Cathy Dobbs: Why dads will be dragged along to see Barbie
Think of Barbie and images of little girls playing with their favourite doll, dressing her up in different outfits and driving her around in a pink car come to mind.
She may have been criticised for having an impossibly perfect body and causing girls to feel insecure about their looks from an early age, but that hasn’t stopped her popularity.
Now that the Barbie movie is hitting cinemas everywhere her loyal young fans are being told they aren’t old enough to see the film. The movie has a 12A age-rating, meaning an adult must accompany anyone under the age of 12 to see it when it comes out on Friday.
The rating warns viewers of strong language, moderate innuendo and dangerous behaviour. I hope there are dads out there preparing to embrace their inner Ken and take their little one along to what looks set to be the most plastic fantastic film of the year.
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In the UK we often hear people lamenting our struggling NHS, cash-strapped schools and clueless government. But chatting with friends on a video call who have moved to Vietnam, South Africa and Hong Kong, it seems we don’t know how lucky we are. All of them would return to the UK for our fantastic free education system and highly-regarded NHS. We may not be perfect, but when there have been over three million people applying for UK visas in the last year, we are obviously doing something right.
*** One thing we do love to talk about, though, is the weather – which at the moment can’t decide what it’s doing.
Now the Met Office has said there is a ‘low chance’ of a heatwave this summer. It’s a bit of a relief because if temperatures did rise we’d only complain about the heat – better to suffer the rain and wind and stay indoors re-watching local lad Henry Searle win the Wimbledon Boys’ final – what a star!
Psychedelic drugs are becoming more popular with middle-aged, middle-class people who like to hold magic mushroom dinner parties. A recent YouGov opinion poll found that people feel more confident about using substances such as magic mushrooms for medicinal purposes than taking more accepted treatments – especially when it comes to mental health.
There is a lot we still don’t understand about illegal drugs. However, while people are risking a prison sentence in a bid to escape something in their life, shouldn’t we find out what is going so wrong, instead of punishing those that are possibly already suffering?
