Article on Barbie and rivals Moxie and Liv dolls in the Wall Street Journal

Check out this article in the Wall Street Journal by Ann Zimmerman, on the lengths Mattel is going to maintain its Barbie brand for the upcoming holiday season in light of Barbie's new competitors, Moxie and Liv. There is a video, showing some real-life girls playing with the dolls, and an interactive graphic, which highlights the differences between these playline dolls.

As an aside, I'm actually struck by the overall tone of the article. Here is are a few lines to reference tone:

Inside the high-security Mattel design center near its headquarters here in El Segundo, guards check visitors' laptops and briefcases on entrance and exit. Humans who bear an uncanny resemblance to Barbie -- high heels, pony tails, sparkly jewelry -- gathered there late last month in the Pink Room. [...]

"We needed to reconnect Barbie as a fashion icon," says Ms. Cota, who wears a necklace with Barbie's silhouette covered in diamonds.

Maybe it isn't about Barbie or tone at all. Maybe it's just that the author doesn't mention what any of the male toy employees happen to be wearing. Which, if I were to sexualize one party or the other, would be of much more interest to me, quite frankly.

Perhaps the readers of the Wall Street Journal really do care what the employees of Mattel are wearing, so it's relevant to the article. Tell me, dear reader. Do you care what I'm wearing? If I were at home, blogging in the nude, would you want to know? (Liberal media, my ass.)