Last but not least: My first cosmetic surgery

There is nothing that does not exist. Or rather, there was, because Apple has now removed "Plastic Surgery & Plastic Doctor & Plastic Hospital Office for Barbie" from the iTunes Store. A good week after the release, the time was ripe. Especially when you consider that Apple usually deletes content from the stores quite quickly and squeamishly - with reasons that are much more difficult to comprehend.

Back to Barbie: Said app had nothing to do with "Barbie" manufacturer Mattel, but was developed by a woman named Corina Rodriquez. The aim of the game was, in the role of a plastic surgeon, to make an "unhappy girl who is so overweight that no diet can help her" "slim and beautiful" by liposuction. Age recommendation: from nine years.

You don't have to be a feminist, a child psychologist, a moralist or a do-gooder to conclude that there is hardly any more pedagogically absurd nonsense on the game palette for ten-year-old girls. Laura Bates, founder of an anti-sexism project and initiator of the protest against the app, told The Guardian such games are "incredibly damaging" to the image young girls have of the human body. The name "Barbie" makes the app particularly attractive to young female users, who have easy access to it through the iPad and iPhone. True enough. Incidentally, a similar app existed for Android, and Google has also removed it. (hae)