Barbie is like a sewer...
Aug. 1st, 2011 04:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kukla_tko"I'm reminded of the great philosopher Hen3ry, who said, 'Life is like a sewer; what you get out of it depends upon what you put into it.'"
Barbie is like that.
Yes, I'm going to talk about Barbie. There's a LOT of talk about Barbie. There is a lot of over-analysis about Barbie. There's a large marketing machine behind Barbie. There are a lot of girls in the world who own one or more Barbie dolls.
When the idea of Barbie was in its infancy, they test-marketed the doll and got some weird responses. Mothers who took the doll away from their girls saying, "This is a DADDY doll. Play with the baby doll."
It wasn't until they tweaked their marketing strategy that parents became supportive of the idea of a doll that was shaped (vaguely) like an adult as a plaything for children. What they did was to use Barbie as a template onto which a child can project their own dreams and aspirations.
And frankly, this is the power of Barbie.
Barbie is nothing. Barbie is a human-shaped doll, with very generic features with hair that feels soft and a million clothes and accessories. Barbie dolls come in several skin tones and ethnicities. But Barbie herself doesn't teach anything. She is a canvas, a template, a void into which one places one's own ideas.
I think that she can be something of an inkblot test, too. What we see when we look at a doll reflects the landscape of our own mind.
So if you pick up a Barbie doll and your first response is, "She's such a whore!" what does that say about you and your own mind? About how you look at people.
I get absolutely pissed off when people start to scream and holler and insist that Barbie gave them an eating disorder, or that Barbie gave them unrealistic expectations because of her bizzarre proportions.
Barbie is a doll. A piece of plastic. Raggedy Ann is recognizable as a representitive of a human. She has arms, legs, a head, and a torso. Any child who sees a Raggedy Ann doll understands that she represents a human, but is not a perfect replica. Human beings' arms aren't floppy like that, and humans have more details on their torso. Humans do not have a tattoo on their chest that says "I love you" in a heart shape, unless they have gone to great measures to do so as an adult. Humans have nipples and a belly button, Raggedy Ann does not.
Yet, for some reason, parents and feminist groups rally behind the flag of "Barbie teaches innappropriate body image!" because for some reason they think Barbie is meant to look exactly like a 1/6 scale human, and they think that children also expect her to be a perfect replica of a 1/6 scale human.
She is not a perfect replica of a human being: SHE IS A DOLL. She's shaped like that because she was designed after the Bild Lili dolls that were adult collectables in Germany. The woman who ripped the design off of (er, excuse me, was inspired by) Lili discovered that while adults were buying these dolls, their children wanted to play with them.
So she made a doll that children could play with.
In order to create 1/6 scale clothes, one has to contend with the fact that the material is not 1/6 scale, and therefore tends to be bulky. The doll was designed with exaggerated features because they wanted her to look vaguely person-shaped when she was dressed. The waistbands of those early skirts, dresses, and pants filled in the hip-to-waist ratio quite a bit.
So Barbie is a little bit funny-looking. She's not in perfect proportion. She's not what "real" grown-up women look like.
And I say unto the world: SO WHAT? She's a DOLL! Dolls have always been exaggerated or over simplified. China dolls have large heads in proportion to their bodies. (Really. Look at them sometime.) Often they have weird blunt feet that are not in proportion with the rest of their body. Action figures gloss over the features that are unnecessary and exaggerate the features that are important for that figure.
Hell, the Statue of David is all out of proportion. Seriously: Look at the sheer size of his hands! Look at the Pieta: None of the proportions are correct in it, yet it is beautiful and makes its point.
But back to Barbie.
Little children learn distorted body image from their parents, their siblings, their friends, and their TV. Little children learn to have Barbie ask her friend if she looks fat from the world that we live in. All children learn from the things we say, the things we do, and even more importantly the things we fail to say and do.
My mother gave me a barbie when I was in preschool. I still have that exact doll, and I still think she's amazing. However, how amazing she is has nothing to do with her figure, her smile, or the paint on her face that represents her eyes. I loved her hair not because it was blonde, but because it is the exact color of my favorite soup. (Lipton Chicken Noodle from a box.) I loved this doll because when I was given the doll, my mother *played* with me. This doll was many things over the years. Cinderella. Teacher. Student. Hero. Villain. Adventurer. Rich person on a beach. Poor person working hard to make herself better. Singer. Dancer. Public Speaker.
So here's what I learned from Barbie:
There are lots of accessories out there. If you try to collect them all, you will lose pieces and have no room for your other toys.
Don't leave plastic in the sun.
If you fail to get the water out of a hollow plastic body or a soft plastic head, it will smell funny later.
If you chew on the soft parts, you will leave permanent marks.
If you use a sharpie, it will leave permanent marks.
Grown ups have giant butts. (Hey, I *do* have a giant butt!)
Shoes are not very useful if you lose one of them.
Kleenex makes awesome outfits.
So does foil, and pipe cleaners.
Weirdly, Barbie can share clothes with Michael Jackson.
Here's what I learned from my mother:
Barbie can be anything, so what do you want to pretend today?
It's nice to have lots of clothes, but it is more fun when you share them with your friends. (All my barbies played with the same stash of clothes, even the clothes that "came with " a barbie were open season for the rest of the dolls.)
Even people who look alike can have radically different personalities. (each of my dolls had a distinct personality.)
The brunette can be the hero, and the blonde can be the villain. The reverse is also true.
Ken is a dork. 12" Han Solo (ok, really Indiana Jones) is awesome.
It's important to put everything away when you are done so you can find it next time.
If you keep your dolls into adulthood, you can play with them with children when you're 40.
At the end of the day, all the barbie dolls get along, even if the action of the day had them at each other's throats.
Fashion is fun, but costumes are better.
It's fun to play Barbie with your brother; he comes up with awesome games.
It's not a great idea to leave your barbie in your brother's room.
Even princesses have to work hard.
Even hard workers can be princesses.
Here's my bonus lessons from the dreaded Disney Princesses and other Heroines:
Snow White: Being pretty is a problem, not a solution.
Cinderella: Work hard and good things will come to you.
Sleeping Beauty: Your parents cannot protect you from everything.
Tinkerbell: You don't always get what you want, but bravery is its own reward.
The Little Mermaid: A girl with an eye for a bargain will likely rip you off. Also, your personal world is a small part of the real world.
Mulan: Be brave, be strong, be who you WANT to be.
Beauty and the Beast: I could make a pithy statement about Stockholm Syndrome, but instead: Just because this isn't part of the plan doesn't mean you can't achieve your dreams.
Aladdin: Anyone can go far if you know the right people. (Note to Jasmine: Look up the word "consort". There's a good girl...)
Do not blame Barbie for teaching you the wrong lessons. Do not blame "Disney Princesses" for making women look passive or weak.
Look within yourself, look carefully at the lessons your parents taught you, and listen to the things that you yourself say every day.
Look at Barbie, and look at her with new eyes. See her a a doll, not a person. See her as a blank canvas, not a sex symbol. Consider what values you can lay over her simple plastic frame and make her into what you want her to be.
Now share THAT with your children.
Barbie is like that.
Yes, I'm going to talk about Barbie. There's a LOT of talk about Barbie. There is a lot of over-analysis about Barbie. There's a large marketing machine behind Barbie. There are a lot of girls in the world who own one or more Barbie dolls.
When the idea of Barbie was in its infancy, they test-marketed the doll and got some weird responses. Mothers who took the doll away from their girls saying, "This is a DADDY doll. Play with the baby doll."
It wasn't until they tweaked their marketing strategy that parents became supportive of the idea of a doll that was shaped (vaguely) like an adult as a plaything for children. What they did was to use Barbie as a template onto which a child can project their own dreams and aspirations.
And frankly, this is the power of Barbie.
Barbie is nothing. Barbie is a human-shaped doll, with very generic features with hair that feels soft and a million clothes and accessories. Barbie dolls come in several skin tones and ethnicities. But Barbie herself doesn't teach anything. She is a canvas, a template, a void into which one places one's own ideas.
I think that she can be something of an inkblot test, too. What we see when we look at a doll reflects the landscape of our own mind.
So if you pick up a Barbie doll and your first response is, "She's such a whore!" what does that say about you and your own mind? About how you look at people.
I get absolutely pissed off when people start to scream and holler and insist that Barbie gave them an eating disorder, or that Barbie gave them unrealistic expectations because of her bizzarre proportions.
Barbie is a doll. A piece of plastic. Raggedy Ann is recognizable as a representitive of a human. She has arms, legs, a head, and a torso. Any child who sees a Raggedy Ann doll understands that she represents a human, but is not a perfect replica. Human beings' arms aren't floppy like that, and humans have more details on their torso. Humans do not have a tattoo on their chest that says "I love you" in a heart shape, unless they have gone to great measures to do so as an adult. Humans have nipples and a belly button, Raggedy Ann does not.
Yet, for some reason, parents and feminist groups rally behind the flag of "Barbie teaches innappropriate body image!" because for some reason they think Barbie is meant to look exactly like a 1/6 scale human, and they think that children also expect her to be a perfect replica of a 1/6 scale human.
She is not a perfect replica of a human being: SHE IS A DOLL. She's shaped like that because she was designed after the Bild Lili dolls that were adult collectables in Germany. The woman who ripped the design off of (er, excuse me, was inspired by) Lili discovered that while adults were buying these dolls, their children wanted to play with them.
So she made a doll that children could play with.
In order to create 1/6 scale clothes, one has to contend with the fact that the material is not 1/6 scale, and therefore tends to be bulky. The doll was designed with exaggerated features because they wanted her to look vaguely person-shaped when she was dressed. The waistbands of those early skirts, dresses, and pants filled in the hip-to-waist ratio quite a bit.
So Barbie is a little bit funny-looking. She's not in perfect proportion. She's not what "real" grown-up women look like.
And I say unto the world: SO WHAT? She's a DOLL! Dolls have always been exaggerated or over simplified. China dolls have large heads in proportion to their bodies. (Really. Look at them sometime.) Often they have weird blunt feet that are not in proportion with the rest of their body. Action figures gloss over the features that are unnecessary and exaggerate the features that are important for that figure.
Hell, the Statue of David is all out of proportion. Seriously: Look at the sheer size of his hands! Look at the Pieta: None of the proportions are correct in it, yet it is beautiful and makes its point.
But back to Barbie.
Little children learn distorted body image from their parents, their siblings, their friends, and their TV. Little children learn to have Barbie ask her friend if she looks fat from the world that we live in. All children learn from the things we say, the things we do, and even more importantly the things we fail to say and do.
My mother gave me a barbie when I was in preschool. I still have that exact doll, and I still think she's amazing. However, how amazing she is has nothing to do with her figure, her smile, or the paint on her face that represents her eyes. I loved her hair not because it was blonde, but because it is the exact color of my favorite soup. (Lipton Chicken Noodle from a box.) I loved this doll because when I was given the doll, my mother *played* with me. This doll was many things over the years. Cinderella. Teacher. Student. Hero. Villain. Adventurer. Rich person on a beach. Poor person working hard to make herself better. Singer. Dancer. Public Speaker.
So here's what I learned from Barbie:
There are lots of accessories out there. If you try to collect them all, you will lose pieces and have no room for your other toys.
Don't leave plastic in the sun.
If you fail to get the water out of a hollow plastic body or a soft plastic head, it will smell funny later.
If you chew on the soft parts, you will leave permanent marks.
If you use a sharpie, it will leave permanent marks.
Grown ups have giant butts. (Hey, I *do* have a giant butt!)
Shoes are not very useful if you lose one of them.
Kleenex makes awesome outfits.
So does foil, and pipe cleaners.
Weirdly, Barbie can share clothes with Michael Jackson.
Here's what I learned from my mother:
Barbie can be anything, so what do you want to pretend today?
It's nice to have lots of clothes, but it is more fun when you share them with your friends. (All my barbies played with the same stash of clothes, even the clothes that "came with " a barbie were open season for the rest of the dolls.)
Even people who look alike can have radically different personalities. (each of my dolls had a distinct personality.)
The brunette can be the hero, and the blonde can be the villain. The reverse is also true.
Ken is a dork. 12" Han Solo (ok, really Indiana Jones) is awesome.
It's important to put everything away when you are done so you can find it next time.
If you keep your dolls into adulthood, you can play with them with children when you're 40.
At the end of the day, all the barbie dolls get along, even if the action of the day had them at each other's throats.
Fashion is fun, but costumes are better.
It's fun to play Barbie with your brother; he comes up with awesome games.
It's not a great idea to leave your barbie in your brother's room.
Even princesses have to work hard.
Even hard workers can be princesses.
Here's my bonus lessons from the dreaded Disney Princesses and other Heroines:
Snow White: Being pretty is a problem, not a solution.
Cinderella: Work hard and good things will come to you.
Sleeping Beauty: Your parents cannot protect you from everything.
Tinkerbell: You don't always get what you want, but bravery is its own reward.
The Little Mermaid: A girl with an eye for a bargain will likely rip you off. Also, your personal world is a small part of the real world.
Mulan: Be brave, be strong, be who you WANT to be.
Beauty and the Beast: I could make a pithy statement about Stockholm Syndrome, but instead: Just because this isn't part of the plan doesn't mean you can't achieve your dreams.
Aladdin: Anyone can go far if you know the right people. (Note to Jasmine: Look up the word "consort". There's a good girl...)
Do not blame Barbie for teaching you the wrong lessons. Do not blame "Disney Princesses" for making women look passive or weak.
Look within yourself, look carefully at the lessons your parents taught you, and listen to the things that you yourself say every day.
Look at Barbie, and look at her with new eyes. See her a a doll, not a person. See her as a blank canvas, not a sex symbol. Consider what values you can lay over her simple plastic frame and make her into what you want her to be.
Now share THAT with your children.
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no subject
Date: 2011-08-03 02:59 am (UTC)Something I've specifically seen as a message amongst many cartoons that I hold dear is the idea that there is always a positive outcome, even if it's not inherently obvious. And that the angry, violent way isn't the answer, even if it's the first thing that comes to mind and seems far easier. Also, there is always more than one side to a situation, and situations collapse when one side can't see it.