

Barbie Computer Engineer - jgamman
http://shop.mattel.com/product/index.jsp?productId=4032107&cp=3719989.3748552

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miri
If I ever get a female child that is smitten by the scourge called Barbie (oh
please, O [Insert Deity Here], make her a Lego child), I'll at least give her
one like these so she can have an Engineer Barbie (oh, the bragging potential,
"My Mum is a computer engineer just like Barbie!"). Not that my grandmother's
misguided attempts at girlifying me with Pink Mermaid Barbie ever worked,
anyway.

~~~
akd
O, Thor? :)

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jgrahamc
Wow. It's amazing, she looks just like every women engineer I've ever worked
with. Especially the Bluetooth headset.

Seriously, does this do anything to advance the position of women in software
engineering?

~~~
wynand
Nothing would do more for women in engineering than having more well known
female engineers. Social proof is a strong thing.

But until we have more of that, cultural items like Barbie might help to
bootstrap the process.

I agree that it's a distant second, but it's better than nothing at all.

~~~
jgrahamc
_I agree that it's a distant second, but it's better than nothing at all._

I'm not sure. Suppose the situation was reversed and there were few men
software engineers. I'm not sure having a super handsome, muscle ripped man
wearing designer clothing would have been an inspiration to me.

~~~
jamii
> I'm not sure having a super handsome, muscle ripped man wearing designer
> clothing would have been an inspiration to me.

I don't know about you but I wanted to be Action Man as a young child.

~~~
pchristensen
I wanted to be a lumberjack.

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adnam
The bytes on the screen spell out: "BarbieBarbieBarbie" :-)

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jrockway
Being a computer engineer is a choking hazard?

~~~
marcus
Last time I saw the 40 something pages of specs/requirements docs I had to
fill to write a 50 LOC program in a big corp, I almost choked.

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jbrun
Was this not the product of some sort of poll where people voted for the next
barbie? I remember seeing it on HN.

~~~
wisty
Yes. Remember Eric Sink's post about how geeks (like himself) are over-
represented on the internet? He pointed out how he had a higher google rank
than Eric Clapton, and the number one hit for "Joel" is a well-known developer
in New York rather than Billy Joel -
<http://www.ericsink.com/articles/Boundaries.html>

That poll was Dugg, Slashdotted, and Reddited. It was a foregone conclusion -
Barbie would be a "computer engineer", dammit. The only careers that would
have gotten more votes would have been "Ship's mechanic on a Firefly class
spaceship" or "vampire slayer".

~~~
ytilibitapmoc
If only we were not limited to one up-vote; you sir, would be a very karma
rich man.

~~~
forsaken
Go back to reddit, please.

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jacquesm
I must be hallucinating, an article about barbies as the top submission on HN.

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mootothemax
Very interesting, although I'm not sure what to make of her glasses; are they,
like, so geek-chic-coolacious?

~~~
roundsquare
Its strange, they need to strike a balance. On one side, they need to use
enough stereotypes to ensure that everyone gets the idea they are going for.
On the other hand, if they use too many stereotypes they will get angry
letters.

I'm not sure they have struck the balance correctly, but my guess is that is
what they are going for.

~~~
jacquesm
So, what exactly is it that is stereotypically computer engineer about this
doll?

I've known and know quite a few females that program (and some of them are
extremely good) but none would be caught dead in an outfit like that, or would
think they are 'computer engineers' because they can hold a netbook in one
hand without dropping it.

It's just plain silly to associate this doll with the computer engineer /
programming profession.

When trade shows were still in fashion though, you could meet any number of
women on the various stands that would come pretty close, but they weren't
there for their computer skills.

Just about the only interesting thing about this is that there was some build-
up to the release using polls, but surprise, surprise, lets hope they were not
as rigged as the customer reviews of items that aren't shipping yet.

~~~
roundsquare
Sure, anyone in the know wouldn't associate this with computer engineers.
Hell, most adults probably wouldn't either.

Kids, however, are far more likely to associate glasses with geeky/interested
in geeky stuff. You can't use your position both as an adult and someone in
the tech industry and apply it here. It just doesn't fit.

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mtrimpe
Only ships to US. Damn I hate that ... anyone willing to receive and forward
some barbies?

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shmichael
And Ken is renamed Paul?

~~~
shrikant
No, he gets "Thompson" as a last name.

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frou_dh
What does "computer engineer" even mean?

~~~
roundsquare
<http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=Computer+Engineer>

~~~
frou_dh
Wikipedia tells me she could be doing virtually anything involving electronics
or computers.

The BBC seems to think it's tech support:
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8517097.stm>

