Happy Birthday Barbara Millicent
Friday, 9 March 2007 13:27![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fatrockstarToday is Barbie Doll's birthday.*
Barbie has a special place in my heart. Other women my age have said horrid things about her, blaming her for the poor self-image of America's female youth. Yes, that's exactly why you and your daughter hate yourselves -- an 11" fashion doll made of plastic with a fictional backstory; a character, if you will, is the reason little girls hate themselves. You might as well blame Wonder Woman for your lesbianism (she did grow up in a land full of man-fearing women, after all, and everybody knows that's why she exclaimed "Suffering Sappho!" all those years).
But enough snark about feminine icons and the Blame Game. That's another post entirely.
I love Barbie Doll. LOVE her. When I was little I loved to dress her up and create fancy sitting rooms for her out of cardboard boxes and the undersides of dressing tables. Mama bought her friends with different hair colors (Midge, Donny & Marie Osmond) and they'd have little soap opera dramas about Ken and G.I. Joe. When the creepy girl down the street came to try and play Barbies with us we'd put all the dolls in their beds and say "they're sleeping, nothing fun about that" and she'd leave.
I never had a Barbie Townhouse, but I did have a kickass boat. It folded out and there was a galley and a bunk room. Later on Barbie and her friends would become ballerinas, rock stars, doctors, pilots... palientologists (no shit, I saw it at Toys R Us). To me, Barbie was a character with endless potential. She could be whatever she wanted to be and did it. She had a lot of friends when I didn't. I wasn't really paying attention to her body. I had a lot of different dolls to play with and none of them had anything that looked like MY body, so it was a non-issue. I didn't compare her figure with my own. By the time I cared about what my body looked like I hadn't played with my barbies in a long time.
As an adult I collect and covet Barbie Dolls. In my collection my favorites are Harley Davidson Ken #2, the X-Files Barbie & Ken giftset, and the Christian Dior #1 Mama picked out for me last time she visited. I get a kick out of some of the ideas Mattel comes up with for their dolls and how unoriginal they are. They should stick to designers and pop culture.
But anyway, Happy Birthday Barbie. I loves ya, kiddo. You look really, really good for 48.
*all links open in a new window
Barbie has a special place in my heart. Other women my age have said horrid things about her, blaming her for the poor self-image of America's female youth. Yes, that's exactly why you and your daughter hate yourselves -- an 11" fashion doll made of plastic with a fictional backstory; a character, if you will, is the reason little girls hate themselves. You might as well blame Wonder Woman for your lesbianism (she did grow up in a land full of man-fearing women, after all, and everybody knows that's why she exclaimed "Suffering Sappho!" all those years).
But enough snark about feminine icons and the Blame Game. That's another post entirely.
I love Barbie Doll. LOVE her. When I was little I loved to dress her up and create fancy sitting rooms for her out of cardboard boxes and the undersides of dressing tables. Mama bought her friends with different hair colors (Midge, Donny & Marie Osmond) and they'd have little soap opera dramas about Ken and G.I. Joe. When the creepy girl down the street came to try and play Barbies with us we'd put all the dolls in their beds and say "they're sleeping, nothing fun about that" and she'd leave.
I never had a Barbie Townhouse, but I did have a kickass boat. It folded out and there was a galley and a bunk room. Later on Barbie and her friends would become ballerinas, rock stars, doctors, pilots... palientologists (no shit, I saw it at Toys R Us). To me, Barbie was a character with endless potential. She could be whatever she wanted to be and did it. She had a lot of friends when I didn't. I wasn't really paying attention to her body. I had a lot of different dolls to play with and none of them had anything that looked like MY body, so it was a non-issue. I didn't compare her figure with my own. By the time I cared about what my body looked like I hadn't played with my barbies in a long time.
As an adult I collect and covet Barbie Dolls. In my collection my favorites are Harley Davidson Ken #2, the X-Files Barbie & Ken giftset, and the Christian Dior #1 Mama picked out for me last time she visited. I get a kick out of some of the ideas Mattel comes up with for their dolls and how unoriginal they are. They should stick to designers and pop culture.
But anyway, Happy Birthday Barbie. I loves ya, kiddo. You look really, really good for 48.
*all links open in a new window
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no subject
10/3/07 05:35 (UTC)Now I have a sudden urge to dig them out and .......
no subject
10/3/07 09:30 (UTC)I had the coolest caravan, she loved that thing and a lot of furniture, that'd be spread around the floor at random. I had a kick with Barbie and her friends.