I came for the BBQ but stayed for the progressive role model.

I wonder how this will go down after they royally fucked up the accompanying story :
Basically what happens is she designs a game, but can't code it without her guy friends' help, infects her own and her sister's computers with a virus by accident (lolol), has her guy friends help her fix both of them, and then takes all the credit for the game and fixed computers in the end.

To their credit, the ghost author who wrote that was told Barbie was a game designer, rather than a software engineer. And while it's not the most empowering thing ever written, it does show what one kind of game designer does. As accurate as a book for 5 year olds can.

Someone decided to switch the title from game designer to software engineer before it was published. Maybe because it sounded better, even though those things are not at all the same.

To their credit,

To their discredit, they do this kind of shit all the time.

I'm sure there are plenty other ways to explain game design and programming for 5 year olds without the sexist crap

"Fashionistas Barbies" - There are Barbie dolls which aren't fashionistas? :)

Other than that, made me chuckle. I have my doubts if Barbie dolls like that will help correct the rolemodel of 5 years old, but hey, gotta try, right?

To their credit,

To their discredit, they do this kind of shit all the time.

I'm sure there are plenty other ways to explain game design and programming for 5 year olds without the sexist crap

Barbie is an easy target, because those children who enjoy Barbie are not exactly into defying gender stereotypes, and she reflects her demographic. At the same time, she was a doctor at a time when women were doctoresses. She was an astronaut when American astronauts were restricted to men. She offers a lot of career choices that are / were typically thought of as male. And there are no boy version of Barbie, where boys are introduced to actual career choices they might pursue at a later date. (Unless being a fur speedo barbarian is a career choice)

And compared to her competitors, she's as liberal as they come. Moxie(formally Bratz), don't seem to do anything besides fashion. And Monster High almost goes back to ancient Roman practices, where all the dolls are introduced by who their father is. (For example Boo York is the daughter of the Rat King and Cleo de Nile is daughter of the Mummy).

My daughters will love this.