Mattel Pulls Sexist Barbie Book Off Amazon

http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/19/mattel-pulls-sexist-barbie-book-i-can-be-a-computer-engineer-off-amazon/

20 1 12 years ago

dllthomas• 12 years ago

Excellent. The sexism angle is one thing, but the book is also just wrong about what a computer engineer is. It's like "Barbie: I Can Be A Construction Worker" - "Oh, no, I don't actually build buildings, I just think of ideas for what they should look like." That's a totally valid career (once you add some rigor that it's probably fine to elide in a kid's book), but it's not being a construction worker.

If the book was titled "I Can Be A Video Game Designer" (and she didn't spend half the book fighting with viruses) it would have been worlds better. Make one of the other students doing the implementation a girl, and you're doing better still. I'd like to see a genuine "I Can Be A Computer Engineer", but it might take some creativity to make it actually engaging for the target age range...

Mattel Pulls Sexist Barbie Book Off Amazon

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