"Our Barbies, Ourselves,""Barbie, G.I. Joe, and Play in the 60s,", "Not All Men are Sly Foxes"

And don't forget...

Answers that do not incorporate documented quotations from the essays will not earn full points. Cite examples that show you've read the work and understand how the authors arrived at their conclusions.

Your posting should be around 300 words and will be evaluated like an in-class essay often assigned in traditional classes. Responses should be about 150 words each, and must add examples and ideas to the dicusssion. You will not earn points for casual chat

Reminder it is possible to earn a "C" (up to 14 points) with a solid posting and just one response to other items on the board, bur if you wish to earn a higher score, be sure you have more responses on the board. To earn a full 20/20, you need three substantive responses along with a well-developed and supported posting.

An argument is only as good as the evidence on which it is based.

NOTE: this discussion will require a little bit of research, and I would like you all to share that research (the easiest way is by adding a link in your posting).

If you see the same link going up in several postings, find other sources; do not just copy what others have found.
There are many sources on the history of Barbie online and in print.

For the Brott essay, if, for example, you are discussing a commercial you saw on YouTube, provide the link or embed the clip here. If you are referring to specific books, shows, (?), then I would like you to include a Works Cited entry (good practice for for Papers 2 and 3 :)

Discuss one of the following:

  1. The two articles "Our Barbies, Ourselves," and "Barbie, G.I. Joe and Play in the 1960s" are seemingly fact-filled pieces about popular toys; however, they disagree on one significant point. In "Our Barbies, Ourselves" Prager states that the Barbie doll was invented by a man, Jack Ryan. In "Barbie, G.I. Joe and Play in the 1960's" Gary Cross states that Barbie was the creation of a woman, Ruth Handler. What's the diffrence? How does this point affect the credibility of what each author is trying to argue?

    What does this contradiction say about what people often consider to be facts? Is there stereotyping in these articles? If so, where?

    Feel free to add other examples of things you were taught were factual but which you later learned were untrue (I'm not talking about belief in Santa or the Easter Bunny--both are, of course, real; instead, I am talking about things we've read or seen on the news or been taught in classes or read in textbooks).

    Beware! Don't you fall into the trap of stereotyping with this discussion. Use actual examples. If you played with Barbie or GI Joe when you were younger, did it have a significant impact on your own life? Did Barbie make you think of sex and give you low self-esteem, or was she just fun to dress up?

  2. In Armin A. Brott's "Not All Men are Sly Foxes," the author worries that certain gender sterotypes unfairly target fathers as uncaring, incompetent nurturers who are largely absent from the lives of their children. He is particularly upset because he does have a large hand raising his own daughter. In his essay he focuses particularly on the literature that children (from very young to adolescence) are likely to read. How valid is his concern? To answer this question, you will want to cite specific examples (quote and document) from his essay and cite specific examples from a number of books, television shows, movies, advertisements, even music that support the position you take.

    Do your best not to cherry pick (ignore things that don't fit your personal view and seek out only those things that do fit your personal view), and be sure to qualify your conclusions:

    "These ads are only a few of thousands that air each year, but they do offer a some hope that maybe the trend Brott fears is slowly changing."

    "Although it would be unfair to say that this television show is part of a larger trend, in this episode, the stereotypes Brott wrote about still do exist."

    something like that.

Remember!
Discussion responses must be posted to the Message Board NO LATER than midnight on the due date. (Late answers will receive 0 points. so get them in early). Also, after you post your discussion, be sure to read what other students have posted and respond to them.