AMAC Exclusive – By David Lewis Schaefer
The summer blockbuster Barbie, which has now grossed more than $1.4 billion worldwide and will almost certainly be the biggest movie of the year, has sparked renewed public debate about sex and gender roles and stereotypes in modern America. But this isn’t the first time the popular doll franchise has ignited such conversations.
Back in 1992, Mattel released a new Barbie doll called “Teen Talk Barbie.” The toy incorporated a voice box that was programmed to speak one of four randomly selected phrases out of a total of 270 possibilities.
The phrases included such stereotypical teen girl remarks as “Will we ever have enough clothes?” “Let’s plan our dream wedding!” “Wanna have a pizza party?” and “Want to go shopping?” (but also “I’m studying to be a doctor”). While feminists had long criticized the Barbie shape for giving girls an unrealistic body image to measure themselves against, a particular controversy arose over one of Teen Talk’s remarks: “Math class is tough!”
More than one group of educators, including the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and the American Association of University Women (AAUW) criticized the “Math class is tough” remark as harmful to efforts to persuade more girls to study math and science, especially when it was juxtaposed with the other girlie-type utterances.
In 1993, to protest such gender stereotypes, a group of “performance artists” who called themselves the “Barbie Liberation Organization” even exchanged voice boxes between 300 Teen Talk Barbies and Hasbro Talking G.I. Joe action figures, so the unknowing purchasers of those dolls heard them utter some quite unexpected phrases. (But imagine as well how the boys who received the reprogrammed G.I. Joes must have reacted!)
The controversy even entered the mainstream to the point where it was included in a 1994 Simpsons episode, in which Lisa objects to sexist utterances by a “Malibu Stacy” doll such as, “Thinking too much gives you wrinkles.”
In response to the critics, Mattel initially offered to exchange its new dolls for nonspeaking ones on request. The company later apologized to the AAUW and withdrew the math class phrase from subsequent dolls.
Many elements of this year’s Barbie movie seem to be a similar meta-critique of the supposedly shallow and materialistic female stereotype propped up by the dolls. The film, clearly a product of committed Hollywood social-justice warriors, is obsessed with breaking down the notion that men and women are different in any way.
But it’s worth considering how this feminist impulse has played out in our society – in particular when it comes to the target audience of Barbie dolls, young girls. There is perhaps no better case study for this than the education system.
Take for instance, a report earlier this month about the removal of “math and science” from the name the “Math and Science Exploratory School,” otherwise known as MS 447, a formerly prestigious middle school for high achievers in Brooklyn’s ultra-liberal (and prosperous) Boerum Hill neighborhood.
The school, to which admission was once widely coveted, has seen its students’ math scores plummet in recent years following a decision to move from a merit-based admissions system to a lottery-based one in 2018 in the name of increasing “diversity” and “equity.” In 2022, only 69 percent of the school’s seventh-graders scored a passing grade on New York State’s standardized math tests, down from over 95 percent in 2018.
Of particular concern prior to the change was the fact that the school was attracting more boys than girls. According to the New York Post, Principal Arin Rusch contended (without offering any data or evidence) that the school’s math and science branding “caused us to have more boys than girls applying and enrolling, which is sad and wrong, but nonetheless was a pattern that we, year over year, have had trouble breaking.”
So, was the Teen Talk Barbie stereotype accurate after all?
An alternative explanation was offered by a parent quoted by the Post whose daughter attended the school from 2018 to 2020: “They were decreasing their focus on STEM, and they were like, ‘I guess we might as well change our name now.’”
“I don’t think they have been trying to maintain that level [of academic performance],’” the parent added. “The combination of the name and how performance is going at the school… I’m not sure I would really pursue as ambitiously as I did to get my daughter into that school.”
Another parent remarked of the change, “I don’t know what makes them think that girls are turned off by the name ‘math and science.’ It seems like a sexist stereotype to me.”
It would appear that, in the pursuit of what they view as diversity, today’s self-styled liberals have sometimes ended up reinforcing the very stereotypes they once denounced. Not only does this send a terrible message to students that their immutable characteristics like sex and race matter more than merit, it also does a disservice to the girls who would have benefitted from attending MS 447 before its curriculum and admissions practices were watered down in the name of “equity.”
The claim that American girls in general lack the capacity for success in traditional academic subjects, doubtless including math and science, is belied by the fact that women now account for some 60 per cent of college freshmen, as reported by psychoanalyst Erica Komisar in a September 13 Wall Street Journal column, “School Is a Hostile Environment for Boys.” She attributes the figure as a consequence not only of the opening of career opportunities for women, but also to a teaching approach in elementary and high schools that is often more favorable to girls’ tastes and behavioral attributes than those of boys.
How to overcome what Komisar describes as a crisis for boys (not girls) is a subject for another day. But for kids of both sexes, the excuse and potential remedy offered by the MS 447 principal for academic underperformance exemplifies how the ostensible focus on diversity is weakening educational achievement and hence young people’s potential for success in life.
Those who denounced the Teen Talk Barbie stereotype and have subsequently celebrated the supposedly barrier-breaking message of this year’s Barbie film should be up in arms over the fact that a once-successful school is now effectively lowering its standards out of fear of alienating young women. All our children, girls and boys, black and white, deserve better.
David Lewis Schaefer is a Professor of Political Science, Emeritus, at College of the Holy Cross.
When I encountered high school students who could not read a ruler nor understand 2 and 3 dimensional measurements, I was astounded. I was teaching Construction and Drafting, what some people would call Industrial Arts or Shop. In order to have my students have any grasp of what they needed to learn, I went back to elementary school principles. Using models of a cubic yard and an inch broken down in 16ths, they struggled through. This is a tragedy and the educational system is to blame. Balance a checkbook? Calculate an interest rate on a car loan? No way. These are everyday skills that young adults need so badly. But we must instill the need and the reason for acquiring these skills.
Barbie is a TOY DOLL period! And if you believe that “Fairy Tales can come true” I have some beachfront property in Iowa I want to sell you! . . . Math scores are down only because the so-called teaching profession is now dominated by brainwashing Progressively Communist wannabe Democratic teachers. Parents are FINALLY waking up to the fact that they are NOT REALLY IN CHARGE of their own children but that the “State” really OWNS them! . . . WELCOME TO COMMUNISM FOLKS!
Any time you lower standards to accommodate an agenda ,you are setting up a failure of the system, in this case, education, If you tell someone they are incapable, they probably will be. The educational system in America is broken, it’s run by those who want to maintain their own career at the cost of our children’ s future. Too much money is thrown at it , too little oversight by parents. Get back to the basics , forget gender equality, sex indoctrination, politics and give our kids a chance !
NO PROBLEM!
Home-schoolers will be the NEXT GENERATION of GENIUSES, while GOVT EDUCATION goes in the toilet because they wanted to dumb down the children and then will be FUTURE CRIMINALS.
BRAVO HOME-SCHOOLERS. YOU ARE NOW THE BEST AND BRIGHTEST IN AMERICA!
Do you really think that this school decided to lower the standards in the name of equity as a school decision? This came from the White House. The dumbing down of America is a far left plan. It is happening all over America. Where do they place the blame, on the pandemic and the lockdowns. We are 3 years after these lockdowns and the kids are failing tests not just a little but are getting zero scores. Like Baltimore schools just showed. Merit teaching is not done anymore. In order for everyone to pass the class they lowered the standards. Why? To create equity and thereby a population they can control and manipulate. And it only is getting worse. We are exposing what is going on but nothing changes. Public schools are babysitting institutions. Private schools they are on their way to become the same. It is everywhere. Don’t be fooled into thinking oh but not in my neighborhood or city or state. It is everywhere.
I’m betting no one is mumbling that in China, or India,or Taiwan.
Blame the Unions
Indoc
School boards
for issue
teh public schools have been failing for 40 years and getting worse each year. the teachers are close to r***, the easiest degree you can get in college is an education degree. when you add in their ultra leftist affiliation any minority can get an ed degree with no effort at all.
Harvard did a study a few years back that found 95% of teachers can not do algebra. the number one reason was teachers do not know the hierarchy of functions. that means the public school teachers were not listening in math class starting in the 5th grade and did not listen from then right on through college. More truck drivers can do algebra then teachers. Since the teachers do not know the subject they can not teach the subject.
The U of O did the same kind of study on history. they found 78% of teachers do not know basic history. things as simply as who the first president was, how many ships Christopher Columbus has on his voyage, and when america was founded. Since the teachers do not know the subject they can not teach the subject.
Since the teachers do not know the subject they can not teach the subject. that is why the public schools teach LGBTQ and sex ed rather then real subjects. soon they will be teaching only how to google things.
It is reality to this day that women do not pursue degrees in fields where a high concentration of math, science and engineering courses are required. As a graduate from a science and engineering focused college back in the 60s, there were only a handful of women enrolled. Even now, the percentage of women at the same school is about 30%. Up until COVID, I participated as a recruiter for my alma mater at high school college fairs. I was taken aback when talking to a female student about engineering or computer science and her mother would interject, “But doesn’t that require a lot of math? Math is so hard.” I would then ask the student about her math and science studies and would learn that she was getting top grades. The perception about science and engineering not being for women is still out there, but things are improving. I did receive a great dose of optimism and excitement when a cousin’s daughter advised me she was about to receive her degree in mechanical engineering!
What is not improving is that high schools are in some cases not ranking student performance, not naming valedictorians or not grouping high performing students in more advanced or “difficult” class units as they did when I was a student. All of this is in the name of DEI and not embarrassing lower achieving students. Colleges are abandoning using SAT or ACT tests as a measurement of a potential student’s achievement and capabilities. These tests supposedly negatively impact minority recruitment. It is sad to see that high achieving students are not rewarded in a country where merit used to be celebrated.
To teach math you must ENJOY math yourself. I think many elementary teachers never liked math and therefore cannot teach it with gusto! I taught it for 45 years! I was doing math at about age three!
Teachers contracts benefits pensions etc. are the aim of the teacher’s union They also are not in control of the class room kids are lumped together regardless of ability and pushed through the system There are no demands or expectations They get diploma at the end That all would have to change if anything is to improve Good luck to David who takes on that Goliah
Our schools are nothing but indoctrination zones for Marxist liberal philosophy. Teachers union needs to be shut down! Parents need to be in charge of their children’s education and fully informed on what they’re being taught in school. School is not a place for sexual indoctrination or political indoctrination. People that engage in that under the guise of teaching need to be charged with child abuse and jailed. Parents should have complete access to school choice and vouchers for sending their children to other schools other than government. The unions hate that and so does the government all they want to do is bring out another group of democrat voters. These poor kids don’t know how to do anything. They have been taught that the world is going to end due to climate change. They are scared to death. That needs to stop
My family thinks the Barbie movie did as well as it did because people had no clue what it was really about and most went the first weekend not having a clue. My son watches the Barbie videos with his kids and says they are good entertainment but he would never consider taking them to the new movie because he and his wife did their due diligence and discovered that the movie was pushing an agenda they didn’t want their children to consider. Had there not been such a rush at first, it’s doubtful the movie would have done as well because I’ve seen people comment that they wish they could “unsee” it.
The downward spiral in our education system came from two major things, dumbing down the system so that minorities could do well, which to me is about as racist as you can get if you are endeavoring to counter that, was a major one. Blacks and Hispanics do well when someone doesn’t tell them they can’t. I’m White but I had two parents who were very intelligent but didn’t seem to want their children to succeed so they undermined any successes we had and made us feel we were not capable of getting good grades.
Math being an example, I failed 8th grade math so having the option in high school to take a course that prepared me for going straight to work from high school, I took the Commercial Secretarial course. But after being a secretary for years I decided I wanted to learn about other things and I was working for an oil company, so I enrolled in evening classes at my local junior college and majored in Geology. Since I had no maths and sciences in high school I had to back up and take them all. I began with basic college algebra then took intermediate college algebra and then college algebra. My college algebra teacher actually came to me and said I was better at math than most people. Until that day I underestimated myself in that area. Along with Geology I also took Botany and Zoology (assumed to be the pre-med drop course). I aced them all and ended up my two years there with a 3.8 average. Would have been higher but my History after 1877 teacher gave me a “C”, the only one on my transcript, because she was a John Bircher and made us read his book and expound on it for most of the grade of our final. I disagreed with a lot of it and she retaliated by giving me a low grade on the exam. I also had her for History before 1877 and got an “A” from her in that course.
The second and most pressing problem with our education system at the moment is a combination of the federal Department of Education and the teachers’ unions. Management of education was local when I was growing up being a baby boomer. My in-laws were teachers. My father-in-law’s career spanned being a teacher, principal and superintendent of schools. He often said God help us if the unions get hold of our schools. They will totally ruin education in this country. He passed away in 1999 so never lived to see how prophetic his words have been, but I’m sure he’s rolling over and over in his grave seeing what they have managed to do.
I taught school for 32 yrs, mainly math. I found that most children who are not interested in math are terribly behind or have teachers who really didn’t like math or teaching or both. There are a lot of fun ways to teach math especially geometry around Thanksgiving and Christmas. Kids need to get involved and enjoy their work !!!! I didn’t always succeed with every student but with a huge percent of them. Teachers always wanted the students next year that I had had. If that isn’ the case with any teacher today, they should find something else to do. School should be exciting whether the subject is geo/social studies, math, English, Science, health or anything else. Parents shoud become more envolved and the student should have something in class to look forward to.
Go back to teaching math like it 2+2=4. Not 2 has 11 etc around the world to get simple answer. 3×2. Memorize like we did. Forget all the sex get back to basics
It has become disgusting the way that everything, everything has been politicized!! They don’t teach, they indoctrinate, they pressure, they are taking home things and making them now belonging to the school!! There is too much focus on certain deviate social issues and not enough on the right morals, values and ethics!! Barbie is a doll that only has the attributes that the “child” gives her!! Math may be tough for there accounting to the people who wrote this movie!! She is an actress who thought it would be fun to play a bimbo doll!!! Life isn’t a fairy tale – that’s why they are called ‘fairy tales’ and not very many get the opportunity to be a princess!! The rest of us are stuck being ‘ordinary’ and there is nothing wrong with that!!!
Our public school systems, especially in large urban areas, are producing functional illiterates. Instead of teaching kids how to read, write, do math and science they indoctrinate them with a gender and social oriented agenda. It’s educational malpractice.
The schools have been infiltrated by too many leftist, commuinist administraters and teachers with liberal, damaging values and believe they are better able to teach children about sexuality and socialization than parents.
SHUT DOWN the Federal Education Department and their “common Core” GARBAGE plus Marxist indoctrination. Put Education back into the States control and go back to teaching the way it was done in the 1950S along with the same DISCIPLINE and you will see a complete turnaround! Too many children run the household today hence the school districts cannot pay people enough to drive a school bus or teachers to teach children who think they can run the classroom.
Throw out the computers and teach children to use their mind!! Maybe then college students can make change without relying on a computer.
The really scary part…these current “students” will be managing our banks, governments, and markets in the not-to-distant future. Without any knowledge on how to balance a checkbook, balancing a national budget will be out of the question. Oh, wait…nevermind.
I hear Matel is coming out with both an ANTIFAS Barbie which includes numerous body piercings and a molotov cocktail kit and a Sex Change Barbie that comes with both sets of interchangeable genitalia . Both are expected to be huge sellers in liberal cities.
If Barbie’s “math class is tough” is harmful to girls, then Jimmy Buffett’s “math sucks” must also be harmful for girls.
US schools have been going steadily and intentionally downhill since Stalinist John Dewey adulterated the word “progress”, i.e., for about a century.
But do they know how many gender pronouns there are, because that’s what’s important now. IMO
Math, actually a language most often written with symbols other than the “normal” reading alphabet, and reading are both purposefully taught in ways NOT to be mastered correctly. CONTROL is the name of the same game in a different packages.
The teaching methods that provide real success for virtually everyone :are NOT allowed to be used for the “masses”. “It works too well.” “It eliminates Title One funding.” “The students can teach people older and younger than they.”
These quotes represent some of the reasons I have heard from those who have seen and been recipients of the programs’ results but control their distribution. I just share for others to share,