Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

Mattel's Barbie site is not trying to promote "gender confusion" by giving three choices for gender ("I am a Girl," "I am a Boy," "I Don't Know") when collecting visitor data. Basically, anyone who chooses "I Don't Know" does so because they wish to preserve their -- or their child's -- anonymity, but Mattel doesn't want its visitors to do that.

Mattel chose "I Don't Know" rather than "I Don't Want to Say" because "I Don't Know" might make the user afraid of looking silly. After all, the vast majority of human beings have a pretty good idea what their physical gender happens to be, so the unspoken message is that you're stupid if choose that option. By doing this, the company is trying to subtly encourage people to set aside their privacy concerns and surrender that bit of information.

But you probably already know this and are simply manufacturing another non-issue to justify your existence and to bilk more money from the right-wing extremist rubes who support you.

Sincerely,
Go **** Yourselves