presentation, especially for boys. It’s a pernicious and brutal inheritance, a burden that some men — men who will always be broken boys on some level — never succeed in throwing off.
This is also why the “commenters” who are most vocal about their “i’m not a fem! i’m a masc manly man!” can never, ever show themselves; their boastful claims are lies, born of insecurity and shame.
were they what they say they are they’d be as visible as the kid in the video.
Hussain-TheCanadian
I really don’t get this cultural obsession with Barbie, and im shocked that parents are still buying their kids Barbies.
SeeingAll
@Hussain-TheCanadian: The initial fascination was that it was the first teenager doll created for little girls. It was actually a simple, yet brilliant, idea when you think of it : so many little girls fantasized about dressing up and going out like they’d see the older girls do, so…you create a doll for them to live out that stuff. (I think the lady who “invented” the idea was Ruth Handler, and Mattel was the toy company that ran with it). Anyway, from then on it did become a sort of iconic “person” in the U.S. Calling someone a “Barbie doll” can be a compliment or an insult. Even Andy Warhol did his portrait of Barbie as though she was real.
Tracy Pope
The ad is stupid but probably perfect for the age group it’s intended. The back-and-forth here in the comments about effeminate vs masculine is more stupid then the advertisement though. Kids gravitate to what they find interesting when not being prompted. They also lose interest in things and find interest in other things a LOT at that age.
GTT
Atticus,
You might be correct most of the time but sometimes people might find certain behaviors silly, trivial or overly dramatic and therefore more long the lines of being immature.
You might be reading too much into things.
Also – why do you have to lecture people about themselves?
GTT
Atticus,
PS – you also make it sounds as if you have authored or read hundreds of large studies on internalized homophobia and have them all open there at your keyboard. Or are you talking about you and your friends experiences 10 or 15 years?
Alistair Wiseman
@AtticusBennett:
Mr. Rainbows (or is it Miss Cleo), you forgot to say that they come from shitty families. You forgot that part. Your psychic abilities are simply AMAZING.
stranded
@Masc Pride: They obviously told the kids to amp up the enthusiasm, which is one thing, but the use of the word “fierce” is a bit worrisome. It did seem like they formed this “queeny” character for this boy. I don’t know whether you’re anti fem or not, but i do agree that the feminine gay stereotype has dominated our representation. I think there’s a way to say, we don’t want to be seen as only feminine men, while not bashing fem guys. Feminine men who don’t give a shit about gender norms are quite brave. Brendan Jordan is amazing, but time and time again i see a caricature of someone like him, with all the mannerisms but none of the soul. I get a sliver of that feeling with this commercial. I know some people will think, it’s a fucking Barbie commercial, don’t read that much into it. But it’s the subliminal messages that you really have look out for. I was neither a super masc or super fem kid. I was a little of both and i think that’s a more refreshing look on gender than the extremes we’re use to seeing. I loved Superhero Cartoon and WWF, but i also loved my Nightmare Before Christmas Sally Doll. I always had her dance with Jack and i’d safety pin fabric to create new dresses for her.
alphacentauri
@GTT: Meh, Atticus is a troll.
offbeatoh86
No parent is gonna buy their kid a $150 doll. Mattel & Moschino are pandering to Gay doll collectors.
Davonico
@AtticusBennett: You have a very two-dimensional way of looking at things, the opposite extreme of a anti-gay rightwing Christian. That’s somewhat good (definitely better), BUT… you’re just as closed-minded and rigid as them in your perspective, projecting your own motives onto anyone who doesn’t think exactly like you. In your mind, people are either like you or their “the enemy.” It’s really odd. Is it true that you really are just trolling for blog hits and youtube clicks or is it a sincere persona?
Davonico
@offbeatoh86: You underestimate the amount of rich parents out there! But yes, there are tons of doll collectors who will be buying.
alphacentauri
@Davonico: Of course he’s just trolling for blog hits and youtube clicks/likes.
Masc Pride
@stranded: Yeah, it’s like there’s an almost intentional element of shock value here. The kid is very exaggerated and forced, which kind of defeats the whole purpose of encouraging kids to be themselves. I bet this won’t air on TV. This is the bone Mattel is privately throwing to the gay community. Bet they paid gay blogs to run this story too.
BTW, the whole anti-fem accusation thing is just what the trolls use because they can’t effectively argue anything else. They try to derail and put people on the defense instead of discussing the actual topic. They also just interpret masc as automatically anti-fem. Atticus has yet to disagree with anyone without being dishonest, pompous, vulgar and accusatory. I stopped responding.
throwslikeagirl
As a 66 year-old man, I can recall when Barbie first appeared and my overwhelming desire to have one. I had to content myself with fantasies drawn from the Sears Christmas catalog ( the “Wish Book”,,, indeed ). A few years later, I found a beat up Barbie in a trash can. I took her and LOVED her and cared for her and made her clothes and hid her under a pile of wood in a remote corner of our yard,in an area that couldn’t be seen from any windows.
I cried when I saw this ad, What a wonderful time we live in. I love this ad. In my neighborhood, there are many straight moms and dads who are completely comfortable raising their kids to be their authentic selves. We’ve come so far. Is Barbie PC? No. I don’t care. Parents can talk to their kids about gender, beauty stereotypes, and identity. But now a little boy can watch an ad for any toy and ask for it without prejudice, at least if he lives in an enlightened household. He sees two mom and two dad families shopping for their kids’ Christmas presents on tv ads, and now he sees a little boy can be publicly excited and joyous about his new treasure– a Barbie doll.
Paco
@Masc Pride: The boy’s performance was so over the top, I thought it was a comedy video someone threw together for some laughs.
Masc Pride
@Paco: The whole thing seemed like an SNL sketch. lol
Davonico
@Masc Pride: The girls acted ridiculous as well. It’s just an obnoxious commercial. Very over the top.
Baba Booey Fafa Fooey
Cute. The wink at the end…best commercial of the year.
stranded
@Paco: So did i. I thought it was from laugh or die, or some other comedy site.
Vegas Tearoom
@gollygeegaygoy: Not a problem.
No
The commercial was disturbing. Talk about portraying negative stereotypes. Mattel ought to be ashamed. This wasn’t a boy with a Barbie, but a screaming little Mattel manufactured stereotype. I loved Barbie . . . but this ad reeks of homophobia. “Fierce” Really?
alphacentauri
@throwslikeagirl: That’s good that you like Barbie and you found one as a child. 🙂 Are you going to buy this Barbie?