TMI Friday: I'll tell you where you can stick that Bratz doll !

I missed the whole "Bratz" craze, on account of not being a pre-teen girl at the time it happened. But I am aware that it existed, and that there were some out there who disapproved of it. I heard that there was something of a "Bratz" controversy, because the toys were "oversexualized" and presented an unrealistic body image, as opposed to Barbie dolls. Because Barbie doesn't present an unrealistic body image or is overly sexual, obviously.

One four year old child, who showed up to an emergency room with trouble in her genital area. After questioning the child, and her mother, the surgeons could not figure out what happened. So they took an X-ray, which showed a pair of legs, curiously without feet. This clued the physicians into the brand of doll in question. Bratz Dolls have interchangeable feet, to allow different shoe designs to be used with each doll and so girls can re-enact the final scene of Saw, minus Cary Elwes performance.

It turned out that this girl had stuck a Bratz Doll up her vagina for reasons that may never become clear. I still have no idea why I ate toilet paper when I was four, and probably never will. I hadn't even learned to spell "Logic" at that age, let alone know how to apply it.  The theory was that she was mimicking her mother, whom she had seen inserting a tampon. Which is probably the most damning criticism of a Bratz doll as I've seen anywhere.

 I mean if the accident occurred during the course of play, it would almost be understandable. It's like getting a Boba Fett action figure lodged in your partners rectum whilst re-enacting the Sarlacc scene from Return of the Jedi, as opposed to it being the closest available object scratch their haemarrhoids. One of those reasons implies that the toy was still fulfilling its function, the other indicates that it was just a convenient piece of plastic.

Someshwar J., Lutfi R. & Nield L.S. (2007). The Missing "Bratz" Doll, Pediatric Emergency Care, 23 (12) 897-898. DOI: 10.1097/pec.0b013e31815c9dd2