"Pet Vet" Barbie: Your Daughter is Better Than This

A few years ago I made a point to call out Mattel's Barbie "I Can Be" series (the Barbie doll series that supposedly encourages girls to envision what they can accomplish professionally) for this depiction of a veterinarian:Almost four years later it really hasn't gotten much better. Then very recently I discovered through friends a reality show called The Incredible Dr. Pol which airs on the Nat Geo channel. Pol and his colleagues, one of whom is a young female veterinarian, are featured treating domestic and farm animals in Central Michigan.Not being a veterinarian or anyone with experience in animal husbandry or farming, I can't comment on the genuineness of what's portrayed or how truly "incredible" Dr. Pol or his staff are. But I can say that the depiction of the women on Pol's show, one a staff vet who is depicted training other young women who appear to be veterinary students or interns, is far more realistic and less offensive than anything Barbie suggests about how a veterinarian will dress and what her work environment will be like. The female vet on Dr. Pol's show was identified as "Dr. Brenda." Like most veterinarians, she appears to eschew four-inch heels and a dangerously high hemline. Instead she is seen literally wrestling distressed farm animals and stitching up injured ones in often sweat-soaked medical scrubs.If you have a daughter who might be drawn to veterinary medicine, I'd ask you to consider introducing her to these kinds of depictions of the life of a highly educated, skilled, compassionate and tough woman who is also a doctor of veterinary medicine.I'm not a parent myself, but this seems to me to be a better idea than encouraging your girl child to strive to be someone's fetishized and insultingly sexist depiction of a professional. She's better than that. Period.