Disjointed Thoughts About Barbie

Over on her blog Pai, a feminist blogger named Saranga has an interesting take on the Supergirl Barbie.

Barbie Supergirl? Barbie's are fucking horrible. My particular brand of feminism hates them, they're fucking bimbos. And you want to make the DC female superheroes into Barbies? You want to take away all their individuality, their distinctiveness and separate identities and pour them all into one hollow plastic identikit shell? Fuck. Off. My beef with Barbie is they are sold as the ideal woman, the prettiest, the most slender, the tallest, the best shape you can be. And there's only ever one shape. From the website - From urban teen to fantasy queen she's every girl! Not mine she fucking aint.

First, while I do understand why a follower of certain brands of feminism might hate Barbie Dolls: there are certainly issues with regard to the "ideal image" presented if nothing else, Saranga's take on Supergirl as a Barbie genuinely doesn't sit right with me. Making superheroines into Barbies isn't about taking away individuality, distinctiveness and separate identities to pour them all into one hollow plastic identikit shell, it's simply about having a miniature version of that superheroine to play with.

Same as action figures, really. And honestly, it's not like female action figures bodies come with a whole lot of actual variation either. Much as I do enjoy the Kandor-arc Nightwing and Flamebird dolls I raved about, I can't help but notice that for two characters with such disparate heights, weights, builds and ages in the comic they look awfully close to the same figurine in the pictures Shelly's linked.

If anything, small and ultra-thin sixteen year old Kara looks to be the more buxom of the two in that particular camera angle.

I can't really argue with the "Bimbo" complaint, much as I would like to. I remember when I first began working in the toy store how sad I found it that all the really interesting dress-up potential that I remember the dolls having seemed to be gone the way of the dodo. Back when I was a kid, I remember all the cops and pilots, olympic athletes, astronauts, cowgirls and the like that the dolls came marketed as. Admittedly, my pilot doll's hat was bright pink and she wore particularly impractical stiletto heels, but that kind of came part and parcel with the whole deal. Now, I suppose we're lucky enough to have "baby doctor", "pet doctor" (of course, god forbid someone spell out veternarian or pediatrician on the box and teach kids a new word or two. That strikes me as sad, especially because I learned how to spell Czechoslovakia from a Barbie box. And then the country split. Most useless skill ever. Thank you, Barbie!) and possibly a teacher or two. Oh, and Ballerinas of course.

I was particularly crushed to see that the nifty costume sets appear to have fallen by the wayside in favor of trendy fashion fever ensembles. Don't get me wrong, I do like a lot of them, but I miss the sheer variety that used to be available. (I'm of the age of nostalgia, everything was better when I was a kid, don't mind me! :-))

At the same time, as much as Barbie may dress like a bimbo, that doesn't make her one. Barbie is what the child who plays with her decides she is. Sure, there will be girls for whom Barbie is nothing more than a party girl who loves to shop, but there are also those girls out there who do a lot more with their dolls than that. Mine was a mercenary swordswoman, thanks to a gnawed off ski-pole and some clever creativity with a Wild West wardrobe. And I know many other girls who found their own way to play "outside the box.

So I suppose I do argue with the Bimbo complaint. Because it really does dismiss the fact that behind the doll, there's a living breathing person who is finding her own way to externalize her fantasies.

It seems to be especially silly to me because the DC Heroines aren't bimbos themselves. Supergirl? Black Canary? Wonder Woman? Batgirl? Well, I suppose, to be fair, sometimes it depends on who's writing them, but traditionally these are not bimbo characters. Dressing a Barbie Doll in costume and sculpting face/wig to resemble the character won't suddenly make these characters Bimbos.

I do think there is merit to the complaint that when you have Barbies, it really is a one size/one build mold. I don't think it's about being tallest or slenderest though (especially because all of the "Barbie's Friends" dolls use the same mold), I think it's just because, ultimately, we're talking about fashion dolls here. Fashion dolls are about the clothes first, so it's fairly natural that Barbies are going to be sculpted in a particular way, so that they can fit the clothes. The dolls aren't being made as a value judgment as to what the perfect woman should look like.

This isn't to say some children haven't internalized the message that they should look like that, I'm sure some have. But I think that's more indicative of greater problems with our medias' message, of which Barbie dolls are one part. It's something that needs fixing all around. Not just the dolls.

Ultimately, dolls are dolls. They're fun. They're placeholders for our imaginations. They're us and not us. And sometimes, they're superheroes. Which actually makes me more than a little jealous since I had to make do with a gymnasts' uniform and a makeshift handkerchief cape for my superhero doll. But then the nice thing about being an adult is being able to buy for myself. And while my own inner seven year old isn't much for Supergirl, she can't WAIT for a Black Canary doll of her very own. :-)