Cliched - or educational? Relaunched Barbie Dolls of the World collection under fire for promoting 'dated cultural stereotypes'

It can be hard these days to distinguish between a genuine celebration of cultural traits and a crass marketing effort exploiting lame stereotypes. Which, then, do you think is at play with Barbie's new "Dolls of the World" collection?

Pundits aren't exactly sure what to make of the set of dolls, which includes a woman in a cheongsam clutching a panda and, perhaps more problematically, a Mexican figure in a pink party dress holding a Chihuahua. The truth, of course, is probably that 25-year-old women from Shanghai to Mexico City are all dressing like Lena Dunham's character in "Girls."

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