6/01/01

Hey gang

I have an idea for a feature in the webzine on Barbie... I'd like to run a feature of a listserv discussion about her.

In other words, write the list about how you feel about Barbie (is she a skinny bad role model, a hip chick, something you secretly covet, not a really big deal what's all the fuss?) And we will post a "what's happening on the list" page. It won't have your email address, but put a name for you to be listed as-- for example, I'll start us off here....

My feelings about Barbie are mixed. I started my Barbie coveting phase much older than most girls, at about 11 years old (there are even Barbie clothes for infants now, so, like the cigarette companies, they're gettin' 'em early). I never played with her the way they always show little girls on TV-- bouncing the dolls around like they're walking, and playing with her like a "doll." For me, Barbie and her three or four brightly smiling clones siblings were fashion "victims." I didn't have a lot of the ready made clothes, so I would be creative, make up new dresses for her, braid her hair, and put her in my Barbie dreamhouse (yes, I had the big fancy yellow house that eventually was bigger than my first car). I made furniture for her, once fashioning a clever little bedside table from two of those "push up" sherbet ice cream sticks-- you know, the little white plastic ones? After I got her all dressed up, I'd sit them all down and leave them there-- in my mind, I'd think "okay, now you guys all have fun, talk, smile, party...." then I'd leave them that way, like a little frozen "Barbie Tableau Vivant" and go read, or play in the treehouse outside, or ride my bike. I had a normal childhood-- and I don't think Barbie's influence on me was all that bad.

Today, I know that a lot of people really hate Barbie-- poor thing, she's said some dumb things (but as an English major I agreed with her that "Math Class was hard" so couldn't see what all the fuss was about-- maybe Barbie's a big reader-- d'ya ever think of that? It's not like Ken is a genius either!). She gets a terrible scolding for her plastic proportions-- her boobs are too big and perfect, her waist way too thin, her feet all pointy and impractical, her hair too blonde and her eyes too wide and innocent. We hear that if Barbie were a real woman, she wouldn't have enough body fat to menstruate, she wouldn't be able to hold her head up on her too long neck, she wouldn't be able to walk on those shoes. But really, I think a friend of mine summed it up when she said "Barbie's a 'ho'".... Is it not that we think she's a bad body image, really, is it perhaps that we think she's just Bad? Her historical origins, apparently, are from a German doll, Lilli, who was basically a hooker. So are you really all that surprised? Is Barbie's sordid past a reason to burn her at the stake? Don't we all have a few skeletons in our pink, plastic closet?

But, I do wonder:

This is where my mixed feelings come in. Do I have a bad body image because of Barbie? Maybe-- I know that at 11 or so, I was forming some of my ideas about what it meant to be a woman... and there is probably some Barbie mixed in a little bit with my image. But, even though I've joined the ranks of the size 14's in the US, and even though I would really really like to be healthier, I do NOT want to be skinny again. I like the size of my boobs just fine, and don't want to dye my hair Malibu Barbie Blonde (although I think it's a pretty color for others to have). I always kind of liked Midge, Barbie's best friend, (the redhead who you sometimes couldn't find). I don't agonize over my weight (although I think my face is a little too round, but am not going to have plastic surgery or anything). I'm too busy concentrating on my brain to worry too much about my body. Nowadays, Barbies come in lots of styles and colors (although for some reason I still have a hard time finding red headed Midge) -- but her body shape is essentially the same as it always was.

Career Girl? Some people have pointed out that Barbie has broken into some career fields that even the most ardent feminists haven't managed yet-- she's been a veterinarian, an astronaut, Formula 1 race car driver, an Olympic athlete, a pilot, a surgeon, -- not to mention the fashion model and bride versions. I even saw "Boot Camp" Barbie at the local base exchange-- she had short hair and wore camos. You can get Lucy Ricardo Barbie, Liz Taylor Barbie, Brandi Barbie, Audrey Hepburn, a new Barbie that looks like Marilyn Monroe & Jane Russel all rolled into one, Erica Kane Barbie. Apparently, if you're hip in Hollywood, you either have been or will be a Barbie. There have been Barbie's that looked very much like the zoned out Woodstock Hippie... as well as Glamorous Bob Mackie Barbie. Some people say that if Barbie were an actual surgeon, she couldn't perform surgery in high pointy heels and she couldn't turn her head down to look at the patient. But isn't the point that, as a role model, she breaks the glass ceiling? Do we really want a doll to shatter it? Isn't that up to us to do, in the "real world?" And have we forgotten that Barbie was created by a woman, who became a multi-millionaire? Did she sell out womanhood, or put her kids through college?

So my point is this-- I like to skulk down the Barbie aisle in Target, looking at the hot pink boxes and trying to decide if the 30 something dollar price is too much to pay for "flapper" Barbie. I do feel a little weird about it though. Should I still covet the dolls in their shiny boxes? My mother had bought me a Graduation Barbie when I got my Master's Degree (she's still in her box, wearing a bright blue cap & gown and holding her diploma-- I'm not sure what she majored in but isn't baby blue the Education Department?). Somehow, admitting that you're a feminist but you don't think that Barbie is necessarily harmful to girls' self image is not acceptable. But I still feel this way... why? I never believed Barbie was an ideal for me. I never wanted to be just like her-- I just wanted to dress her and decorate her house. Anyone who knows me today (friends call me Martha when I throw dinner parties) knows that there are definite domestic sides to me-- and I love to dress up in ball gowns and go to dances and get my hair done. NONE of these things means that I don't have a brain. Kim

Okay-- so this is the idea-- can you guys write something about how you feel about Barbie? It doesn't have to be as long as this-- just tell me something honest... even if you hate Barbie-- tell me why (maybe even especially if you hate her).

This could be cool, you guys!!

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From: "Kelly J. Anderes" <[email protected] Subject: Re: womenwriters Barbie Date: Wednesday, December 06, 2000 5:48 PM

Kim, My six year old adores Barbie. With her umpteen Barbies she can keep herself occupied while I take care of more mundane challenges (laundry, balancing my checkbook, etc). Occasionally she will even let her 3 year old brother in on the game (for him it is a matter of how many Barbies does it take to fill the Barbie Car or how long can Barbie ride her bucking bronco before she is thrown). It seems a far better pastime for her than watching TV. She even endured hours of power shopping for school clothes & supplies with the promise of going to the Barbie room @ FOA Schwartz. I don't see Barbie as a role model for good or evil. She's a doll. Through her Callahan can try on a variety of roles (currently she's an Olympic swimmer/skier). And her Barbie collection is certainly more ethnically diverse than her kindergarten classroom, community, or state. My only real gripe with Barbie is all the tiny bits of paraphernalia that accompany her. And who could possibly need that many hairbrushes. :^) Barbie may not like math, but she's a great vet, new anchor, p.i., dj, skater, etc. Who cares if she's not real.

Kelly Anderes

From: <[email protected] To: <[email protected] Subject: Re: womenwriters Barbie Date: Wednesday, December 06, 2000 6:32 PM

Wow! I've been non-existant on the net lately...had to study for my Master's Orals, which I barely survived, but what a discussion to come back to. I have a 7-year-old and I've wondered if her desire for Barbie has had any impact on her self-image. I've come to the conclusion that the whole fascination for the non-existant image of female perfection (so some say) has had its its benefits and disadvantages. On one hand, she has much more of a sense of fashion and coordination when it comes to clothes, hair, and the actual care of herself and her personal effects. She likes to do her hair, and she is conscious of her appearance when she goes out in public. She also seems to have a sense of pride about her appearance (I know, I know...could cause me major problems in the future :-) ) However, while I see that as a good thing, I've also seen her get upset because she's puts on something that does't fit anymore and instead of accepting that she's simply outgrown it, she wonders if, instead, she's fat. She doesn't see it as necessarily bad on other people--she loves Rosie O'Donnell and Ricki Lake (acting in Crybaby and other dense but basically innocent movies). We haven't really decided how to mediate the two sides. I can say, though, we did indulge her and went Barbie all the way for a while, but she's actually moved away from it somewhat, and has begun to look for more pre-adolescent items--CD's, hair accessories, movies, board games, jewelry kits, etc. The jury's still out on the issue in respect to her.

Before I say anything about the larger implications, has anyone read Denise Duhamel's Kinky? It's a collection of poems based on Barbie and her public image. If no one has, I'd recommend it; very witty, yet extremely insightful commentary--titles include Barbie's molester, Barbie in Therapy...etc.

Danna

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From: "Joy Arbor" <[email protected] Subject: RE: womenwriters Barbie Date: Thursday, December 07, 2000 6:47 PM

Let me just second the call to Denise's Kinky - it's fabulous. No discussion of Barbie can be complete without it. I believe that Lyn Lifshin has also written poems on Barbie. Also I think that there is an anthology on Barbie writings - called Barbie Nation or something.

Joy

Joy Arbor Poetry Editor www.womenwriters.net

From: "E Mastrianni" <[email protected] Subject: barbie Date: Saturday, December 09, 2000 10:39 AM

I was going to keep my mouth shut concerning my own Barbie experiences, but the cogent discussion on Barbie was just too tempting. My childhood best friend and I played with barbies all the time. You know those sewing pins with the balls on the end? We would get some red pins and stick them in our barbies breasts to make nipples. I don't remember why we did this, but I suppose that we knew that her body was sanitized, and we wanted to make her more real. Enid

Women Writers - http://www.womenwriters.net

Barbie came too late for me. We had two kinds of dolls: prom queen dolls with Doris Day hair and baby dolls. I put the prom queen dolls on the top shelf and let them gather dust. I played with the baby dolls. This was only logical for a girl whose hair curled, but in all the wrong directions. Mother didn't approve of Barbie, and neither did I, a rare point of agreement. She decried Barbie as an obviously empty-headed and immoral role model, leading little girls prematurely to think of growing up and sex. I can't think why this bothered her, as she was the Liz Taylor of our little town in upstate NY. I had to confront Barbie again with my own children, although indirectly, on the other side of the gender circle. I had sons, and boys, too, want dolls at a certain age. Not surprising--they are, after all, also practicing to be human. War toys were a hot topic, but GI Joe was everywhere, along with his weapons and vehicles. (Was this the opposite number to lipsticks and the plastic mansion?) In the end, we got those GI Joes and let the little boys play. They dressed him in his fatigues and took them off. They put on his fighter pilot outfit and sent him flying through the air--sometimes without benefit of plane--on missions of attack and conquest. They buried him in the sandbox and forgot him for days. They erected forts for him out of sticks and boards in the weeds between our house and the cornfield. Poor GI Joe often looked as if he had been on duty somewhere in the swamps of Vietnam when he was remembered and retrieved. Some of our friends wondered that we should be letting our sons play with "war toys," but we knew by this time that he was just a doll. Now my granddaughters play with Barbie. Hispanic ones, Black ones--as well as the traditional Tipi Hedrins--litter their floors. Privately, I still think she's a floozy, whatever color she comes in. I really wish they weren't so interested in getting her new outfits all the time or in "shopping" with the credit cards which their Mommy doesn't use with anymore--now relegated to a left-over Easter basket. But I keep my opinions to myself. I have even sat on the floor with the girls and dressed and undressed a few Barbies, even taken them shopping. I know that Barbie, no matter what marketing departments intend, is at core, simply a doll, and "Let's play Barbies" is Lingua Franca among today's little girls. Dolls are part of the learning play of humans, so I'll close my eyes to her as slut and capitalist tool. Besides, eventually, I know she'll get left out in the rain, or the dog will chew her, or they will shear off all her hair in an experiment with scissors. Then Barbie will look more like the rest of us when we get up in the morning, and that, too, will be a learning experience. Juliet Waldron www.onlineoriginals.com/ http://mozartswife.itpsites.com Nominated for the Frankfurt e-book Award

From: "Garrett, Ashley S." <[email protected] Subject: womenwriters My Barbie Vision Date: Wednesday, December 13, 2000 3:55 PM

Today at lunch, my friend, Craig and I were deciding what to buy for our mothers for Christmas. Last year, he got his 48-year old mother a Barbie doll because she never had one as a child. She cried when she opened it and he cries telling me about it. She will not take her doll out of the box, but she has it set up on her dresser so that she can look at Barbie every day. I shared my Christmas Barbie stories-I had two Barbies, the pink Corvette, the stewardess plane, the Winnebago, the pool and the three-story, completely furnished yellow and pink dream house. My dad still talks about staying up until 4am to get the goddamn elevator working in that dream house and my sister and I had it broken by 8:30. He smiles when he tells it and waves his hands above his head with mock frustration.

Craig is terribly jealous of my Barbie stories because he spent every Christmas morning unwrapping Tonka trucks and GI Joes and every Christmas afternoon prancing around the tree in his Grandma's spectator pumps and pillbox hat. This year, he's bought his mother another Barbie, an extra Barbie, and he's already taken her out of the box. He's made four new outfits for Barbie, fabulous show clothes made from his leftover maribou feathers and sequins. He's going to teach his mom how to play with Barbie for real. I know it will be a grand Christmas for both of them.

I don't miss Barbie, I didn't keep any of my stuff and I don't understand people who would read a glossy book about Barbie instead of reading...a real book. Maybe I did ingest some sick ideas about the "correct" proportion of boobs to waist to butt from Barbie because I always seem to be sucking in my stomach and thrusting out my chest these days. I don't know. I wouldn't buy a Barbie for my niece, but she's already got them all. I don't stand in front of the mirror and beat myself up for not looking like Barbie, but sometimes I do see little glimpses of her in there.

I have a date tomorrow night, a real date with dinner and butterflies and pantyhose. It's my first date in over ten years. I'm scared and I'm excited and I know he's not a freakshow but I'm worried that I am and just don't know it yet. I try on everything in my closet, hoping to find a size four in the fourteens. I find a skirt that looks thin and a sweater that looks buxom and they match. I even have a gorgeous pair of suede pumps in just the same color of chocolaty brown. I take them out of the box they've waited in for so long and I let that perfect shoe groove sink deep into my bones, the feeling that everything has to work out just fine in this pair of shoes. I slip my feet into them and rise up on the heels-my legs look like Barbie legs (except the knees don't bend backwards). In this outfit, I am long and thin and tall and golden and my hair swirls around my shoulders as I hold my neck as high as I can and my arms out to my sides with the wrists turned up just so. I am Barbie incarnate, only brunette and 32. The fixed smile is the same. And maybe that hollow feeling where the stomach should be.

From: "Lisa Johnson" <[email protected] Subject: womenwriters Barbie's Bod Date: Saturday, December 16, 2000 9:48 AM

I don't remember ever being too "into" Barbie. I think the only ones I had were hand-me-downs from my mother - at least I know I had her "Skipper." I guess I never knew what to do with Barbie dolls. The only Barbie memory I have is of running my thumb back and forth over her boobs, in admiration and awe. They were so solid and pronounced; I found myself riveted. She was so stiff, though, that "play" seemed impossible.

I couldn't cuddle with her; her clothes were too hard to put on and take off; I have a sense memory of what her legs tasted like - I think I put her little feet in my mouth - weird, but there it is. She couldn't even stand up! "Santa" brought my four-year-old half sister several dolls last Christmas, and one is called Polly something or other; she's smaller than Barbie, but the most noticeable difference is how easy her clothes - skin-tight jeans, for instance - slide on and off her slippery plastic body. Maybe I'm not creative enough, but I still don't see the fun in dressing and undressing a doll. I'd rather play dress-up myself.

Lisa Johnson ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Visiting Assistant Professor Dept. of English & Philosophy State University of West Georgia Carrollton, GA 30118 [email protected]

From: Sandra Alagona Subject: Grad School Barbie

Hi all! I know this is not necessarily the forum for this, but I thought some of you could use a good laugh at such a stressful time!

Stay well! Sandra

-----Original Message-----
Some gift ideas for the grad students in your life...
GRADUATE SCHOOL BARBIE (TM) Graduate School Barbie comes in two forms: Delusional Master's Barbie (tm) and Ph.D. Masochist Barbie (tm).
Every Graduate School Barbie comes with these fun filled features guaranteed to delight and entertain for hours:

• Grad School Barbie comes out of the box with a big grin on her face that turns into a frown after 2 weeks or her first advisor meeting (whichever comes first).
• Adorable black circles under her delightfully bloodshot eyes.
• Comes with two outfits: a grubby pair of blue jeans and 5 year old gap T-shirt, and a floppy pair of gray sweatpants with a matching "Go Screw Yourself" T-shirt.
• Grad School Barbie talks! Just press the button on her left hand and hear her say such upbeat grad school phrases like, "Yes, Professor, It'll be done by tomorrow," "I'd love to write it all over again" and "Why didn't I just get a job; I could have been making $40,000 a year by now if I had just started working with a Bachelor's. But noooooo, I had to get a Ph.D., I wish somebody would drop a bomb on the school so that I'd have an excuse to stop working on my degree that's sucking every last drop of life force out of my withered and degraded excuse for a soul..." (9 V lithium batteries sold separately)
• Grad School Barbie is anatomically correct to teach kids about the exciting changes that come with pursuing a higher education. Removable panels on Barbie's head and torso allow you to watch as her cerebellum fries to a crispy brown, her heart races 150 beats per minute, and her stomach lining gradually dissolves into nothing. Deluxe Barbie comes with specially designed eye ducts; just add a little water, and watch Grad School Barbie burst into tears at random intervals.
• Fun for the whole family!

Other accessories include:

• Grad School Barbie's Fun Fridge (tm) Well stocked with microwave popcorn, Coca-Cola, Healthy Choice Bologna (99% fat free!),and Ramen Noodles.
• Grad School Barbie's Medicine Cabinet. Comes in Fabulous pink and contains Barbie sized bottles of Advil, St. John's Wort, Zantac, and your choice of three fun anti-anxiety drugs! (Barbie Medicine Cabinet not available without a prescription).
• Grad School Barbie's Computer Workstation. Comes with miniature obsolete PC (pink of course), rickety desk, and over a dozen miniature Mountain Dew cans to decorate your workstation with (Mountain Dew deposit not included in price, tech support sold separately).

And Grad School Barbie is not alone! Order now and you'll get two of Barbie's great friends!

• GRADUATE ADVISOR KEN: Barbie's mentor and advisor in her quest for increased education and decreased self esteem. Grad Advisor Ken (tm) comes with a supply of red pens and a permanent frown. Press the button to hear Grad Advisor Ken deliver such wisdom to Barbie as "I need an update on your progress," "I don't think you'll be ready to graduate yet" and "This is nowhere near ready for publication." Buy 3 or more dolls, and you can have Barbie's Thesis Committee! (Palm Pilot and tenure sold separately.)
• REAL JOB SKIPPER: When Barbie needs to talk, she knows that she can always count on her good friend Real Job Skipper (tm), who got a job after getting her bachelor's degree. Press the button to hear Real Job Skipper say, "Sometimes I wish I had gone for my master's degree" and "Work is so hard! I had to work a half an hour of overtime!" Real Job Skipper's Work Wardrobe and Savings account sold separately.
• WARNING: Do not place Grad Student Barbie and Real Job Skipper too close to each other, as there have been several mysterious cases of children leaving the room and coming back to find Barbie's hands mysteriously fused to Skipper's throat.