or is Barbie a slightly odd choice for a gender-neutral toy?

[quesadilla]

Family in the park today, mum, dad, two kids, classic upper middle class Guardian readers (nothing against Guardian readers btw, some of my closest friends etc, just trying to set the scene, i.e. they weren't the sort of people you'd expect to allow a Barbie doll within a mile of their house). Boy, I would guess six years old, with a barbie doll strapped to his back like a mini back-pack.
Now I'm all in favour of gender-neutral toys and I realize the kid might have developed a weird fetish for this doll which the parents had to go along with but the way the parents had strapped it onto his back was kind of like a trophy.
There was no way on earth this family would have allowed their daughter to play with a Barbie, let alone carry it around in public like a mini-me.
AIBU to think selecting a doll which pretty much defines the objectification of women/pinkification at its worst and encouraging your son to parade around with it as a symbol of how cool you are about gender roles is missing the point a bit?

[MelanieCheeks]

Who selected the toy?

[OutragedFromLeeds]

Do you know these people?

If not YABU. You've made a lot of assumptions.

DS2 had a bit of a thing for Barbie at one time. We had one, that someone bought for DD's birthday, she never played with it and it got thrown in the toybox with all the other stuff they have and was discovered 2 years later by DS.

[TidyDancer]

I'm confused. Do you actually know this family?

[quesadilla]

I know, I know... It just struck me that this particular family would not have been seen dead in public with their daughter clutching a Barbie.

[TidyDancer]

Okay, you are being spectacularly ridiculous if you don't know them, which I gather you don't.

[somedayma]

do you know this family? No? You must know you're being ridiculous and not very clever

[Tincletoes]

YANBU

[littlewhitebag]

I really don't understand why anyone is interested at all in another families choice of toy for their child. Get a life OP.

[McNewPants2013]

It's a toy, dd has barbie dolls and with her imagination those dolls have been a bride a wrestler, teacher, doctors, parents today the doll was a fireman.

[quesadilla]

All right, I get that I'm being super judgey, fair enough. I do have a hunch that there's a certain double-standard at play though. But have been told. :)

[OutragedFromLeeds]

' do have a hunch that there's a certain double-standard at play though'

Do enlighten us?!

[littlewhitebag]

I have no double standards. My DD's had a vat load of Barbies which they played with incessantly when they were younger. Both are independent, strong minded young ladies now. It has done them no harm what so ever.

[FreddieMisaGREATshag]

What double standards?

You don't know the family, how can you possibly know anything about them?

[McNewPants2013]

I have no double standards, most toys in my house are shared between dd and DS. The only toys that are not shared are special toys such as dd bedtime bunny and DS power ranger zord.

[squeakytoy]

where they carrying newspapers with them???

how on earth do you get all your assumptions???

[VinegarDrinker]

Wow, you have an amazing imagination. You could glean that much about them from a couple of minutes in a playpark? You should join MI5.

[Chandon]

Haha, how do you KNOW any of this?

Spectacular jumping to conclusions!

So much smallmindedness and judgeyness in one OP.

[LynetteScavo]

How exactly was the Barbie attached to the boys back?

[LynetteScavo]

And what type of shoes was the mother wearing?

(you can tell a lot about someone from their shoes.)

And did they actually have a copy of the Guardian with them?

[LynetteScavo]

And what were the DC's names?

I'm betting either something really way out, or ultra normal like John.

[Jan49]

Well we're a long term Guardian reading family and my adult ds probably had around 10 Barbies when he was little as well as some of the sets. I didn't think of Barbies as an objectivication of women, I just thought of them as a doll, a toy human. He had a few male figures too. He talked to them and played with them.

[pictish]

What a lot of tosh OP.
Good God.

[K8Middleton]

Oh Lordy we have to threads about things that we imagine happening now?

Real life just not cutting it any more op?!

[FreddieMisaGREATshag]

If I start a thread on here imagining I'm 5ft8 and skinny does that make it real?

[CrapsWithBears]

YABU, how do you know so much about some strangers in a park.

But this, 'developed a weird fetish' is bloody ridiculous.