Leaving aside the fact that the promotional image actually scares the life out of me, with its bizarre fembot-meets-beefeater dolls, I was once again irritated by a Barbie-themed release. Those smooth pink pebbles they're languidly arranged around are B2 touchscreen MP3 players. And guess what? They're actually designed as a compact with a mirror set into the lid so that your daughters - maybe even your sons - can grow up obsessed with examining their own appearance and feeling suitably inferior to the plastic woman who would collapse under the weight of her own breasts if she ever became real.
Everytime I see something like this I want to watch that episode of The Simpsons where Lisa designs her own Malibu Stacey alternative. Ah, Lisa. My heroine.
Alexandra Roumbas is Deputy Editor of Shiny Shiny, where a version of this post originally appeared.
