Strollerderby : morality

They Say – Raise Kids Who Care

Brett Singer — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT

In their December issue, Reader's Digest profiled a few families who are doing unto others. It would have been funnier if they had said "kids who kare", but they aren't going for humor. (I'm a little silly, I know. Bear with me.)

This is actually an important topic. When the economy was flying high – Dow at 10,000, blah blah blah – it was easy to forget those less fortunate. Or, if you were more a more charitable sort, it was easy to remember them, since you had more money. Now that your wallet is a little lighter than before (especially if Bernie Madoff was handling your money), it's easy to make charity one of the first cuts.

The thing is, that's not a good message to send to your kids. There are ways to do something for other people without giving money, and children need to learn that at an early age.

Reader's Digest profiles five families who did their part for charity in various ways. One that I liked, because it's year-round and fairly basic, is the Church family, who keep a tzedakah box in their kitchen and drop any spare change in it. "Once a year, they empty it out and decide what organizations they want to donate to that year." Tzedakah is a Hebrew word meaning "charity" but Wikipedia adds that the root of the word is tzedek, which means "justice". (I also think it's funny that the Church family is Jewish. Because I'm silly.) What I like about this is not that it's a religious thing, which is fine. It's that a family could do this no matter what faith they are, even if they have no religious leanings at all. Heck, even a Satanist could stick a coffee can in on the windowsill, toss spare change into it and give it to charity when it fills up. (I'm not sure if they would. I don't actually know any Satanists. But it seems like something that could happen.)

The bottom line is that it's important to somehow impart to kids that there are people that are less fortunate than you are, but in a way that they can understand. In the fifties, some kids were told to eat their vegetables because "children were starving in China." I grew up in the Northeast Bronx, so my mother told me that there were hungry children in the South Bronx. Being a budding loudmouth, I offered to bring them my peas via subway. This is an example of a method that doesn't work so good. However, my mother also used to pack food to be delivered to homeless shelters, something she still does today. Knowing that she did this, an action that was direct, apolitical and required only her time and not much money, absolutely had an effect on me.

For some specific examples of families Raising Kids That Care (Kare? Nah), check out the Reader's Digest article.

Image/Source: Reader's Digest

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S&M Barbie

Brett Singer — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 19:00:00 GMT

Let me take you through my reactions to this story.

Hello, what's this? S&M Barbie? The toy? The overdeveloped, underfed doll? The one dating a man with no genitals? That seems… odd. Let's take a look.

Yowza! Barbie in fishnets! F'real! All right. We had the high heels for babies. But those were supposed to be a joke (not a funny one, but still). This is just bizarre. I hate agreeing with the Christian Right, but when they say, "Barbie has always been on the tarty side and this is taking it too far," I'm tempted to agree.

I have to admit, though, that she sort of looks like Black Canary from DC Comics…

Wait a minute! That IS Black Canary! So it's Barbie, dressed up like Black Canary. That… still seems odd. Why would they choose her? For a non-JLA fan (that's Justice League of America, in case you are yourself one of those non-fans), she's a bit of an obscure character. Why not someone better known, like Wonder Woman? Black Canary is a blonde, I guess. Well, actually she's a brunette but she wears a wig instead of a mask… I'm sorry, did you fall asleep? OK, I'll stop geeking out.

So it's Black Canary, which makes it an action figure. But there already is a Black Canary action figure. Actually, there are several, but here's one for comparison purposes:
Source: flickr

For what it's worth (excuse me while I geek out again) Black Canary is, despite her appearance, a fairly positive female role model. She's considered one of the best hand-to-hand fighters, male or female, in the DCU (that's "DC comics Universe") and is currently the leader of the Justice League. She takes no crap, kicks major ass, and asks questions later. Barbie once said, "Math class is tough!" (source) So you could make an argument that Black Canary is a better role model than Barbie, and therefore the doll is empowering.

I don't really see the point of doing this, especially since Barbie's target audience is young girls. So while I think the Vast Christian Right Wing Conspiracy is a bit over the top, I do think it's kind of an odd choice for a Barbie doll. What's next, Big Gay Ken? Oh wait, they did that already.

Source: flickr

A commenter on Boing Boing says that this is a collectible meant for an "older" audience and that young girls don't play with such things. Another commenter says "uh-uh, they totally do." (Not a direct quote.)

So there you go.

It's weird, but is it really offensive? Would you buy one of these for your daughter? Is this sexist, empowering, just a bad choice for a doll?

image: boingboing.net

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Attack of the Strippers

Brett Singer — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 14:00:00 GMT

During a children's golf tournament in Broomfield, Colorado, the children were exposed to -- and I hope you are sitting down as you read this -- strippers. That's right. They actually saw women who dance and take their clothes off while men throw money at them.

Were the women naked? No. Were they -- again, stay seated, this is a bombshell that could shake you to the very core of your being -- scantily clad? Yes, dear reader, they were. Undies. According to CBSNews.com, the children wanted to know why "the men joining the strippers had water guns and why the women wore only their underwear." (That must have been a fun conversation.) Evelyn Koch, the manager of the golf course, apologized for the fact that the "children were present when the strippers arrived."

As you may have guessed, I don't think this is a very big deal. I mean, who cares? The thing about kids and certain things that people have problems with is that oftentimes the kids don't really notice or care. This, methinks, is one of those times. Maybe its because I live in Manhattan, and walk past a strip club every morning when I walk my youngest son to school. Granted, it's early in the morning and there's not any activity going on. But, like, who cares?

For the record, the barely naked ladies were participating in a charity golf outing to benefit a breast cancer organization. The kids weren't raising money for anything. Take that, moral majority!

image: golflogic