BRATZ Movie --

We wrote this before the movie came out -- tried to get it published as an Op Ed but no luck.

Bratz Dollz. Bratz Bralettes. Bratz Cartoons, Bratz Computers? Those “hot to trot” babes sure do have it all. Now, they are finally movie stars (even though they’ve been living the movie star life for years). When BRATZ: THE MOVIE comes to your local theater, you might be hard pressed to recognize “the girlz” since the profiteers have cleaned them up a bit with a makeover, yet still their PG rating loosely warns “some material may not be suitable for children.” The real life actors playing our least favorite dollz won’t be outfitted in anything remotely dominatrix or soft porn “esque” because let’s face it: if cute little dolls look sleazy in those outfits, real girls wearing them would look, well, obscene (and the producers would have to kiss the PG rating—and all the allowance money that comes with it--goodbye).

No matter how they clean up the movie girlz to mimic every other perky wanna be a teen girl flick, it’s important for parents to see the sexualization that defines the overall Bratz package. Yes, like all teen girls, the Bratz--Yasmin (Nathalia Ramos), Jade (Janel Parrish), Sasha (Logan Browning) and Cloe (Skyler Shaye)---are proud to be"BFFs" - Best Friends Forever, but unlike real girls who play sports, love math and want to be scientists, writers and explorers when they grow up, the Bratz only solidify the same old stereotypes. We haven’t seen the movie yet, so we can’t predict where the specific product placements will show up (we’re willing to guarantee this movie will be one long commercial for various “must have” products), but we are certain the script will include the following:

• A popular mean girl who gets what’s coming to her at the end of the movie (the mean girl usually comes with her own posse of dimmer but just as mean followers)
• A crazy fun makeover and/or shopping spree scene set to music by a teen pop star
• A “once in a lifetime” chance to model, perform in front of a band, or get dressed up for a special dance or concert.
• An embarrassing moment (which aims to make a Brat more likeable and relatable to her audience). This moment will probably occur in front of a cute boy.
• A “cool” boy who helps the girlz understand that they should just be themselves. On the way to learning the value of friendship, at least one of the girlz will “get” this “cool” boy in the end.
• Frustrating use of the word “power” It will be used to reference how a Bratz feels powerful shopping, choosing a special look, getting a make-over, or picking friends over a mean girl.

We’ve done our research and let’s face it, when it comes to the portrayal of girls in popular culture there is an abysmal lack of imagination. The “special” talents of movie teens won’t include engineering, drumming, or skateboarding. They’ll all be sexy pretty with perfect bodies and yet at least one of them will make an insecure comment about how she looks. They will look “hot”—PG Hot that is—not as hot as the little dollz.

Bratz have been on the “What were they thinking?” radar screen for some time, and for good reason. Margaret Talbot in The New Yorker described them as “little hotties”; London’s Daily Mail called them “a clique of sultry-eyed trollopes”; and bloggers all over the net refer to them as mini “hookers” and “prostitutes.” It’s not just the fly-girl fashion that is troubling to their critics, it is the lifestyle scenarios they come with--hot tubs, party planes, “juice” bars, and boyz. All of these suggest imaginative scenarios to little girls that they can reenact as they play with their little hotties.

Isaac Larian, CEO of M.G.A., (or as he’s been renamed by bloggers, the “pimp” to the Bratz ho’s), may have a point when he complains, about the less than positive media attention focused on his dollz. After all, there are countless other poor models of teen girlhood jiggling about. Just flick on the TV and check out any recent music video. The message to young girls? Clearly, shaking your bootie and moving “those humps, those humps, those lovely lady humps,” is the best way to get power. And in Larian’s defense, the Bratz are the first truly popular group of multicultural dolls for girls? They shook Barbie out of her pink suburban reverie and gave real cache to urban chic.

So really, why pick on the “passion for fashion” girlz? Maybe because the American Psychological Association Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls found that the Bratz are the best example of the way a marketers have taken a product and targeted the very youngest girls to exploit their desire to be like the big girls they see in pop culture--hanging out with boyz, shopping for fashion, and partying all night long. While some unwitting friend of the family might buy a four-year-old a t-shirt that says “Little Flirt” or a underpants that say “eye candy,” literally millions of girls, moms, and relatives are buying the Bratz dolls for this age group.

Girls are bombarded every day with invitations to self-sexualize, self-objectify, turn themselves into cute, sexy, hot, shopping divas, and to do so by their own choice, because that’s what makes them feel empowered. Is the Bratz movie one such invitation? We’ll see, but in a post-Paris world, parents ought to be worrying a teensy bit that playing with Bratz, might just lead to becoming one of them.

(Let us know if our predictions are right. We can't bring ourselves to go watch this movie!)