Barbie can be a computer engineer … but only with help of a man

The following is an excerpt from an article posted on The Guardian by Aisha Gani on Wednesday, November 19, 2014.

Breaking away from her pink heels, pink ball gown and oversized pink hairbrush, Barbie – the fashion doll manufactured by Mattel – now has a range of gender-stereotype-breaking books. In the “I can be” series, we learn that Barbie can be president, a sports star and a computer engineer … except in the latter case she needs the help of a man.

Pamela Ribon, a writer at Walt Disney animation studios, this week pointed out the sexism on her blog when she picked up the Barbie: I can be a Computer Engineer children’s book, published by Random House US.

In a book intended to inspire young girls, Barbie the programmer, who wears a pink heart-shaped USB drive around her neck, needs help to reboot her computer. And one passage from the book reveals that this computer engineer cannot even code:

“What are you doing, Barbie?” asks Skipper.

“I’m designing a game that shows kids how computers work,” explains Barbie. “You can make a robot puppy do cute tricks by matching up colored blocks!”

“Your robot puppy is so sweet,” says Skipper. “Can I play your game?”

“I’m only creating the design ideas,” Barbie says, laughing. “I’ll need Steven and Brian’s help to turn it into a real game!”

A “Feminist Hacker Barbie” website is now taking in submissions for suggested amendments to the book, to help portray Barbie as “the competent, independent, bad-ass engineer that she wants to be”

To read the full article, including a selection of furious Amazon reviews of Mattel’s book on Computer Engineer Barbie, click here.