My Head Is Full of Books: Sunday Salon -- Barbie Edition

Saturday, August 26, 2023

Sunday Salon -- Barbie Edition

My Barbie family: My original Barbie (Circa 1963/64); Skipper and her friend, Skooter (Circa 1965); My second Barbie -- or else it was a Barbie head replacement on an older body; Allan, Ken's buddy (I've lost his clothes) and Skipper's friend, Ricky (Circa 1965/1966); Family portrait; Francie, Barbie's cousin (Circa 1967.)

Weather: It would be lovely if it weren't for the smoke in the air from far off forest fires. Temperatures in the 70s. Wonderful end-of-summer weather, with one exception, and beautiful sunsets, caused by the smoke.

Barbie Movie: My husband, daughters, and I went to see the Barbie movie two weeks ago and all of us loved it. LOVED IT. I am scheming on going again. It is funny, poignant, exciting, empowering, and all around delightful. What are you waiting for if you haven't seen it? The video is about the making of a scene in the movie where Ken (Ryan Gosling) is bemoaning his life and love for Barbie but in the end he realizes he's "Kenough." I've watched this clip about ten times and will probably watch it ten times more.

If you hate(d) Barbie: This movie is for you! (Official trailer.)

My Barbie family: See photo above. My daughters, who have been to the movie twice, recognized Allan in the movie because I have an Allan doll. My friend, Kay, had a Ken doll but we didn't play with the boy dolls very much as children. My Allan is in great shape but I've lost his clothes. I bet one of my siblings have them. (Grace? Kathy?) Aren't the dolls cute? I didn't realize until I looked through my dolls today, preparing for their photoshoot, just how rare Skipper's friends, Ricky and Skooter dolls, are.

Weird Barbie: Kate McKinnon plays Weird Barbie in the movie. She is hilarious. I didn't have a weird Barbie but my daughters assured me that they had one. They thought she tasted like chicken so they'd bite her. Gross! Anyway, Weird Barbie reminded me of something I read in a book about Barbie once. I thought I owned the book, so I went hunting for it this week. I didn't find that book but I found another one which I quickly reread, The Art of Barbie.

Barbie books:

The Good, the Bad, and the Barbie: A Doll's History and Her Impact on Us by Tanya Lee Stone. The book begins with the creation of the Mattel company, and some biographical information about its founder, Ruth Handler. It then goes into describes how Barbie has influenced materialism, body-image, multiculturalism, nudity, and even art. Stone cleverly interspersed quotes from average and famous people as they reflected on Barbie's influence on their own lives. The book also features many photos, both color and black & white, to show us the evolution of the doll. The funniest chapter included descriptions of what people did to Barbie after they outgrew playing with their dolls. Many found ways to torture her, including the person who took the Marie Antoinette Barbie and cut off her head, even adding ketchup as fake blood (p. 88). "Weird Barbie" embodies the totality of these abuses in the movie. Here is a link to my review of this book from 2010.

The Art of Barbie: Artists Celebrate the World's Favorite Doll edited by Craig Yoe (1994). 100 artists, fashion designers, models, and photographers were asked to contribute to this project and most enthusiastically participated. The results are a true celebration of the original dream girl. The photos below are just a small representation of their contributions:

The Art of Barbie: Top L-R---"Commuter Set 1959" gouache by Isaac Mizrahi; "Barbie Family Tree" acrylic on Masonite by Laura Levine; "Barbie and What's His Name Get Married" photograph by Hiro Yamagata. Bottom L-R ---"Barbie in Beatsville" Pen and ink by J.D. King; "Put Another Shrimp on the Barbie, Mate" staged by Rick Tharp; "Huh Huh Huh. Cool. Yeah. Heh. Heh. Heh." Pen and ink by Bryon Moore.

Barbie movie has MAGA Republicans in a tizzy: (Guardian, July 20, 2023) On issue after issue Republicans have fought to undermine Barbie's motto: "We girls can do anything." So when the movie was released with broad popular appeal, they decided Barbie was too "woke" and the movie should be banned. It reminds me of the DeSantis war on Disney because the cooperation refuses to discriminate against any people, even LGPTQ+ folks. If you are a MAGA supporter and you are reading this, please remind yourself how much you loved Barbie as a child. In fact, remind yourself how your life was before, when you were happy and not angry all the time about cultural issues. Ask yourself, were you happier then or now? It is okay to love Barbie, and Disney, and books, and your neighbors, even if they have different beliefs than you.