Equalizing barbie…?

Thanks Richard for this post on Barbie.

Look at the picture. What is your first (immediate) reaction?

 

 

I think this is fantastic.  Barbie Foosball.

 

I grew up playing with Barbies all the time. I loved it. Her hair, her clothes, her tent/vet clinic/jeep/etc. I think what I really liked was a doll that size, who you could move, dress, comb, and who had a mini-world that she could play in with others like her. Oh and her smile, don’t forget her smile. Lovely.  I like to think it wasn’t the marketing, hyper-sexualization, and barbie’s beauty = envious perfection that made me play with her.  Because, I loved Polly Pocket just as much, because he had her own mini world too (w/o the clothing and hair changes…). But who knows.

But indeed, Barbie is hypersexualized and her body is impossible to model. Haven’t you heard through chain email that she wouldn’t be able to stand upright, she’d have to be on all fours if she was real? And she wouldn’t be able menstrate let alone get pregnant and carry a healthy child.

So here she is playing a rough boys game. Barbie. The diva herself, chest and butt high in the air, still standing on her tiptoes, still wearing a miniskirt and that plastic smile.

Is this really the equalizing message it appears to be? Is Barbie really un-objectified in this, or un-hyperfeminized in this?

And really………………WHERE ARE THE HAIR TIES/BINDERS LADIES?!