This almost rouses me to cast off my slugitude, but I don’t want to rush things. In a comment to one of my posts, Jen sent me a link to an article about a West Virginia legislator (Democratic Delegate Jeff Eldridge) who wants to outlaw Barbies in the state because he says the doll’s emphasis on beauty over intellect is bad for girls.
I was going to respond in comments, but in honor of Barbie’s upcoming fiftieth birthday, I figure she deserves her own post. So, my thoughts (without bashing Eldridge or West Virginia, because I think that’s unproductive):
Don’t hate Barbie because she’s beautiful! She’s also smart. She knows how to change with the times. She’s had every possible career: model, doctor, astronaut, soldier, veterinarian, nurse, political candidate, princess, secretary, athlete, singer, girlfriend, journalist, dog groomer, cheerleader, mermaid, naturalist.
Why is it always toys perceived as “for girls” that everybody frets about, e.g., Barbies lower their self-esteem, or Easy-Bake Ovens or My First Sewing Machines trap girls in traditional gender roles?
Why does no one say that boys are set up to fail in life by “for boys” toys because they can’t live up to GI Joe’s physical appearance, or they’ll grow up to discover that they’re unable to spin webs and leap from building to building and save the world like Spiderman, or even sometimes not have the right stuff to get a job driving a dump truck or racing a car or being a railroad engineer or a fireman?
Why does conventional wisdom assume that boys are just having fun and know the difference between play and reality, whereas poor girls don’t get that concept so end up huddled in a corner feeling inadequate and popping Valium because they aren’t built to Barbie scale? THAT assumption, to me, is more demeaning than being given a pretty doll who is forever tiptoeing into her next adventure.
And seriously, I doubt I ever knew a single female who asked for this hairstyle or made wearing this dress her life’s ambition.
1995 Hallmark Sweet Valentine Barbie, gift of Lynne–one of the scrappiest women I know.
Excellent thoughts!!
Bravo!
🙂
Nevermind that the hairstyle AND the dress are very near what I wore to prom in 1983!!o.O
Thanks.
Re prom dresses: They’re like bridesmaids’ dresses. It’s mandatory to wear something that’ll allow you to cringe in later years when you look at the photos.
I think that my pink confection – with a hoop-skirt qualifies as cringe-worthy!
*grins*
(If I had a picture – I would post it for you. When I do – I shall…)
:/
Yes, I could see where a line of fashionable dolls would ruin the traditional West Virginia image of the hard-scraping, coal miner’s wife and daughters.
Not just wives and daughters of coal miners:
To quote Barbie herself, “We girls can do anything.”
Apparently, the legislator (like most bigots elected to Congress) doesn’t know that.
Maybe I should send him a Barbie doll as a peace offering/step toward beginning his re-education.
*cracks knuckles* Ooh – that was terribly butch.
I loved this column! Does WV have something against pretty AND intellectual women – like somehow that’s an impossibility? Oooh – she’s gorgeous – she must be a dumbass. Whatev.
Confession time: I had 4 Barbies. I had Malibu Barbie, A stewardess Barbie, an astronaut and a doctor. I hated them. Not because they were beautiful, not because I didn’t like hair or dresses or pretty things, because I do; but because their legs kept popping off when I tried to make them sit on my Breyer horses.
So I played with my brother’s GI Joe instead.
Apparently, the key to my heart is flexibility.
Apparently, the key to my heart is flexibility.
I think many people would get this as a tattoo if they saw it.
ha!
HAHA
flexibilty!
i too had quite a few barbies, but my favorite was the multi-jointed grizzly adams doll.
A multi-jointed doll with a beard? Be still my heart!
[snort]
😉
and now you’ve sent me to bid on ebay for my old toys…
law makers
That’s just terribly pathetic if they are more concerned about a doll’s image and not the right for a gay man to have a bridal registry.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-wcqqf0JvM
Re: law makers
Hear, hear.
I wonder how he feels about Bratz dolls. I think that it’s all very interesting this mess about Barbie. My personal thought is, if your child is getting her ideas about beauty and her own self worth from a doll then perhaps you aren’t doing your job as a parent.
I had a Barbie – and she was the one with the townhouse, the plane, the camper the wardrobe, the horses, the corvette the cool friends etc … Ken had a set of green trunks.
Now see, the OTHER criticism of Barbie is that she makes us materialistic. And I ask you what, if not materialism, greases the wheels of capitalism?
Oh that jacuzzi attachment to the townhouse? Awesome. The car? Awesome. The SHOE CLOSET? To. Die. For.
Why does conventional wisdom assume that boys are just having fun and know the difference between play and reality, whereas poor girls don’t get that concept so end up huddled in a corner feeling inadequate and popping Valium because they aren’t built to Barbie scale? THAT assumption, to me, is more demeaning than being given a pretty doll who is forever tiptoeing into her next adventure.
Oh, amen! Yes, poor females can’t think for themselves and have to be protected. What is more respectful? Giving somebody the benefit of the doubt that they can think for themselves and figure stuff out, or patronizingly protecting them because they are so helpless and incapable of rational thought. *groan* I know that I blame all my problems on playing with those sci-fi Micronauts action figures when I was a kid!
You poor thing. Hey, you want me to send you a Barbie?
Now that’s a good idea! Somebody should send Barbi dolls to the people who make that goofy argument. 😀
I wonder if Sylvia Plath had an Easy-Bake Oven?
Bwahahaha.
Oh dear.
(still giggling though)
If she’d used an Easy-Bake Oven, she’d still be alive.
What is it with you and Easy-Bake Ovens, anyway?
And it was indeed Mr. Mark G. Harris who found that damn post for me. How does he do it?!?
See, I agree with Marika. If the parent does the job they should then they won’t have to worry about the image barbie is giving their child.
Don’t forget that “What message are we sending to children?” or “Think of the children!” are the phrases that make me start twitching like a slug on a bug zapper.
I had a number of Barbies growing up, as well as a Marie Osmond. I enjoyed dressing them up, but I also enjoyed having Barbie motor around the basement in her Star Traveler RV. Far from cementing in me a belief that all we girls are good for is to look pretty while trying to meet unreasonable standards of beauty, I learned early that Girls Can Drive Big Trucks. Thank you Barbie, for putting that notion in my head. It sure helped when I chose my trade in the Army Reserves (Mobile Support Equipment Operator = Truck Driver).
Oh, man, I didn’t even know about the Barbie Star Traveler when it came out! I stumbled over a photo of one when I was doing my research for A Coventry Wedding. I was so impressed by it–and wished I’d had one when I was a kid!–that I wrote it into my character Jandy’s childhood.
It’s SO COOL that you had one! What a great story. Thanks!
I loved that thing. I got it for Christmas when I was 7? 8?. I was the only one of my Barbie Friends who had it. I rocked the Barbie accessories. 🙂
I’m glad I sent you an article of interest!
I abused my barbies- I cut off all their hair and did various terrible things to them, I scraped up their butts with a chisel and rubbed dirt in the scratches so that they had “marks” like I did. I was abused by my mother and so Barbie was actually therapy for me in her own self sacrificing way.
When I wasn’t torturing them, I built giant houses out of my Sweet Pickles books. We were poor so I had to make my own Barbie accessories. I wish like hell I’d saved all those books! They were my escape from everything (literally- I hid from my mother in my room reading my books) and it makes me sad they don’t make them anymore.
You just keep giving me things to think about.
When friends tell me stories like yours, I’m dumbfounded by how infrequently any adult ever noticed or addressed their cues.
Playing has been called the work of children. Play is how we learn, develop, and cope, and is one means of our communication. Your experience definitely illustrates that.
A common theme among the more creative and self-actualized people I know is that because our families didn’t have much money, we had to be creative about toys. In many ways, though it didn’t feel like it, we’re the lucky ones. Children need toys that don’t do things (as in, NOT television, video games, computers). I’m not against those things, but it’s the toys that we create ourselves, or use creatively, that help us develop life skills.
It’s also important that children have toys that don’t have a win/lose component. Playing imaginatively without fear of failure or poor performance actually builds confidence and social skills in children.
I could go on and on about this, but I’ll spare you–plus I don’t want to delve into your personal life. I do see what you did to Barbie as redirecting (undeserved) anger away from yourself (so thank goodness for Barbie). I also think it’s interesting that the Sweet Pickles books (which were teaching you about how we display and control our too-human but entirely normal behaviors) were not only your escape, but your means of controlling and creating your play environment. To me, that shows strength, resiliency, and hope.
“Why does conventional wisdom assume that boys are just having fun and know the difference between play and reality, whereas poor girls don’t get that concept…”
Thanks for voicing that – it’s so true, but we must continue the fight!!
I didn’t realise Barbie was 50 this year – she’s wearing well! *grin*
Yeah, but you should see the portrait in her attic!