AS A GROWN-UP, you probably believe that you have nothing to learn from children’s toys. However, people on Twitter were surprised by an important lesson they learned from Barbie this week.
In episode 60 of her vlog series (yeah, of course Barbie is working as a vlogger these days), Barbie sat down to talk about the ‘Sorry Reflex’. An animated version of the doll opens up the vlog by philosophising about apologies.
I have some ideas about ‘sorry’. First of all, I think a lot of people say it when they don’t mean it, but I think there’s a bigger issue around ‘sorry’ – especially with girls.
We say it a lot. Like, a lot. Like it’s a reflex and that somehow, everything that goes wrong is our fault. Somebody bumps into us and we say ‘Sorry!’
We get excited and exuberant about something we’re really excited about… and then we say sorry, like we’re afraid of being too big. Even when we’re sad, we say sorry because we’re afraid of making someone else sad.
I think we’re worried about offending people and we shouldn’t be – I mean it’s really important to be kind and thoughtful and polite and to offer a sincere apology if we have done something wrong.
Barbie then tells her subscribers that reflexively saying ‘sorry’ for everything is a learned behaviour, and that every time women apologise unnecessarily, their self-confidence is weakened. Because of this, she wants to challenge her viewers to go an entire day without making an unnecessary apology, and see how they feel afterwards.
People on Twitter have been sharing and applauding the vlog.
One man wrote “This is real af [...] Too many girls do it and it’s not good.”
Others shared their appreciation for Barbie’s newfound wokeness.
Others insisted that Barbie had always been promoting a similar message.
Which sparked a pretty big debate, basically revolving around this idea:
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Either way, Bratz were at this kinda stuff a decade ago.
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