Category Archives: arts and entertainment

Skanky Teen Singer Barbie?

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Thank Barbie for Britney

"Ruth Handler, legendary founder of Mattel Toys and creator of Barbie, the company's most successful product, died last week, thereby prompting the most urgent cultural debate since Botox made the headlines. Was Barbie, as feminists said, poisonous for young girls' self-image and the cause of an epidemic of anorexia and bulimia? Or was she – as conservatives insisted, taking the view that 'the enemy of my feminist enemy is my friend' – simply good childhood fun?"

"Actually, both sides are wrong. Barbie may not have prompted a national crisis in female self-esteem, but she's no innocent either. The vampy fashion doll helped to bring about the sexualization of childhood, evidence of which is everywhere today. In truth, Barbie is the not-so-spiritual godmother of Britney Spears."

Defending Religion

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Is Organized Religion the Enemy?
by Orson Scott Card

For about a year, people have been telling me that the Next Big Thing after Harry Potter was Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials,” a young-adult fantasy trilogy consisting of “The Golden Compass,” “The Subtle Knife,” and “The Amber Spyglass.”

Now, this is definitely not a book review column, but I must say right up front that everything everyone says in praise of these books is true. Well, almost everything — it’s not perfect, and not as good as the Harry Potter stories, in part because neither the trilogy nor any individual volume ever achieves a sense of wholeness, and the characters are not deep or even, ultimately, very interesting.

Still, it’s a rip-roaring adventure and it’s well told and I wish I could recommend it to you.

I can’t.