Barbie is supposed to prove to girls that they can be anything they want, but apparently if they want to be a computer engineer, that’s when they have to call the boys for help.
Earlier this week, blogger Pantel Ribon brought up the book Barbie: I Can Be... A computer Engineer, which one would think explains who Barbie succeeds in the male-dominated world of computer coding. But, right on the second page, we learn that Barbie can’t be a programmer.
The book starts with Barbie declaring her plans to design a “game that shows kids how computers work” that will feature a robot puppy that does tricks. And then, on the book’s second page, Barbie reveals that she’s not going to be the one to actually create the game. She’s “only creating the design ideas.” She adds, “I’ll need Steven and Brian’s help to turn it into a real game!”
The book gets worse, because as it goes on, Barbie crashes her computer, gives her friend a virus, ignores her female teacher’s advice to fix the error and then goes to her male friends to help.
“The portrayal of Barbie in this specific story doesn’t reflect the Brand’s vision for what Barbie stands for,” Pantel wrote in her post. “We believe girls should be empowered to understand that anything is possible and believe they live in a world without limits. We apologize that this book didn’t reflect that belief. All Barbie titles moving forward will be written to inspire girls imaginations and portray an empowered Barbie character.”
As TIME notes, Twitter users picked up on Pantel’s post and began to fill in new text in the art.
Mattel later posted a statement on Facebook, apologizing for the book and claiming it was published in 2010 (which somehow makes it OK that it exists... really?).
“Since that time we have reworked our Barbie books,” the statement reads. “The portrayal of Barbie in this specific story doesn’t reflect the Brand’s vision for what Barbie stands for.”
image via Twitter from Sara Zarr