Barbie
Like every good feminist mother I said “no” when my five-year-old daughter demanded a Barbie. I said “no” and I said “no” and I said “no” again.
Then (like every other procreator who is a fatally flawed human rather than one of those superior, mechanised parental no-bots), I caved shortly after pester number googol.
“OK,” I said. “But just one. With brown hair. And the marginally thicker waist Mattel introduced after 1997. How about African American Boot Camp Barbie? Her functional khaki trousers and radically articulated limbs are on par with separatist lesbianism given the feet-bindingly narrow domain of the Barbie-verse, wouldn’t you say, Alice?”
Continue reading "I’m a Barbie Mum. How the hell did this happen?" »
Welcome to this week’s I Call Bullshit, a regular column on spin and skulduggery, pseudoscience and shenanigans. This week we’re looking at Mattel’s decision to make a bald Barbie.
Bald Barbie – or bald-friend-of-Barbie – will be distributed in hospitals to kids with cancer, or other conditions which make them lose their hair. Mattel said it “demonstrates Mattel’s commitment to encourage play as a respite for children in the hospital and bring joy to children in need”. Aw.
Mattel are responding to a Facebook page calling for a bald doll to help all children suffering hairloss, and only the cynical would suggest it was also responding to the February announcement that Barbie’s main competitors – Bratz and Moxie Girlz dolls – would be getting hairless friends.
Continue reading "ICB: Barbie exists to make children feel normal" »
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stephen says:
It’s more about the meaning of the dolls, Alycia, rather than an impression. Kika, above said that it is natural for girls to want to be like a mum and mother their dolls ... and I’m not so sure. I mean, I’ve never been a girl, or had kids -… Read more »
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Alycia says:
As a kid, I never looked to Barbie and moaned about/compared/bawled/ about her waistline. Kids don’t look at that stuff. Adults do, but kids don’t. Sometimes people, when they make their comments on all these doll companies, fail to look at the dolls through eyes of a kid. Okay yeah,… Read more »
His muscles are permanently flexed, his fashions impeccably zhooshed and his fringe swing puts Justin Bieber’s to shame.
He is Ken doll and he has just celebrated 50 years of hyper – yet exquisitely ambiguous – masculinity.
To mark such a momentous jubilee, this column will now tackle the big questions about Barbie’s tackle-less escort. Big questions such as:
Continue reading "Happy 50th, Ken: May you freak us out for years to come" »
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Erick says:
Boys can also exclude each other in order to inflict pain and suffering. This is what’s known as bullying. But, in my admittedly limited experience, younger boys exclude girls because they’re simply interested in different things. However, after puberty, boys are very much interested in girls - but they might… Read more »
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undertow says:
If it walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck… It’s probably a militant feminist plot to overthrow the supposed archetypal male dominated patriarchal system and not paranoia on Erick’s part. Read more »
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