[Niall]

Barbie isn't the only children's toy imbued with problems, most kids toys are inherently problematic. They're so encoded with rather toxic messages about gender. All the stereotypical boys toys lean toward this message of violence and being domineering, and all the toys targeted at girls are filled with vapid messages about consumerism and appearance.

That said though, Barbie is an absolutely awful toy. Her body is ridiculously proportioned giving girls a warped view on how women are supposed to look from the outset. Nearly all Barbie advertising focuses on the white, blonde Barbie over any variants that are people of colour, thereby excluding girls of colour. And finally there's the focus on shopping and homemaking in the Barbie line of toys and their advertising campaigns, a very restrictive set of ideas for girls.

And the above can be often be used as a general template for almost any girls toy, especially the latter two things I said. But most of all, the encouragement of nothing but homemaking, consumerism, and a heavy interest in appearance is something in complete contrast at toys for boys. Look at ads for toys targeted at boys and you'll see them often encourage things like creativity whilst using the toy - lego being a prime example of this - amongst other things. Girls toys just.. don't. It's one of the many, many problems with gender.