is it healthy to market dolls resembling sex symbols?

Depends, do the children playing with these dolls see them as sex symbols or as toys?

Hollywood and the recording industry markets young female celebrities as brainless whores already, so I'm not surprised that the dolls are marketed tht way too. But there is a bigger issue here: Why is it that in society, we are not only feel pressured to sell out, we are EXPECTED to? I mean, as soon as a girl begins to grow breasts there seems to be an unwritten rule that she has to throw her brain away with the week's trash. Guys are expected to dress like hip-hop pimps. If any boy or girl deviates from that, they're completely ostracized. The ones that sell out are the popular ones. We need to look at the reason why something is happening rather than look at the symptom.

i think it's normal for kids to play with toys that symbolize people/traits they admire. kids will play out those ideas of attractiveness anyway. in a normal child this has nothing to do with sex.

what bothers me is that some toy companies aren't marketing to kids at all. my daughter wanted a bratz baby - turned out to be a toddler in a halter top, makeup, and jewelery riding on a huge banana! i wondered how many people looked past this during marketing stage and were okay with that and it made me sick.

when i was a kid we always played that barbie was a grown up - wedding, kids, job . . .

may have taught us unrealistic expectations, but at least it didn't prep us to be okay with kiddie porn!

I see nothing wrong with it