2019
November
21
Thursday

Monitor Daily Podcast

November 21, 2019
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Eva Botkin-Kowacki
Science, environment, and technology writer

Today’s stories explore how community is rebuilt after disaster, the role of women in the impeachment hearings, where Ukraine’s allegiances may soon lie, a shift in Georgia’s environmental regulation approach, and how a new film tapped into the universal influence of Mister Rogers.

But first, Ashleigh Bentz knows what it’s like to want a doll that looks like her. As someone who uses a prosthesis, “growing up, the only way my Barbie looked like me was if I broke her leg off,” she told KSDK News. “I can’t imagine what having one (with a prosthetic leg) would have done for my self-esteem back then.”

Earlier this year, toy company Mattel debuted a Barbie doll with a prosthetic leg and another with a wheelchair. Last Friday, Ms. Bentz donated nearly 600 such dolls to a St. Louis children’s hospital. Her reasoning? To give patients a gift that would meet them where they are.

Barbie, which turned 60 this year, has long been criticized for setting unattainable beauty standards for young girls. But as more parents have sought out toys they can connect with and that support the values they want to instill in their children, Barbie has had to change.

“Our goal was to really celebrate all types of beauty,” Evelyn Mazzocco, head of the Barbie brand in 2016, told Time Magazine when the company released dolls with different body shapes. The previous year, Mattel debuted 23 ethnically diverse Barbies.

Connor Maine, a patient who received a doll from Ms. Bentz, said he’s going to give it to his sister. “It can give an idea to my sister that no one is the same and everyone is unique.”


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

A deeper look

Julio Cortez/AP
Former White House national security aide Fiona Hill arrives to testify before the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2019. Dr. Hill was testifying in the public impeachment hearings looking into whether President Donald Trump attempted to tie U.S. aid for Ukraine to investigations of his political opponents.

On Film

Lacey Terrell/Sony-Tristar Pictures/AP
Matthew Rhys (left) stars as Lloyd Vogel, a journalist, and Tom Hanks as children's TV personality Mister Rogers in "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood."

The Monitor's View

Reuters
President Trump shakes hands with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy at the United Nations Sept. 25.

A Christian Science Perspective

About this feature

A message of love

Muhammad Hamed/Reuters
Bedouin young man sits in the Siq, a narrow gorge leading to the ancient city of Petra, south of Amman, Jordan. The ancient Nabatean city welcomed it's 1 millionth visitor on Nov. 21, 2019.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Karen Norris and Jacob Turcotte. )

A look ahead

Thanks for joining us. Come back tomorrow. We’ll look at the underlying frustrations – and persistence – fueling doctors’ strikes in Zimbabwe.

More issues

2019
November
21
Thursday
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