Cheryl Lynn isn't quite sure who she is, but she's pretty sure of what she wants to be. A warrior woman. A bad-ass mamajama. Perhaps an earth goddess extraordinaire. She spends her days abusing keyboards and screaming at computer screens while she waits for her cult following to finally show up.

She changes her mind more often than extras in rap videos change thongs.

Remember: save to your own server, sweets!

Reading SELF Magazine.

Writing To-Do lists.

Hearing Thunder.

Watching General Hospital.

Building Nothing.

Eating Vitamins.

Drinking Iced Tea.

Buying Comic books.

Thinking "It is HOT!"

Playing Episodes from Liberty City.

Adoring Cold water.

Saying Very little.

Abhorring Bigotry.

Feeling Calm.

Hoping To get in gear.

Bratz vs. Barbie.

Damn. I'm sorry to hear about this.

Listen, I'm not going to try to pretend that both toy lines didn't need an excessive amount of work. I'm not going to try to tell you that both toy lines didn't put entirely too much emphasis on the appearance of women and girls instead of focusing on their accomplishments. However, at least the Bratz line taught us that all kinds of girls are important instead of telling us that everything must revolve around the all-important blonde, white girl. In the Bratz line, Sasha, Yasmin, and Jade aren't Cloe's sidekicks. They don't have to wear purple, blue and green while Cloe gets to drape herself in the company trademarked pink. Sasha doesn't come in a box marked Cloe's Friend, Sasha in the way that Barbie's ethnic accessories do. Because the characters in the Bratz line are equals.

Were equals. Because Mattel Inc. has stamped out a line that girls were obviously responding to. They've robbed the girls that they've treated as second place for decades of a toy that made them feel special. And I am so royally pissed about that.

And I'll remember that anger when I have a little girl and she eventually asks me for a Barbie doll. Because I damn sure don't want a repeat performance of what I went through with my mother.

Fuck Mattel Inc.. Seriously.

Cheryl Lynn @ 05:18 PM EST Link