Lolita Lives

Would you let your 10-year-old daughter go out wearing a short skirt and fishnet stockings?

Probably not. But she may be getting the message that she should from the appropriately named Bratz doll.

These dolls have curvaceous figures, oversized heads and big lips. And they encourage sexuality in pre-teen girls, critics say.

The controversy started almost as soon as the fashion dolls were introduced in 2001. After parents determined that a strip of fabric under the doll’s skirt was a thong, Bratz manufacturer MGA Entertainment added full underwear.

And now Scholastic is feeling the heat. It is being lambasted by the Campaign for Commercial-Free Childhood for selling Bratz books at school events.

“Many schools give Scholastic special access to their students because of your company’s reputation as an educational publisher,” said an e-mail sent by 3,890 people last month to Scholastic CEO Richard Robinson. “You are abusing that trust by promoting a brand that can undermine girls’ healthy development.”

The group demands that Scholastic “stop marketing precocious sexuality to young girls in schools.”

Authorities argue that this is a dangerous game given the age range for the Bratz product: 7 to 12.

The American Psychological Association cites the Bratz dolls as one of many cultural influences that contribute to the sexualization of girls. And this affects cognitive functioning, physical and mental health, sexuality and attitudes and beliefs, the group said in a report.

“Commercially driven sexualized stereotypes have no business in school,” adds Susan Linn, a psychologist at Judge Baker Children’s Center and Harvard Medical School, who co-founded Campaign for Commercial-Free Childhood. “It undermines the schools’ own efforts for girls to believe in themselves and to nurture their academic growth and development.”

Scholastic disagrees. The Bratz volumes feature strong, capable girl characters who display friendship and loyalty and make contributions to their communities, wrote spokesperson Kyle Good in e-mail responses to those who protested.

“They are the kind of books that a reluctant reader is more likely to read,” Good adds in an interview. “If you can get a young girl to begin reading you can then move them on to other literature.”

But Linn condemns the mixture of sexuality and commercialism. And she notes that 30% to 40% of the items for sale at school book fairs are non-book items linked to TV programming.

“Marketers love to market in schools,” Linn says. “It’s very effective. They have a captive audience. Even if they don’t like it, children know school is good for them and that everything the school endorses is good. And that’s the problem.”

Scholastic hosts about 115,000 school book fairs every year. It offers a single Bratz title at the events for grades three and up, and a couple of others through its school book clubs, Good says.

This year, the Scholastic clubs are offering sizzlers like Puppy Love, Good-Luck Charmes, Super Starz Masquerade and Hollywood Holidayz. And in 2006, the company featured a book titled Lil’ Bratz Dancin’ Divas — for children in pre-kindergarten through grade two.

“We hear both sides,” Good says. “If these few titles don’t appeal to a certain group of people that’s fine. They should choose something else.”

But there’s no question that this is a big business. The Bratz franchise includes a TV series, electronic games and a magazine; a movie is expected to hit theaters this summer.

In addition, the NPD Group reported in February that Bratz was the No. 1 fashion-themed doll during the fourth quarter of 2006, even outpacing Barbie.

As for Scholastic, its book club sales totaled $373.9 million last year, and book fairs contributed another $384.8 million. The firm’s children’s book division, which oversees these activities, had revenue of $1.3 billion.

Given these stakes, not much is likely to change.

“Unless people can muster up enough inertia behind the campaign that there are truly effects to the bottom line, this is the kind of attention these kinds of image products glory in,” says Robert Passikoff, founder and president of Brand Keys Inc. “Controversy is news.”

Many parents have a double standard, he continues.

“The parents who are writing that they hate Bratz and are not going to buy these products weren’t buying them to begin with,” Passikoff says. “How much do you want to bet that every one of those parents buys the seventh Harry Potter book (despite claims by some parents that the Potter titles promote witchcraft)? This has a rotten air of censorship.”

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