by magkelly » Fri Apr 12, 2013 7:30 pm
Every time they make a Barbie these days some group thinks it should be different. She's got too much cleavage. She's not black enough for AA. She's too light skinned to be Indian or Native American. She's should be wearing a more modern dress for her culture. They tried to make pregnant Mom doll with Midge and even though her character is supposed to be married to Alan that was too much for a lot of people. They made a doll in a wheelchair and that was too depressing for little girls to play with. The potty training little Kelly, too much. The Skipper who grew up, and got boobs, too extreme.
Actually Mattel has always made a lot of dolls of various skin colors and yes, some have been darker than Nikki. A peek into my doll bins would shock most people because they have NO idea of the variety of sculpts and skin tones used for Barbies over the years or what an effort Mattel has actually made to go there. Long before the multi-cultural Bratz came along Barbie had several AA friends. She had Asian friends, and Polynesian friends, and even handicapped friends. When almost no one was making AA dolls, Asian dolls Mattel WAS and even now they continue to do so. Yeah, there are only two AA people in the play line but you can find every skin tone from pale white to near black in the whole line over time if you look.
The DOW are meant to be traditionally costumed Barbies. They're not really meant to be for kids anyway. They're adult collector's dolls and most adults are not really caring about how authentic or how modern their Mexican Barbie is. As long as she's in a fiesta dress she'll likely sell, just like the many other so called Mexican dolls they've made over the years for the people who collect those. They're not worried about the kids. Those dolls are not playline. They don't have to be "correct" for kids, role models to play with.
Barbie was never meant to be authentically like us anyway. She's a fantasy fashion doll. Technically she's a blond, blue eyed girl from Malibu CA named Barbara Millicent Roberts and any other incarnations of her are not "Barbie" per say but her clones, friends, whatever you want to call them. Yes, they make Hispanic and Asian, and AA Barbies, but that's not who Barbie was created to be and I get really pissy when people forget that and criticize her up and down for being who she is, a blond, beach bunny with an equally blond life guard BF.
In the end she's just Barbie. If they can make her into anything else that's cool, but let her be "Barbie" first. Those other dolls they're just her clones, her costumes, her friends, and she shouldn't have to please the whole planet just to change her clothes to those of a girl from somewhere else from time to time. As far as I am concerned Mattel already does a really terrific job of trying to make Barbies that please most collectors and kids. It's the overly concerned parents who just don't seem to get it sometimes.
My Mom was like that and she hated Barbie. She was never good enough for my Mom. I was barely allowed to even play with them as a kid and I loved Barbie even though she looked NOTHING like me. A good part of the reason I am so obsessed with Barbie now is because for years I had to fight to be able to keep the two I actually managed to have as a kid and even then I ended up with their heads because my Mom tried to break and toss them. When I finally found them they were damaged and even then I had to hide from her their heads.
As an adult when I finally got me a Barbie of my own that looked more like me and that I loved she was an Irish Barbie. She wasn't modern at all. She was dressed in a silly and badly made Irish princess costume that to this day she never wears but I didn't care. I just loved her anyhow because I finally had a Barbie that was a fantasy version of me and that no one could ever take away from me ever again. All her incarnations I deeply respect Barbie. Even when I snark at all the the blond, beach bunny airhead playline Barbies, I still love them. No, she's not perfect, never was, but she's still the Queen of fashion dolls, always has been, always will be. Barbie has my heart, and she doesn't have to be politically correct or perfect, just Barbie. It's enough that she is who she is.
Just Babs, just the plastic beach girl from Malibu, Ken's GF, fashionista extraordinare.
