Thursday, December 26, 2002

I am irritated that Max beat me to it -- "it" being the glory of being the one to bring to your attention the controversy in the heartland over a pregnant Barbie doll. Actually, it's not Barbie; it's Barbie's friend Midge. You will be glad to know that Midge wears (or has painted on -- I can't say myself) a wedding ring. Still, this is not enough to quell the controversy, which has (really truly) resulted in Midge's banishment from the shelves in some stores, including (according to the article that Max linked) all Wal-Mart stores. Really. Some people complained about a pregnant doll, on the grounds that it was inappropriate, and so the dolls were yanked. Here's another article, the one that originally caught my eye (though in a different paper), that includes a wonderful quote from a minister: ""It concerns me that here is one more thing that exploits sexual themes around young, impressionable children." Yes, and what's worse is that many toddlers are confronted EVERY DAY by the sight of THEIR OWN MOTHERS' swollen bellies gestating away with siblings-to-be. An outrage.

In all seriousness, this article is a good -- but by no mean the only, and certainly not the most important -- example of the first thing I wanted to post about, in connection with my holiday journey out of the liberal metropolis. That is this: that if anyone tells you that the Republican-leaning areas of the nation, and the Republican-leaning parts of the population, are more live-and-let-live than us progressives, that it is only the leftists who are humorless busybodies who have lost the art of minding their own business when appropriate -- if anyone tells you that, the wise response is "ha ha ha ha ha."

posted by sam 8:01 AM 0 comments

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