Are Barbies Worse Than 'Breaking Bad' Figures?
Photo by Thinkstock
The 2014 toy war unfolded this week when Breaking Bad star Aaron Paul took to Twitter, outraged as he was over the fact that Toys “R” Us pulled his series’ plastic action figures from shelves. Like his tough-guy character, Jesse Pinkman, Paul’s Tweet was anything but meek. In it, he declared war on Barbie, Tweeting that these dolls pose more harm and encouraging people to sign a petition to restock the figures (at press time, that petition has garnered 35,000 signatures).
The hullabaloo all began last week when Susan Schrijver, a Fort Myers, Florida, mom petitioned the toy giant on change.org to remove them, saying that these figures, sold in limited quantities in the adult action figure area (and clearly labeled as appropriate for kids ages 15 and older), were a ‘dangerous deviation from their [the store’s] family values.’
Maybe it was all about the packaging as the toys depicted chemistry teacher Walter White (a crystal meth dealer) and Pinkman, his former student, with (of course!) key props from the series: a detachable bag of cash and bag of methamphetamines.
Photo by Mezco Toys
Within days, Schrijver had collected 9,000-plus signatures and the toys were pulled from the stores (FYI: They’re currently selling fast on eBay).
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This mom’s efforts are worth applauding, says Stephanie Pratola, PhD, a licensed clinical psychologist in Roanoke, Virginia. However, Pratola thinks parents have to use common sense. “I wouldn’t buy these for my four-year-old, but I think these figurines could actually be a good conversation starter with a 15-year-old,” she says. “If my teen came home with this, I’d want to know why and I’d want to know more about what he’s interested in. After all, dolls offer ways to role model and fantasize about things.”
And should Paul have picked a fight with Barbie? While a recent Oregon State study found that girls who played with a buxom Barbie dressed up as a doctor thought they had fewer career choices than those who played with an amorphous Mrs. Potato Head doll, Rosalind Wiseman, author of Masterminds & Wingmen: Helping Our Boys Cope with Schoolyard Power, Locker-Room Tests, Girlfriends and the New Rules of Boy World, calls it a ‘hollow argument’ to compare the two.
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“That’s the classic ‘two wrongs don’t make a right,’” she says. “Of course Barbie sends a bad message to girls about their limitations, what’s expected of them and what our culture thinks of their image, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that the Breaking Bad dolls are meth dealers.”
Photo by Ursula Coyote/AMC/Everett Collection
For Wiseman, these figurines are cause for deeper concern for today’s boys. “I wish we would stop giving boys role models to aspire to that are about violence, depravity and this ‘thug life’ kind of thing,” she says. “Our culture is giving boys the message that this is the cool way to have power.” Take that, Heisenberg.
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