Barbie: Popular culture icon as positive female role model

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BARBIE: POPULAR CULTURE ICON AS POSITIVE
FEMALE ROLE MODEL
by
Tiffany Lynn Hope
A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF ARTS
(VISUAL ANTHROPOLOGY)
December 1996
Copyright 1996 Tiffany Lynn Hope
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UNIVERSITY O F S O U T H E R N CALIFO RNIA
T H E G R A D U A TE SCHOOL.
UNIVERSITY PARK
LOS ANGELES. CALIFORNIA 8 0 0 0 7
This thesis, •written by
ItPFftiUy L.VK1KJ
under the direction of h&iZ Thesis Committee,
and approved by all its members, has been pre
sented to and accepted by the Dean of The
Graduate School, in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of
MASTER OF ARTS
t?
THESIS COMMITTEE/
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Contents
Introduction 1
Chapter 1 : The Birth of Venus 10
Chapter 2: The Imaginative and the Inspired 20
Michael 20
Corazon 28
Pabboo 37
Chapter 3: How Barbie Became Bad 46
Conclusion: Bettering Barbie 57
Bibliography 62
Thesis Video Available from the Department of Anthropology
ii
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Introduction
Few toys in America's history have managed to become so
thoroughly steeped in contradictory meanings and symbolism as the one
originally modeled after a cheap, floozy barfly from a German men's
com ic Barbie is just such a toy. She has ascended from the depths of her
beginnings as merely another plastic invention from the heyday of 1950s
America, to attain the dizzying heights of 1990s commodity super
stardom. Ask any person who ever had a Barbie, and even those who
never have, and you are guaranteed to find strong contradictory opinions
about her. From some, we hear about the horror of a child's toy that
encourages young girls to have an unrealistic body image leading to
anorexia, from others we get a passionate recounting of pleasurable
childhood fantasies realized through play with a beautiful, fashionable
doll.
I got my first Barbie shortly after my sister was bom, when I was
three years old. As a child growing up in the 1970s, I had some of my
m ost joyful and creative moments while playing with Barbie. My sister
and I would spend hours at a time constructing elaborate sets of
cardboard, blocks or whatever else we had handy, and then create
identities for all of our Barbie dolls, complete with new names,
individualized wardrobes, and distinct personalities. Each newly remade
doll served as an eleven-and-a-half-inch representative draw n from the
various layers of my psyche, allowing me to explore the potentials of
various emotions and activities that I would never have been permitted to
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feel or act out in real life. I had always wanted to spelunk through dark,
dank caves, so I tied a rope around Barbie's waist and sent her to explore
the stalactite laden depths beneath my bed. My dream of traversing the
African desert in a beat-up World W ar II jeep was accomplished by
Scotch-taping my dolls to a skateboard and sending them skidding across
the sandy loam of my mother's less than successful garden. Of course,
playing Barbie w ouldn't have been complete without Barbie and Ken
awkwardly groping each other's vinyl nether regions with their
unyielding fingers and hands.
Our modest tract home with its sparse front yard was our oyster,
and served as the backdrop for the enactment of fantasies that still provide
my sister and me w ith hours of "Remember w hen " Now w e are both
Barbie collectors, driven by our m utual interest in fashion, m iniatures and
art as well as nostalgia for another era.
Unfortunately, many don't share this enthusiasm for Barbie,
particularly those within an academic context. For example, some
feminists (Majer CXSickey 21-37) who have written about the Barbie
phenomenon have been extremely critical of the doll, accusing her of
encouraging an onslaught of eating disorders and an exaggerated,
physically unobtainable ideal of w hat the ultimate woman should look
like. Most such critiques I have found fairly doctrinaire, never bothering
to delve into an alternative analysis of the doll.
I have found myself continually trying to explain to people that I
have no such feelings toward Barbie, and that any disenchantment I feel
about not growing up to be Barbie stems not from my lack of golden
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tresses and a heaving bosom, but from the realization that I probably
would not be able to traverse Africa, the Alaskan tundra or be a surgeon
or a rock star, at least not in the same day. While I recognize that some
children who played with Barbie do not remember her fondly, I must
declare that I am not one of them.
When I first began my research on Barbie collectors, I was
especially stunned by the negative reactions of non-collectors to the mere
idea of adults collecting these dolls. At first, I thought it was just the
disapproval of "mature" adults for people spending large amounts of time
and money amassing toys specifically made for children. But I soon
noticed that these same non-collectors (generally people I encountered in
my everyday life and w ith whom I discussed my research topic) did not
exhibit the same type of vehement disapproval for adults collecting
miniature plastic dinosaurs, train sets, or comic books, as they did for
those collecting a voluptuous female figurine. Although I had played with
Barbie as a child and had recently begun to seriously collect the doll, it
was only through conversations w ith non-collectors that I fully realized
how deeply the Barbie phenomenon has affected and influenced American
culture, particularly regarding women and how they build their identities
through varying notions of femininity. Clearly, the snide comments and
disapproving clucks of disgust were bom less of a contempt for collecting
than one for Barbie herself, and everything that the blonde, buxom doll
represented to a culture informed not just by conspicuous consumption
but by the women's movement of the 1970s.
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Given the current strivings of the popular media as well as
academia to create a "politically correct" social environment, it is no
surprise that non-collectors or those who are simply not fans of Barbie
view her with such rage and disgust But since those who collect Barbie
are such a varied group with respect to class, gender and age, are there
also those who are young, female and view themselves as feminists? Is it
possible that some collectors intentionally alter Barbie artistically to
subvert her conventional meanings, and possibly further their own
agendas? Much has been written lately about the Barbie phenomenon
(Lord, 1994; Rand, 1995; Boy, 1987; Westenhouser, 1993), but there has not
been much focus on how collectors artistically alter Barbie to affect a larger
goal. Erica Rand (149-192) has written about radical lesbians and gay men
who use drastically altered Barbies in dioramas, photographs and fanzines
to further their own political agenda through subverting the cheery,
wholesome image of Barbie that her manufacturer, Mattel, projects to
consumers and that radical lesbians and gay m en rarely relate to. But this
is an example of people who interpret Barbie as having only negative
ideological connotations which are the direct opposite of the attributes
they ascribe to themselves. What about those who love and collect Barbie,
who interpret her not as a physically exaggerated caricature of a woman
who only teaches little girls to shop a lot and hate their bodies, but as an
independent, sexual being who functions as a positive female role model?
So I began my search to find young, female collectors who self-
identify as feminists but also identify with Barbie. Although I have
become quite familiar with the people involved in Barbie collecting clubs
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and organizations in the southern California area since moving here two
years ago, I have found it nearly impossible to find young women who fit
this category. Barbie collectors are a varied group, but the majority of
them, particularly those who artistically alter or construct either the doll or
her fashions, are middle-aged married women and younger gay men.
Nearly all the collectors I interviewed, including young females, will
always say that Barbie is a positive female role model because she has
many careers, showing little girls that they can become anything they
want to. But this is exactly the party line Mattel gives to the public
whenever Barbie is criticized, and these same women, no m atter how
financially successful or independent, always tell me they don't consider
themselves to be feminists.
This latter denial of feminism is not surprising, given how
feminists have often been and are still portrayed as bra-bum ing man-
haters in the popular media, and the resistance of contemporary young
women to being labeled feminist can be documented (Penley 491-492).
But with the emergence of popular culture as a legitimate area of academic
studies, and the recent preponderance of popular literature on the Barbie
phenomenon, I am continually disappointed by the general failure of
academics to view Barbie in a more positive, inspirational light. Given
that today7 s theorists and writers on popular culture have been impacted
by the tenets of postmodernism, can they not find room for an alternative
analysis of this doll? I am convinced that their reasons for continuing to
evaluate Barbie by the standards set by 1970s feminism are political and
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ideological, and the reason why the doll is continually dismissed so glibly
as only a "bimbo" with negative cultural ramifications.
Using information gathered from two years of fieldwork w ith a
variety of Barbie collectors, I will begin my thesis w ith a historical account
of Barbie's sordid birth and growth into a sexual persona and cultural
icon. Using personal anecdotes from both adult collectors and
information on Mattel's psychology-based marketing strategy of the 1950s
and 60s, I will illustrate the undeniable sexuality of the doll that many
people find at once threatening and intimidating. My argum ent is that the
Barbie doll, although a child's toy, is clearly sexual, designed to induce
tactile, sensual contact between child and toy. As a result, the doll has
always induced an instant sensory response from all who encounter her,
from mothers in the 1950s who were the first to buy the doll, to feminists,
and to the children who play with her. The doll's sexuality has been one
reason for her continued success, as well as the criticism of her. I argue
that this sexuality, paired with the mass consumer appeal of a mass
produced popular icon, is the reason why contemporary academics refuse
to evaluate Barbie in an alternative manner. The "politically correct"
academic community fail to see Barbie in a positive light because their
perspective is rooted in 1970s feminism, which contemporary feminists
like Paglia (107-112) believe hinders female sexuality and deems negative
any aspect of the traditionally feminine.
My argument has three parts— 1) showing the undeniable, always
present sexuality of the doll, 2) providing the mainly feminist arguments
used to critique Barbie, and my rebuttal to such arguments, including a
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historical account of how attributes deemed "feminine" have come to have
negative connotations, 3) providing ethnographic details of collectors,
showing how they have reappropriated the traditionally feminine. For
my illustration of Barbie's sexuality I will use M.G. Lord's (18-43) detailed
historical account of the original design, engineering, and marketing of the
Barbie doll from her inception in the 1950s to the present day. My
illustration of the criticism of Barbie will come mainly from feminist
writing on the politics of fashion, which has so many similarities to Barbie,
and, as I point out, can be used both to critique and laud her. My
historical record of the negativity of the feminine comes from art historian
Penny Sparke (15-69), who explains the varying degrees of power that
women can achieve through such negatively deemed activities as
consumerism and the pursuit of the "feminine."
Once this is established, I will show why an academic reading of
the inspirational effects of Barbie on collectors as well as American culture
in general would mean political catastrophe for her critics— it is in their
best interests to show Barbie only as a capitalist consumer entity which
encourages girls to have an unreal body image, because if the careerist,
fashionable, beautiful doll were seen as O.K., then those aspects of real
women would be seen as acceptable, too. Also, Barbie is a money-making
product for her manufacturer, Mattel, a company which, in the capitalist
tradition, can only be accused by academics of perpetuating hegemony
through its advertising strategies to sell more dolls. But given that Mattel
as a profit-driven entity markets Barbie and her accessories through
planned obsolescence while still maintaining the "forevemess" of the idea
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of the doll, Barbie is not always used by her consumers as she is intended
to be by Mattel.
The m ain aspect of Barbie collecting I have investigated is how
collectors construct their own clothing, furniture and accessories for
Barbie, often selling them to other collectors at doll shows, and how these
items so often are in direct contrast to the squeaky clean, youthful image
of Barbie that Mattel wishes to project to the public. I have seen collectors
make punk rock Barbie, Harley Davidson Barbie, and bloody Barbies
based on generic horror film characters. When asked, very few of these
collectors adm it to or recognize that their actions could be seen as
politically or economically subversive. In my opinion, they are subversive
for several reasons. The first being economic, because a dependent
relationship exists between Mattel and the collectors. They are an
important market, and Mattel has only in the past ten years realized this
and begun to m arket more sophisticated dolls, designs and accessories to
the more finicky and demanding collector m arket However, Mattel also
knows that its m ain source of sales comes from parents buying dolls for
little girls, and w on't do anything that would hurt the wholesome image
needed to continue those sales. At the same time, the collectors only
partially depend on Mattel to provide the dolls they want, as the dem and
for vintage dolls and accessories continues to grow and these items can
only be found through the secondary market. So, the purchase of vintage
dolls and the sale of original creations by artists and collectors could be
construed as economically and ideologically subversive, but collectors
don't see the creation or the sale of such items in that way. To evaluate the
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validity of defining an act as subversive if those who perform it don't view
it as such, I will use the work of Constance Penley (479-492). She, like
myself, encountered a dismissal of the feminist and subversive by her
informants during her work with "slash" fans of the Star Trek television
series.
Through identifying the major arguments against reading Barbie as
a positive female role model and countering them through historical
analysis and data attained from my own research and experience with
collectors, I hope to show how the doll can be read as a positive,
inspirational cultural symbol, and as an art form, as most collectors and
fans of Barbie see her. If I accomplish this, I believe the reader will be
inclined to view women's inherent sexual power and the feminine notion
of glamour in a new way, as a birthright of their gender and not the
downfall of their political independence. Such a result is infinitely more
far reaching than a pat dismissal of a plastic doll as having little "high"
cultural value.
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Chapter 1 : The Birth of Venus
The details surrounding Barbie's invention are as colorful as her
infinite fashions and as sordid as some games children play with her. The
circumstances surrounding Barbie's birth really make sense only when
examined in a historical context, so that the doll can be seen for what she
was meant to be when first marketed in 1959— a time when The Donna
Reed Show type characters were pushed by popular media as the female
norm, and the notion of women's sexuality was not discussed— as well as
what the doll has come to symbolize today.
The toy that has achieved goddess-like status among many sprang
forth not from the head of Zeus, but from the imagination of Ruth
Handler, affectionately known in the collecting world as "Barbie's Mom."
Lord (20-22) explains that in 1945, Ruth and her husband Elliot founded
Mattel Creations to manufacture plastic picture frames, but a plastic
ukelele became their first foray into the world of toy design and
manufacture. The toys were such a success that by 1955 Mattel was w orth
$500,000. In that same year, Ruth made the bold decision to gamble nearly
all the companies assets to advertise a Burp gun on The Mickey Mouse
Club television show -the first time the medium had been used to
advertise a toy, and a revolutionary act that propelled Mattel sales to $6
million that year (Lord 20-22).
As one story goes, it was during these early years of Mattel's
success that Ruth Handler first contemplated the idea of a three
dimensional fashion doll. As a child, her daughter Barbara (eventually to
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be Barbie's namesake) liked io play with paper dolls, and Handler was
always fascinated by how Barbara and her Mends would imagine their
futures through creating elaborate adult environments and identities w ith
the dolls, essentially playing grown-up (Westenhouser 7). At that time,
paper dolls were the only ones modeled after adults or movie stars and
with which children could engage in adult type fashion play. The only
other kind of doll for girls to play with was the typical baby doll, which
needed to be mothered and taken care of, or the rag doll, meant to be held
and cuddled. Neither toy lent itself to being dressed for the sock hop,
much less the moon. As Handler m ust have noticed, the type of future a
girl imagines with a baby doll is very different than that she imagines with
a fashion doll, whether paper or plastic. I don't think young Barbara, or
any young girl, would have imagined herself as the baby doll, a feat m uch
easier to do with a doll that is supposed to be older. It could be argued
that baby dolls, encouraging constant coddling and maintenance like real
babies, limit the num ber of circumstances girls could imagine for the dolls
and themselves, only serving to enforce for young girls one type of
future— that of m other and caretaker.
Handler watched her daughter imagine a much larger future. As
she watched, she thought, "If only we could take this play pattern and
three-dimensionalize it, we would have something very special." (Lord 30)
That special something took the form of a widow's-peaked, pouty-lipped,
morally casual German cartoon character-cum-sex-toy named Lilli, who
found her way into Handler's life on a family trip to Europe in 1956
(Westenhouser 8).
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Lilli was the brainchild of H am burg designer/ cartoonist Reinhard
Beuthien, who created a comic strip featuring her for the low-budget
German tabloid Bild Zeitung in 1952 (Lord 25-26). H igh on looks, but low
on values, lovely Lilli was, "A gold-digger, exhibitionist, and floozy, she
had the body of a Vargas Girl, the brains of Pia Zadora, and the morals of
Xaviera Hollander." (Lord 25) Former Mattel advertising copywriter Cy
Schneider (26) said, "The Lili (sic) doll was not designed to appeal to
children, but was sold to adult men in tobacconists and bars ... if there
was an aura or fantasy around this doll, it was as an adult male's p e t___ "
It was just such fantasy that made the Lilli character such a hit. In 1955,
Lilli was apparently popular enough to warrant her ow n 3-D plastic
incarnation, and it was one of these first Bild T.illi dolls that Ruth Handler
and daughter Barbara, now a bit too old for dolls, first purchased in a shop
they saw while walking down a street in Switzerland (Lord 25,29). "I
didn't then know who Lilli was or even that its name was Lilli," said
Handler to Lord. "I only saw an adult shaped body that I had been trying
to describe for years, and our guys said couldn't be done." (Lord 29)
Most of the accounts of Barbie's origins, both scholarly and for the
collector, (Lord 29-33; Rand 30-32; Westenhouser 8-9) have related the
continual battles Ruth Handler had to fight within her ow n company to
get a three dimensional adult plastic fashion doll produced at all, let alone
to her specifications. As the above quote shows, Handler had attempted
to get Mattel to make such a doll long before she had ever seen Lilli, and
perhaps even longer than the Lilli dolls had existed. Lord (30) explains
how Mattel's male designers told Ruth it was impossible to make a
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molded female doll, w ith couture dothing that had realistic features like
zippers and buttons, in this country— not of the detail and quality Ruth
demanded, at a low enough price point
Westenhouser tells how even before Lilli, Ruth had approached her
designers a num ber of times with her idea and the specifications of her
"dream doll," returning to them again and again, always being told her
idea was far too difficult, if not impossible, to manufacture and that it was
simply too expensive. Westenhouser attributes the design team's
resistance to a fear of the unknown, what she calls a "menace that has
stymied the grow th of many visionaries, the age old statement by the nay-
sayers, 'we have never done that before.'" (8)
Ironically, these explanations for the all male design teams'
resistance to Ruth never address the possibility that their resistance was
rooted in the very idea of Barbie, a sexually developed, make-up-wearing,
high-fashion doll for children . Let us suppose they didn't think it was
physically possible to produce such a product, or they w eren't sure it
could sell for a high enough price, or, full of such doubt, they didn't want
to risk company assets on such a gamble. These explanations could all be
interpreted simply as corporate cost effectiveness, the boys looking out for
the good of the whole team. Given that the time and place we are dealing
with— mid 1950s America, a bastion of popularly endorsed homogeneity,
conformity, and propriety, where men were m en and women wore
aprons-I think an alternate analysis may be in order. It is entirely possible
that Ruth's idea was so far ahead of its time that the male designers (most
of whom were chemical, electrical, or aeronautical engineers, more
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familiar with designing military weapons than haute couture) just
couldn't truly envision the scope of w hat she was describing, not until she
found a Lilli doll and showed it to them. Or they simply could not have
given Ruth's idea much credence because she was the female co-owner of
a large company in the mid 50s, and they may have been annoyed at her
position. But I believe the root of Mattel's own resistance to the doll lies in
w hat the idea of Barbie meant at that time, and I share Ruth Handler's
sentiments when she told Lord, “Frankly . . . I thought they were all
horrified by the thought of wanting to make a doll w ith breasts." (30)
Nothing involving the sexual is ever simple or easy, and the
production of an American cultural icon was no exception. One of the
Mattel designers, who had originally given Ruth so m uch trouble, was
ironically put in charge of finding a manufacturer for the doll that would
eventually become Barbie. Jack Ryan was a former electrical engineer
hired by Ruth's husband Elliot in 1955 (Lord 24). Never fond of Ruth's
idea to make a three dimensional fashion doll, Ryan apparently w asn't too
fond of Lilli, either. Lord quotes Ryan describing Lilli as a, "hooker or
actress between performances" and "a German streetwalker." (9,32)
Ruth sent Ryan to Japan in 1957, armed with a Lilli doll, and told him to
find a manufacturer for her. This proved more difficult than either of them
expected— the Japanese companies approached by M attel's representatives
disliked Lilli, believing she was far too harsh looking. Finally, a Tokyo
firm, KBK, agreed to make the dolls and her clothing, and after numerous
manufacturing difficulties involving the chemical make up and casting of
the doll, the first casting samples were ready to be approved by Ryan. But
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he kept encountering one difficulty: whenever KBK gave Ryan the sample
castings, they had tiny nipples on the breasts. Ryan would file them off
and send the casts back approved, but each successive batch would again
have nipples, and he had to file them off a number of times before KBK
understood that nipples for Barbie were not part of the master plan (Lord
30-33).
The first Barbies made from these molds looked almost exactly like
Lilli, with all her pointy, intimidating harshness. "The dolls did not look
either innocent or American," Lord states. "It was Mattel's job to make
them appear to be both." (35) The Handlers put this challenge in the
hands of Ernest Dichter, Ph.D, psychoanalyst and director of the Institute
for Motivational Research (Lord 36). Dichter revolutionized advertising in
the 1950s in ways that have continued through this day. He believed that
by using principles of psychology to find peoples deepest fears and
insecurities, an advertiser could exploit those fears to sell more products.
His approach in researching how best to package Barbie was similar. His
study consisted of watching hundreds of little girls play w ith Barbie, and
interviewing the girls and their mothers to find what they thought of the
doll (Lord 38). Dichter's results were fascinating. "Virtually all the
mothers hated it; they said it was too mature for their daughters. Virtually
all the girls, whose mothers were not present when shown the doll, loved
it." (Rand 32) With this conflicting response between mothers and
daughters, how could Mattel best appeal to the parents' sensibilities, since
the mothers would be the ones actually buying the dolls? It is here that
Dichter exhibited his brilliance. He wanted to look further into Barbie's
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sexuality, "... probing her dark side to see if it should be played up or
down. Is Barbie a 'nice kid, friendly and loved by everyone, or is she vain
and selfish, maybe even cheap? Does she have good taste or is she a little
too flashy?'" (Lord 39, citing Dichter's study). Dichter found that the
advertiser would need to give the children responses to counter their
mothers' arguments that the doll was just too sexy. After hearing one of
the young test subjects respond to her mother's distaste of Barbie by
pointing out how well groomed the doll was, Dichter came upon his
strategy for Mattel:
Convince mom that Barbie will make a "poised little lady"
out of her raffish, unkempt, possibly boyish child.
Underscore the outfits' detailing, and the w ay it might
teach a roughneck to accessorize. Remind Mom of what
she believes deep down but dares not express: Better her
daughter should appeal in a sleazy way to a m an than be
unable to attract one at all. (Lord 40-41)
Mattel told its ad agency, Carson/Roberts, to use Dichter's
information in the production of television ads for Barbie, and they
emphasized her glamorous lifestyle as a fashion model and never
mentioned the fact that Barbie was a doll, attempting instead to show her
as a real person. But the real test would come at Toy Fair, the toy
industry's annual trade show where manufacturers hawked their wares to
retail store buyers. It was there, in February of 1959, that Barbie was first
introduced. Beautiful, busty, bathing-suit clad Barbie was not much of a
success. Sears, formerly one of the largest purchasers of Mattel's toy
products, wouldn't agree to stock her because they thought she was too
sexy, not wholesome enough for their catalog. Only a few other buyers
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purchased her, and Mattel began their television ad campaign a month
later. Months passed, and the doll wasn't selling. But with the end of
school in June, retailers nationwide saw Barbie fly off their shelves. The
Summer of 1959 marked the beginning of the indelible cultural impact of
Barbie (Lord 42-43).
From the examples of her development and marketing, it is obvious
that Mattel's employees were extremely aware of Barbie's overt sexuality,
and knew that consumers could see it too. Through modifying the more
harsh, exaggerated aspects of the Lilli doll's face and form, while still
maintaining her air of sexual confidence and adding a certain degree of
haughtiness, Mattel had the best of both worlds— a doll so glamorous and
intriguing that children could project their idealized futures upon, but
that mothers would feel good about buying. Dichter's research showed
how Mattel could maximize Barbie's adultness to their advantage in a
conscious attempt to make Barbie's sexuality— that which lured little girls
and terrified their mothers— the most unconsciously appealing aspect of
arguably the most revolutionary doll ever made.
Barbie's continued popularity and increasing sales over the past 35
years qualify her as a worldwide popular culture icon. According to the
Los Angeles Times, in 1995 alone the doll accounted for $1.4 billion of
Mattel's sales. Somewhere in the world, two Barbies are sold every
second, and 40% of Barbies are sold outside the United States (Tempest
A12).
Part of Mattel's historical marketing success with the doll is due to
its attempts to continually update her look and persona, to adapt her to fit
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the times and always keep her contemporary by following cultural,
political, and fashion trends. In 1968, Mattel introduced a black friend for
Barbie, Christie (Lord 163), to fit in with the slowly growing acceptability
by mainstream America of the Black Pride m ovem ent When Americans
could still be rallied proudly around NASA's attempts to explore space,
Mattel gave Barbie an astronaut suit, long before a real female astronaut
was part of NASA's plan. During the 1970s, when women joined the work
force in numbers unequaled since World War II, Mattel expanded Barbie's
professional possibilities to include not just fashion model and fashion
editor, but teacher, doctor, business woman, etc.
On a more superficial level, every season finds Barbie with a new
line of fashions, cars, accessories and furniture, all more trendy and stylish
than those previous. By doing this, Mattel has not only been able to
appeal to the changing conventions and opinions of parents, who
ultimately buy the products, but to continually create new, more "hip"
products that m ust be purchased. Mattel doesn't have the burden of true
innovation, but the challenge of imitating a trend at that crucial point
between it becoming mainstream enough to be acceptable to the majority
of consumers, and before it becomes outdated. This is one reason not to
expect a Mattel authorized Lesbian Barbie or Gay Ken anytime soon.
Regardless of the limiting nature of the manufactured Barbie items,
there are many collectors who either reject Mattel's intended uses for the
doll or embellish them to fit their own creative needs. As mentioned in
my introduction, Rand (149-192) has explored the possibilities of radical
gay/lesbian political subversion through Barbie bashers and how they
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remake the doll. Unlike Rand, I assert that hatred of the doll, or w hat she
is popularly assumed to represent, is not a prerequisite for subversion.
Many of the collectors I interviewed embrace negatively deemed aspects
of the traditionally feminine, which Barbie has been criticized as
representing, and they reappropriate such aspects by exaggerating them
and brazenly applying them to their own lives, as well as Barbie dolls. I
will profile three such informants in the next chapter, one woman and
two men. Through making Barbie their own positive role model, these
people have made themselves role models, as examples of how to reclaim
the feminine aesthetic and use it to enrich their lives.
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Chapter 2: The Imaginative and Inspired
Michael
I first met Michael at a Barbie collecting show and sale, where I told
numerous dealers that I was looking for collectors to be interviewed. They
each declined, but continually referred me to Michael, who is known to all
of them because he has been buying their dolls at shows since he was
twelve years old. I had noticed him at past shows, as he is a hard
character to miss, usually clad in a t-shirt that proudly proclaims, "I cross
dress my Barbies," w ith his long, blonde hair curled just like Barbie's, and
wearing gigantic, pink, plastic childrens' rings. Michael m ade me feel like
I w asn't the only one who took the theme of these shows seriously, who
dressed for them. I usually attended the shows wearing pink and white
gingham pedal pushers, pink patent leather pumps, and very large, very
cheap, plastic 1960s jewelry. Michael m ade my day w hen he later told me
he remembered the first time he saw me at a show. "I took one look at
those pumps, turned to my best friend and said, 'girlfriend's got it going
on!"' We were clearly two peas in a fashion pod.
Walking into Michael's house felt like walking into my own home.
N ot the kind of home of one's childhood, with cushy sofas, gingham
tablecloths and the smell of a hearty dinner simmering on the stove, but
the kind of home an extremely creative, incredibly dynamic twenty-six-
year-old would need to envelop himself in color and feed his artistic
imagination. Michael and I had many conversations over the phone and
at collector shows, and on one occasion he described his apartment as
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"looking like a box of cheap crayons exploded." Anticipating a rainbow, I
was not disappointed. His walls were lined with department store
display cases he had picked up at various thrift stores or going-crut-of-
business sales, and were filled with every kind of Barbie doll imaginable.
Rare factory prototypes that were never manufactured stood next to
vintage 1960s mod Barbies w ho looked like they walked right off of
Carnaby Street They gazed across the room at inexpensive mass issued
Toys R Us "pink box" dolls, a slightly derogatory name collectors have
given to the less exclusive, less fabulous dolls geared at children.
The dominant theme was undoubtedly Barbie, but with many other
retro-style details thrown in for good measure. I was expecting a
disorganized mish-mash of dolls and related memorabilia, since most
collectors live in cramped spaces (money is better spent on dolls than extra
square footage) and finding a thematic, visually appealing way of
displaying them is difficult But Michael's apartment was part colorful
child's playpen, part sophisticated cocktail lounge. Natural fabrics and
materials weren't allowed, as everything was either plastic or chrome,
with the exception of his bright orange 1950s leatherette couch, which he
told me he pulled out of someone's garbage bin and later found out was
worth nearly five hundred dollars. Elegantly framed posters of Barbie,
related photos and advertisements hang on the walls, while a string of
pink flamingo and palm-tree lights line the passage from living room to
kitchen.
Featured prominently at the back wall of the apartment, and what
Michael termed his pride and joy, was the Barbie Magical Mansion, a
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stunning pink and white estate complete with outdoor shrubbery, indoor
designer furnishings, working lights and an elevator. The mansion is two
Barbie stories high (about three feet), and about four feet wide. Michael
told me that although the mansions could be found at Toys R Us, not
many of them were sold. If the colossal size w asn't enough to intimidate
most parents, the price would have been— Barbie's Magical Mansion
retailed for $600. Michael related with glee the first time he saw the
mansion a few years back on the top shelf of a toy store on Hollywood
Boulevard. He was shopping with friends, and upon seeing Barbie's
fabulous home out of the box and on display in full working order, they
began to shriek and cry. But alas, the price was too high, and Michael left
without purchasing it. Years later, the same friends were back shopping
at the same store, and saw the same Mansion, still on display but now
covered in dust, and bought it at a discount. "Now I have the same one
that was the very first one I saw," he said.
But the item in Michael's apartment I think m ost incredible, and
that Michael described in more loving terms than even the Magical
Mansion, was his life-size Barbie Mannequin. It was fashioned after a
vintage #1 blonde ponytail ("collector speak" for the first casting of dolls
that were made in 1959, and every collector's most sought after doll) and
was clad in a reproduction of arguably the most popular vintage Barbie
outfit, "Solo in the Spotlight." The mannequin stood regal and proud, not
at all like a torch singer who might have really worn such an ensemble,
this one lovingly hand-made for her by Michael. The sequin-encrusted,
black strapless bodice caressed the curves of her plaster form, tracing the
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column of her hips and legs, leading to a spray of gathered black tulle
which encircled her permanently molded, black high-heeled feet. A baby-
pink chiffon scarf cascaded to the floor from her black satin, opera-gloved
hand, while large faux pearls bejeweled her delicate ears. The pouty lips,
sidelong glance and ponytailed locks like sunshine left no doubt that this
creature was cast from the past, no vapid, smiley, 1980s Barbie face here.
This large-as-life magnification of Barbie, the ultimate doll of dolls, was
truly a vision.
I remember the first time I saw this mannequin, at the San
Francisco Macy's during the holiday season of 1994. Seeing it again at
Michael's, I suddenly remember all the calls I placed to their window
dressing department, and how store representatives continuously told me
the prize was not for sale, and how I pouted like a baby on the long drive
back to Fresno. My ridiculous, childlike jealousy was tempered w ith pride
for Michael, because I knew how hard he must have tried to get the dam n
thing, and more power to him for figuring out how. His story didn't
disappoint, for Michael knew the entire history of the mannequin's
manufacturer, for whom they were originally made, even that there were
other, uglier, low quality versions that could be seen in some stores. He
beamed when telling me how he scored not just the mannequin, but the
vintage reproduction microphone and stand, just like the one in the
original "Solo in the Spotlight" outfit from 1960. I felt much better about
not owning one myself when he told me he had to borrow $1,200 from his
mother to buy it.
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Another creation in Michael's home was w hat he called the
"Michael Doll," made in his image by a close friend. In contrast to
Michael's heavy set, pale, 6'2" frame, the Michael Doll was a tanned, well
muscled Ken Doll, which had its short brown hair completely removed
and replaced with long, wavy blonde hair just like Michael's (a process
collectors call "rerooting"). The miniature was completed by a faux black
leather vest worn over a naked chest; with matching, very tight faux black
leather pants. To make the presentation that much more hyper real, the
doll was posed in front of a Ken Doll box that had been remade with
photos of Michael wearing the same outfit. If this w asn't visually
stunning enough, these weren't just any photos, b u t Glamour Shots, the
brand name of faux Hollywood glam our photography taken in malls and
intended as Valentine's day gifts for the husbands of usually middle-aged,
wannabe glamour queens. The entire display looked as if it were meant to
be seen on a slightly seedy, after-prime-time Toys R Us shelf. What was
noticeable about this doll, even more than the craftsmanship and creativity
expressed through it, was the idea of a supposedly m undane, everyday
person exerting a bit of subversive imaginative pow er by taking a
manufactured doll with a manufactured identity and making it over in his
ow n image. It was a bold and proud gesture, asserting to all who see it
that they are just as fabulous and im portant as a celebrity, at least
im portant enough to have their ow n doll. It says you are captivatingly
glamorous enough to have your form and persona captured in plastic,
ready for children to purchase from the Toys R Us shelves. It really was
an exceptional creation, the type of which I would see again in my
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experience with collectors who surprised me with their proud and overt
identification with Barbie.
The pretend celebrity doll was in a similar vein to another doll
Michael had, one crafted to look exactly like RuPaul, 6'5" black drag
queen, fashion icon and superstar. This doll had been made for Michael
by two of his Barbie collector friends in Arizona, who presented it to him
after Michael stayed up until 4:00am decorating his home in yet more
festive Barbie regalia for a surprise birthday celebration for one of the
friends. The doll originally was a version of Black Barbie named Asha,
whose formerly long black hair was replaced with powder blonde, which
was then permed with the tiniest perm rods for hum an hair, and then
meticulously styled into a Marie Antoinette coiffure complete with curls
cascading down from the temples. Real eyelashes had been rooted where
the painted ones had once been, giving the face an extra three dimensional
flair. Delicately applied acrylic paint substituted for real make-up, painted
on the doll's face in a fashion that only drag queens can duplicate. The
blonde hair and vibrant color of the make up played well on the dark skin,
and was in stark contrast to the Marie Antoinette dress. A white lace
vision, it had hand sewn puff sleeves, trimmed with lace that couldn't
have been more than an eighth of an inch wide, which ended at the doll's
gracefully curving elbows. The low cut bodice was fitted to the bust with
a couturiers touch, w ith multiple seams nipping the waist tight and
leading to a starched, yet full expanse of a skirt. The fashion detailing was
quite historically accurate, with one exception. The back seam of the skirt
was left unsewn, w ith the unfinished edges instead trimmed with
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miniature lace. As I gasped with delight at how gorgeous the doll was,
Michael beamed and said what every collector and admirer of painful
detail loves to hear, "But wait, there's more!" as he slowly opened the back
of the skirt, revealing the tiniest white lace G-string anyone will ever see.
It cleaved so delicately between the doll's brown buttocks, and was in
such textual contrast to the vaguely bridal/historical feel of the doll, that I
just burst out laughing. The crowning touch to RuPaul's rear end lent an
air of burlesque delight to the entire creation.
The RuPaul doll would have looked quite stunning posed atop
Michael's Barbie and the Rockers light-up stage. Through his connections
in the Barbie collecting world, Michael acquired the actual Barbie sized
stage specially constructed for use in the television commercials for Barbie
and the Rockers, Barbie's ultra flashy rock band from the mid 1980s.
About two feet wide and nearly as high, the stage consisted of a
rectangular base of black lacquer, surrounded by black lacquer trimmed
mirrors on the sides and back which made up the remainder of the stage
area. It had five transparent star shapes cut into the bottom. Michael
showed me how these stars were the spots on the stage where the dolls
were posed for the commercial, and each star was lit up from beneath at
intervals depending on which doll was in the shot. Appropriately
enough, Michael kept the stage next to his bed, where he used it as his
vanity table, topping it with makeup and faux jewels.
Michael's good nature, patience and hospitality will not soon be
forgotten. When I walked in the door of his home, he handed me a
beautifully photographed 1997 mod Barbie calendar, showing the dolls
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from my favorite era of Barbie history gloriously posed in action and
wearing some of my favorite fashions. He had told m e of the calendar the
day before, and I told him it sounded incredible and although I hadn't
seen it yet, I couldn't wait to buy it. So he presented it to me the next day,
"... to thank you for asking me to be in your documentary." It was a very
sweet thing for Michael to do for someone who was about to unplug his
refrigerator and his air conditioning for three hours so I could plug in
lights that would heat his home until we were both sweating like pigs and
the abundance of plastic seemed like it would m elt But Michael kept his
witty sense of humor, and never lost patience with me over my ridiculous
time-consuming technical difficulties and equipment snafus. I stayed
hours after the shoot was finished, as we talked like high school girls
about dolls, favorite TV shows, fashion and boys. I spoke of how I had
always wanted my own fashion mannequin of any kind, but had only
found them for around $300, which was far more than I could afford. He
smiled and led me to his garage, where countless torsos and limbs of
disheveled mannequins lay strewn across the floor. He picked up a lovely
head with rooted eyelashes and searched through piles of boxes and junk
to find legs that would fit. Then he handed her to me, an armless,
neglected beauty, a junk yard Venus de Milo. He said his friend finds
them very cheap and it was about time I had my own. This was the most
appropriate finale to a wonderful day. Decorating drama, visual vibrance,
Barbie banter, and shared joy in artificial materials had me feeling as if I
had found a new best friend. I'm still wondering w hat his neighbors must
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have thought as I struggled to fit the limbs of my new toy into the trunk of
my car.
Corazon
Corazon is truly a celebrity within the Barbie collecting world, and
her exquisite collection and glamorous, high fashion persona led to her
appearance on numerous television shows, in magazine articles and at the
National Barbie Convention fashion shows. Corazon seems to have done
everything Barbie has, except go to the moon. Her numerous activities,
occupations and hobbies w ould make even Barbie feel less than
glamorous and dynamic. Bom in the Philippines, Corazon started
modeling when she was 13. She continued modeling after she moved to
the United States, and began collecting Barbies during the early 1980s. She
has written a book entitled Total Beauty and Fitness, geared toward
women over 40 who still would like to look glamorous. She has won
numerous beauty contest titles, traveled the world, had two children,
acted in and produced plays, and appeared on numerous television
shows, including that of Phil Donohue, to speak about her Barbie
collecting.
I first m et Corazon serendipitously. Given w hat I imagined w ould
be huge demands on her time, I was far too intimidated to call her,
introduce myself, and ask for an interview. But a woman from the Golden
State Collectors Club, whose meetings I had attended, called me one
Sunday evening to tell me they had arranged a tour of Corazon's doll
collection, to take place the next day. I figured this was my chance. I
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carefully chose a stunning dress of white, polka-dotted, grass green
polyester, with cap sleeves and a short, flared skirt, to be worn with white
leather go-go boots and white, plastic Jackie-O sunglasses. Upon my
arrival, Corazon greeted me at her door wearing a pink cotton spandex
mini-dress and pink leather cowboy boots. She was stunning. I soon
realized I was the youngest person there as all the women in the Golden
State d u b were at least sixty years old. Although they were wearing
polyester, too, it w asn't with go-go boots. Once again, a love of fashion
brought two people together, and Corazon invited me to attend the
Beverly Hills Barbie Collectors Q ub meetings, "where the crowd is much
younger," she whispered to me, when no one else could hear.
Unlike the immediate assault on the senses I encountered upon
entering Michael's apartment, Barbie's influence on Corazon's life can't be
immediately seen from walking into her Beverly Hills home. A large gate
surrounds the exterior of the lot, which leads to a gorgeously landscaped
front yard. One m ust climb a series of stairs from the street to the front
door, where her little dog Annie yelps excitedly at a stranger's entrance.
On the day of our video interview, Corazon greeted me wearing
black knit stretch pants and a long sleeved black t-shirt, in casual contrast
to the high fashion, high maintenance self she usually projects. She
seemed anxious and was definitely harried, as she explained to me that
she was in the middle of sorting through her newer dolls in order to sell
them at a collectors meeting she hosts at her house every month. I told her
not to hurry, as I had to set up my equipment, and that if she had more
work to do I could call her when I was ready. She agreed, and I unloaded
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my camera bag while she went back to boxing her dolls. Later, prior to the
interview, she emerged wearing a sleeveless, red mini-dress and red
heels, "for color in the picture," she explained. She had clearly been
interviewed before. Like movie stars from Hollywood's old glamour
days, she was adept at giving me technical advice about where best to
place the tripod and how high to adjust it in order to get the best picture of
her, and she remained posed and poised throughout
Corazon's home is tastefully and elegantly decorated with a variety
of styles of art, including her own paintings. An eclectic mix of urns, rugs
and pillows is combined with statues and heavy drapery, creating a rich
and sum ptuous look. In fact, the only hint of Corazon's proclivity toward
beauty and glamour, aside from her usually glamorous appearance, are
the coffee table books on beauty and glamour she has written, which she
proudly displays on top of the coffee table. The overall effect of the non-
Barbie interior was slightly unnerving, as it was so different from the
surrealistic, plastic rainbow world of the other collectors I had visited. No
one would know from looking at her living and dining rooms that
Corazon has over 1000 Barbie dolls in her 4,000 plus doll collection, almost
all of which she houses in a specially constructed "doll room." But once I
saw the special variety of dolls and how they were displayed, I knew that
Barbie had a much more significant impact on Corazon's life than her
living room suggested.
Part of the tour included Corazon's bedroom, where she had just a
few dolls displayed. We were led through a hallway to the room, and that
was where the real fun began. The walls of her bedroom and hallway
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were covered with enlarged photos of herself from her modeling days,
and her dressers and other furniture had such photos displayed as well.
This alone was shocking, but the surrealism began with the addition of
boxed and shrink-wrapped products such as nail polish, perfumes, and
pantyhose, all of which had her picture on them and were emblazoned
with "Corazon" to look like a brand name. I'm not sure if these products
actually exist and if she really endorsed them, or if they were artistic
creations of her own doing, sort of like the Michael Doll. How could I
possibly find out without embarrassing one or both of us? "By the way,
are those real products? I mean, did you just make those up for fun?" I
just couldn't do i t I was already getting cramps from holding back my
laughter. I was simply too stunned and afraid to ask.
Upon first entering the doll room , I was amazed at the sheer
number of dolls and how intricately they had been arranged and
thematically placed. But the first particular item in the room that truly
impressed me was the life-size mannequin that Corazon posed for.
Complete with tiara and beauty-queen-worthy beaded gown, it wore the
Miss Travel Tourism contest sash that Corazon herself had worn when
bestowed with that title in 1989. She proudly told me how a manufacturer
cast the mannequin from her face, and how they were then shipped
throughout, "America, Australia, and all over the world." From the curve
of the smiling lips to the "real" thick and lengthy eyelashes, the
mannequin indeed looked exactly like Corazon. Next to it were dolls
dressed in the same glittering costume and sash, and photographs of
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Corazon in the mannequin's dress, taken immediately after she w on the
title.
Like other Barbie collectors, Corazon's collection included standard
Barbie fare, such as numerous vintage Barbies posed in their vintage
costumes, from the 900 series (those outfits shown only in Mattel's 1959
catalog), to the m od-era dolls such as Frande and Stacy (Barbie's "far out"
cousin, and British friend). These vintage dolls, induding a number of the
Bild Lillis, filled a series of glass cases lining the walls of the doll room
from floor to ceiling. Each shelf represented a particular Barbie fashion
era, and each was electrically lit from beneath the shelf above it, to further
highlight the posed dolls.
The most enthralling aspect of Corazon's doll room was its center,
comprised of another series of shelves that housed the 30 or so dolls that
she had made over to look just like herself. She had taken Brunette Asian
and Hispanic Barbies, made beautiful, intricately detailed dothing for
them matching her own, and then placed them in a variety of poses that
seemed to have come straight from Corazon's ow n life as a self-
prod aimed world traveler, actress, fashion model and beauty queen. One
set up had a doll wearing a yellow and orange glitter-encrusted bodysuit
and matching feather boa, with huge yellow and orange butterfly wings
emerging from behind the dolls head. Next to it w as a photo of Corazon,
resplendent in the same yellow and orange, looking like a Mardi Gras
dancer or Vegas showgirl. Next to that doll stood one in an English riding
costume, about to m ount her horse, and Corazon's photo again was placed
next to it. A gold-bead- trimmed blue chiffon veil covered the face of
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another doll, whose costume was completed w ith gold-trimmed harem
pants of the finest chocolate colored silk. A picture of Corazon, dressed in
the same harem girl costume, stood next to the doll. Another set up had
Barbie as what looked to be a Filipino revolutionary, wearing a black
cotton martial arts uniform, wrap top provocatively drawn open, holding
a large machine gun. The matching photo of Corazon found her in the
same costume, but standing against a crumbling brick wall, about to kiss a
good looking blonde m an wearing a similar costume.
I found many more look-alike dolls such as these in Corazon's doll
room, but the most brilliantly detailed of all was what I assume to be a
recreation, if not a fantasy, of a sultry bedroom scene. Another brunette
Barbie was posed in a seated position on the edge of a red velvet covered
bed. She was wearing the tiniest of black lace panties and a matching
black lace bra, with opera length, fingerless gloves of the same miniature
black lace. Around her waist was a black garter attachment, whose black
garters lusciously led to the black lace trimmed transparent black hose
worn on the doll's slender legs. Spread out on the bed were numerous
miniature travel magazines, all of which had color photo covers which
said "Manila, Philippines." A tiny green bottle of champagne sat next to
her, and was surrounded by three black, terry cloth guest towels, each
wrapped in a red satin bow. Her arms were raised up over her head, one
hand filled with faux pearl jewels, while the other held the hand of a
rather H ugh Hefner-esque Ken doll. He had dark brown, longish rooted
hair, and wore a red satin lined black satin robe. He stood next to the bed,
seeming to seductively survey the scene. The most twisted and beautiful
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part was how he used his other hand to operate a miniature camcorder,
set up on a tripod, to supposedly videotape the whole fantastic scene.
Again, there was a photo of Corazon— head thrown back, knees pointed up
toward her chest— wearing an extremely accurate replica of the doll's
lingerie.
Of course, I was amazed by the attention to detail and meticulous
construction of the tiniest aspects of these scenes, from hair and clothing to
props. But even more stunning was how Corazon incorporated herself
into the scenes, not only through dolls that looked like her, but through
the addition of photographs showing her in the same costume and pose,
further illustrating for the viewer how Corazon sees herself as having
much in common with Barbie. Many collectors have photos of
themselves dressed in life-size re-creations of actual Barbie costumes, but
Corazon takes it a step further by taking scenes from her own life
experiences and making her Barbies fit into them. And if her biography is
any indication, the dolls she crafts after herself have huge shoes to fill.
1996 marks the first year Corazon organized the Beach
Cities /Beverly Hills Barbie d u b s Fashion Show, where 30 or so collectors
celebrate the splendor of Barbie by cruising the catwalk clad in their hand
made, human sized recreations of Mattel manufactured Barbie outfits.
Corazon takes her participation in the overlapping worlds of modeling,
fashion and glamour very seriously, as I would soon find out when I
became her couture co-conspirator.
It was the highlight of my summer. Corazon called and asked me
to be a model in the fashion show. I was so thrilled that I lied and told her
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I already had an outfit made (I didn't, and spent a week putting one
together). While still on the phone, I grabbed a book of photographs
showing Frande's (Barbie's cousin from the late 1960s) mod clothing,
chose a dress that looked the simplest to make, and told her it was what I
would be wearing. After I agreed to be in the fashion show, Corazon
asked me if I had ever done runway modeling before. She seemed
disturbed when I told her I had never done any modeling of any kind.
"Well, you know how to walk, don't you?" she asked. I thought she was
kidding, obviously stating I was qualified simply because I w asn't on
crutches. "Well, I've been walking for 24 years, so I guess I'm pretty good
at it," I joked back. She didn't think it was funny. Runway walking is
very different form every day walking, she explained, and perfecting it
takes a lot of practice and skill. I was almost ashamed. I tried to salvage
w hat was left of this opportunity by telling her that I watched many hours
of Style with Elsa Klensch on CNN, and this provoked some slight
laughter on both our parts. She finished the conversation by assuring me
I would do just fine after she had a chance to instruct all the models
during the pre-show hour and a half rehearsal.
And rehearse we did. I arrived early to get some video footage of
the Barbie show and sale, of which the fashion show was a p a rt Corazon
was already there in full force, organizing all the participants in the
conference room of the Carson Center, preparing most of them for their
fashion debut. The "models" were Barbie collectors, and if Corazon was
dead set on making this as professional as her past fashion show
experiences, she had much work to do. The collectors were comprised of
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the inexperienced and insecure, as well as the inexperienced and
overconfident. I don't think any of them had ever been on a runway
before, and it showed. Corazon lined us up in the order we were
supposed to walk, and had each of us strut down the carpeted floor. We
were instructed to walk to the front, slowly turn, walk to the left and then
the right, then return to exit the runway. The idea turned most of the
models into goofy high school kids, as they adopted a hunched pose of
insecurity, and slowly, reluctantly pretended to walk the runway.
Corazon came to the rescue, arms flailing, like a den m other to her
charges. "No, no," she said. "You m ust stand straight! Walk proud!
YOUARE MODELS !" She then demonstrated, with all her fashion flair,
just how it was done. As we watched her confidently saunter across the
carpet with an exaggerated twist of her hips, I wondered if anyone
thought they could possibly get up on the runway having seen what they
would never be able to achieve. Having no shame, I was probably the
least likely to be embarrassed by runw ay modeling, and even I was
getting nervous. But her performance and enthusiasm seemed to loosen
everyone up, and we began to camp it up and had m uch more fun during
the rehearsal, as well as the show itself.
Corazon took the fashion show very seriously, no doubt due to her
professional modeling history, and in spite of her inexperienced "models."
At first I was surprised at her persistence at following fashion show
procedure and her adamance at persuading us to project "attitude." After
all, this was a Barbie fashion show at a community center, for God's sake,
using mostly average looking, middle-aged women as models— not a
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showing of Donna Karan's resort collection with Cindy flipping Crawford
in New York City. But as the t-shirts and sweats of everyday life were
stripped from those women's bodies, and they adorned themselves in
imagination through the glamour garb of Barbie, I grew to appreciate
Corazon's dedication to excellence in the realm of the Baibie fashion show.
She took an event that probably looked mundane and ridiculous to the
outsider's eye, and turned it into a glamorous fashion blast Having spent
much time with her since, it seems to be the way she approaches most
aspects of her life, and I admire her because of it. After all, you shouldn't
cruise the catwalk unless you're ready to bare your claws.
Pabboo
I first m et Pabboo at Corazon's birthday party, where most of the
guests were Barbie collectors. Although they were all quite charming, one
m an in particular caught my attention. He was a black man in his mid
thirties, very animated and friendly, dressed from head to toe in
Pocahontas regalia, from the Disney film. His hat, denim jacket, t-shirt
and socks were all Pocahontas, and I overheard him describing to another
guest how he just loved the film, had added all the Pocahontas dolls (also,
like Barbie, made by Mattel) to his Barbie collection, and had hand-made
some items he was wearing and artistically embellished the manufactured
ones. I knew his dedication to flashy fashion and obsessive detail m ust be
related to his love of Barbie, and I knew I had to meet him.
Fascinated, I sat next to him and introduced myself. He seemed
thrilled to have another person to show his creations to, and for what must
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have been the third or fourth time that afternoon, he recited in loving
detail all the items he was wearing. The baseball cap was a manufactured
item w ith the Pocahontas picture and logo, which he then adorned w ith
hand-sewn, tiny sequins. The denim jacket was purchased without any
ornamentation, but the Pocahontas logo and design were enlarged from a
photo and appliqu£ed onto the back by him. He then hand embroidered
segments of the picture, also adding glitter in some portions, sequins in
others, and finally trimming the sleeves, back, and front of the jacket with
brown faux suede fringe, 'T or that extra Native American touch" he said.
The result was a jacket that danced in the light, and every time Pabboo
made a move, I could see the reflections across the walls of the room. He
proceeded to show me his Pocahontas watch and Pocahontas socks, both
manufactured items, the socks also having been embellished with sequins.
I later found that he planned to redecorate his kitchen entirely in
Pocahontas theme material.
Although I would have expected to find a person at the party with
a similarly extreme outfit, but with a Barbie theme, I wasn't too surprised
by Pabboo sharing his enthusiasm for Barbie with Pocahontas as well.
From my own observations, as well as documented psychoanalytical
research (Muensterberger 3), collectors of any type of object, be it teacups,
fine art prints, comic books or Barbie dolls, seem to be very obsessive
about their accumulation of objects. Most of the Barbie collectors I have
met collect other items as well, but they usually can be related to Barbie in
some way, either as another type of doll, toy, or fashion oriented object
Barbie collectors are not usually the type of people who collect stamps or
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coins, items usually reserved for the more reserved personality. Pabboo
explained his interest in Pocahontas as part of his general fascination with
Native American culture in general, or at least what I noticed to be his
fascination w ith media glamorized, female Native American icons. He
collects not just Barbie and Pocahontas but other Native American
costumed dolls as well, and even has a few Cher dolls in his collection
(from her "Half Breed" phase, with her long straight black hair and
fringed clothing). He said he thinks Pocahontas was a great film because
it brought aspects of Native American culture to the general populace and
there aren't any Native American role models readily available to
children.
Pabboo describes vividly the first time he saw Barbie. "I was five
years old, I saw that doll, and I mean, I was absolutely in love... Barbie
really was the first woman I fell in love with." His mother had purchased
Barbie for his sister, and when Pabboo expressed interest in the doll, his
mother told him he couldn't have it. "All I could think of was that doll,
she was like a little person, and I was a little person, and I wanted to have
her because she was just like me." His persistence paid off, as his mother
began to buy him Barbies as well. When he grew older and realized there
were official Barbie collector clubs, he immediately joined.
But Pabboo's obsession doesn't stop with Barbie and Pocahontas.
He told me how he also collected Little M ermaid items, antique baby dolls
from the 1930s and 40s, along with any other type of dolls he could find
cheaply at swap meets or flea markets, as well as Mattel licensed Barbie
items, such as puzzles, placemats, books, plastic radios, children's make-
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up kits, etc. I could only imagine w hat his living space looked like, given
that his interests were so broad. He told me his apartm ent was like
"Disneyland in a shoe box" and explained how the small studio was so
overflowing with items that the only walking space was a narrow path
from the front door to the bathroom, and to the kitchen. I still begged to
videotape his collection, and although he agreed, he seemed a bit
reluctant. He insisted, over and over during the course of a few months
that he really had no walking space in his apartment and didn't know how
I would be able to videotape there. I m ust say I thought he was
exaggerating, as sometimes collectors like to impress others by
exaggerating the vast, rare, or exciting nature of their collections as being
more spectacular than they really are. I soon found Pabboo was telling the
painful, claustrophobic truth.
Pabboo, like Corazon and Michael, amassed Barbie dolls as one of
the main interests in his life. But his apartm ent could not have been more
different from theirs— the sunny surrealism of Michael's very neatly
organized, decorative displays, and the tasteful nature of Corazon's home,
with her dolls sequestered into one room— Pabboo's studio apartment was
a disorganized mish-mash of dolls and related accessories spread
haphazardly throughout the tiny room. Again I saw dolls housed by the
practical utilization of floor to ceiling shelves, which lining the entire main
wall of the room. But there was no rhyme or reason to how the dolls were
displayed on the shelves, m any were leaned up sideways, bent over
crookedly, or just lying down, and seemed to have simply been thrown
onto the shelves without any recognizable order. The opposite wall was
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entirely taken u p by the size of Pabboo's bed, a w hite, w ooden, full sized
bunk, com pletely covered in Barbie items as well as other
indistinguishable toys, pieces an d parts, to such a degree that I could
barely see the pink Barbie sheets and com forter set beneath.
The center of the room w as even w orse. Pabboo w as not lying
when he said there was only a narrow pathw ay. Piles and piles of dolls
and toys w ere heaped upon the floor in every direction, until they covered
all the space and reached several feet high. I could only stand in the
doorway w ith a cam era bag and light kit across m y shoulders and o n m y
back, as there was no place to set anything down. Pabboo clim bed to the
top of the bed, and w ith a sw eep of his arm knocked everything dow n to
the ground, so I could at least p u t dow n m y equipm ent. But I knew I
w asn't going to be able to set u p a tripod, and w ould have to do the
interview hand held. I could only set up one light, and it's stand had to go
in the open doorw ay, as there w as no other place for it in the apartm ent.
Pabboo im m ediately began pulling item s off shelves, dum ping
other item s onto piles of other item s, and threw still m ore item s onto the
floor in order to find the special pieces he w anted to show m e and also to
make as visually pleasing a space as possible for the background of the
interview. Even though his w hole living space was an unkem pt, chaotic
mess, he w as very hospitable an d took m uch joy in show ing me his m any
detailed, lovingly m ade creations.
Regarding Barbie, Pabboo was particularly interested in the black
or ethnic versions of the doll. H e took particular pride in telling m e how
he recently started the International Black Barbie Club, and
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enthusiastically said it had m em bers in m any states. Most of the dolls he
designs fashions for are black Barbies, or N ative American dolls like
Pocahontas. He had num erous dolls around the room that he h ad rem ade
to look like Diana Ross, his favorite perform er and fashion icon. Each doll
was w earing a different sparkly dress, and each had long, rerooted black
frizzy hair, rooted eyelashes, outstretched arm s, and lots of excessive
m akeup. The first doll he b rought dow n to show m e was w earing a dress
that Pabboo made, and looked am azingly like som ething Bob Mackie
w ould have designed for Diana Ross during the late 1970s. The cut was
sim ple, a long sleeved sheath dress that flared out at the ankles. But
Pabboo, in his over the top, m ore-is-better way, had com pletely covered
the dress w ith 7,000 hand-sew n red sequins. I d id n 't believe him w hen he
told m e, because I just could not im agine th at even an obsessive Barbie
collector could possibly dedicate so m uch tim e to such a tedious process.
But w hen I looked underneath to exam ine the stitching, I found just as
m any hand-sew n stitches, each only a millimeter or so in length, holding
together the 7,000 tiny red gems to the fabric of the dress. The dress m ust
have w eighed two pounds, and took him approxim ately tw o m onths to
finish. Pabboo said he counted each of them before sewing them on, so
that he w ould know exactly how m any there w ere when he w as done. I
believed him .
Regarding the decor of his apartm ent, Pabboo had one im portant
feature in common w ith the other collectors, an aspect I d id n 't consciously
realize they all shared until weeks after finishing m y formal interview s.
He, like C orazon and M ichael, has a full sized m annequin prom inently
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displayed in his apartm ent. She reclines in a vanity chair near the center
of the room , elegantly posed w ith one leg gently crossing the other a t the
ankle. H er hair is w aist length, straight and black, very m uch like his
Pocohontas dolls o r early Cher. H er skin is a d ark reddish shade, w hich
w as com plem ented by the red peignoir set she w as w earing, along w ith
very high-heeled red shoes. Pabboo posed next to her and introduced her
to m e as his wife, because, "If I had one, this is w hat she would look like."
She w as clearly a larger version of the dolls he rem ade and designed
clothing for, and he said he intentionally found a m annequin w ith
specifically this skin color, and restyled her by adding the long, black wig,
red negligee and shoes. The m annequin's striking sim ilarity to
Pocahontas and C her was clearly Pabboo's intention, as he told me he
refashioned this m annequin into his "dream w om an" who would,
"... look very N ative American, w ith darker skin and the long black hair,
and the big eyes and such... in m y dream s an d fantasies, this w ould be
w hat she looked like."
Like the other collectors w ho spend m uch of their time designing
fashions for Barbie, Pabboo takes m ost of his fashion influence from eras
of the past, w hen fashion for wom en w as m uch m ore excessively fem inine
and glam orous than it is today. His favorite clothes are from old m ovies
of the 1930s and 40s, certain m om ents of w hich Pabboo remembers
vividly. "You had these strong, pow erful wom en, like Scarlet O 'H ara,
w ho sauntered dow n staircases w earing these big hum ongous gow ns, and
everyone in the room w ould just stop dead an d stare." These are the type
of gow ns he designs for his Barbies, w ith big, frilly skirts, m ultiple
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gathers, and other traditionally fem inine additions like sashes, bow s,
glitter and jewels. He said that by designing such fashions for his dolls,
he's trying to recreate a bit of th at glam our for himself, and as he
rem em bers his m other and sister to be— beautiful, poised, w ith a strong
character. "M y m other and sister are absolutely gorgeous . . . I rem em ber
w hen I w as a kid, we w ould go out shopping an d everyw here w e w ent,
m en w ould tu rn and stare." It's no surprise th at Pabboo finds sim ilarities
betw een his m other and sister, and the old m ovie heroines he loves. It is
also no surprise that he finds Barbie to be the perfect object onto w hich to
project those feelings, as she is so glam orous, and, as Pabboo says, "the
perfect m odel."
A lthough my relationship w ith these people began because of our
m utual interest in Barbie, as I grew to know them better the topics of
conversation obviously shifted to include those other than our favorite
doll. Pabboo tells me of his trips to the garm ent district to find fabric, and
keeps m e inform ed of his continued conflict w ith a difficult coworker.
M ichael regularly calls me w hen he sees a new item at Toys R Us he thinks
I w ould like, and also lets me know w henever bands we both like are
com ing to O range county, w here he lives. C orazon asked for m y advice
about Los Angeles area universities, as her daughter is eighteen and plans
to start school next fall. So the stories and descriptions I have provided
about these people may seem trivial and superficial, related only to
descriptions of clothing, possessions, and interior decoration, b u t I assure
the reader this is not the case. For it is through these exam ples one can
clearly see how these people have a very different, m uch m ore extrem e
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notion of glam our and the fem inine than do m ost, and how such an
approach has enriched so m any areas of their lives. They see glam our as
an entity unto itself, not just a look coaxed out w ith the right com bination
of princess seam s and false eyelashes (although those definitely help). For
these people, glam our is a lifestyle, and p a rt of that lifestyle they channel
in certain w ays through Barbie. I have specifically chosen to relate just
such details of my experiences w ith them because these are the events
and observations m ost m em orable to m e, the ones that shocked m y core,
that instantly and indelibly m arked a dreary com er of m y gray m atter
w ith light, vibrance and color. These events appealed to the side of me
that craves to analyze the aesthetic, yet also appreciates those w ho live
their lives w ith such undeniable style and flair. M ost im portant, these are
the events th at vividly illustrate various ideas about popular notions of the
glam orous and feminine, som etim es conflicting, that I w ish to address
next in this paper.
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Chapter 3: How Barbie Became Bad
Postm odernism has been influential in allow ing such previously
ignored areas of our culture, such as those m ass produced for the
population at large, like Barbie, to be critically exam ined by challenging
the validity of previous definitions of culture that only include the "high "
culture created prim arily by W estern, European, m ale elites. As Giroux
states, .. postm odernism conceives of the everyday and the popular as
w orthy of serious and playful consideration. . . popular culture is
analyzed as an im portant sphere of contestation, struggle, and resistance."
(27) Challenging the authority of those w ho create "standards" and
accepting as valid the stories of the previously m arginalized into a
revision of history are aspects of postm odernism w hich have influenced
m uch fem inist thought in the latter tw entieth century, and allow ed for the
inclusion of fem inism in the arena of academ ic discourse.
At the sam e time, Giroux explains, there is a fem inist concern w ith
postm odernism 's lack of attention to gender w hen evaluating how ideas
of the body are constructed in relation to pow er dynam ics. "... the
postm odern tendency to portray the body as so fragm ented, mobile, and
boundary-less that it invites a confusion over how the body is actually
engendered and positioned w ithin concrete configurations of pow er and
form s of m aterial oppression." (Giroux 43) G iroux cites contem porary
fem inists like Sandra Lee Bartky, w ho he says point out, "... the
disciplinary m easures of dieting, the tyranny of slenderness and fashion,
the discourse of exercise, and other technologies of control." (44)
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It is w ithin such a context th at m any of the argum ents against
Barbie have been based. Attacks on Barbie's unrealistic, exaggerated
fem ale figure— her m easurem ents, if hum an, w ould be 36-18-33 (Majer
CXSickey 35)— have become so popular am ong fem inists, as well as the
popular m edia, that they have becom e a tired dich£. In her attack on
M attel's girl oriented Barbie M agazine. M ajer CXSickey states that Barbie
p ro m o tes," ... an im pression that an asexual and anorectically thin body
is the ideal fem inine body " (35) She then states, "... the doll's body
im age has a disem pow ering effect on girls.. . " (Majer O'Sickey 35), which
she asserts can be seen through the way contem porary adult wom en are
surgically altering their bodies. She goes on to im ply, through reference to
Susan Bordo, "... self-disciplining practices th at result in eating disorders
are not only m edical cases, b u t culturally induced in th at they are linked to
the 'consolidation of patriarchal dom ination.'" (35, citing Bordo)
W hile the im pact of toys and play on child developm ent can 't be
denied, to extrapolate that playing w ith Barbie leads to eating disorders is
unproven and sim plistic. It is based on the assum ption that girls w ho play
w ith the thin yet busty doll w ill feel the need to become her, and w ill be
driven to starve them selves in order to obtain th at physically unobtainable
ideal. I agree th at part of M attel's m arketing strategy is to increase
Barbie's w orld of possibilities so th at the child w ill feel able to project their
ow n fantasies onto her, while M attel keeps B arbie's body constant. I have
read about and personally heard stories of w om en w ho blam e everything
from their breast enlargem ent surgery to their rotten m arriage on their
childhood play w ith Barbie and the intim idation and insecurities they felt
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about her, b u t there are deeper rooted issues a t work. The legions of
w om en w ho played w ith Barbie and suffered no ill medical or
psychological effects aren 't ever referred to. W hen I asked C orazon her
opinion about the critique of Barbie as an unrealistic toy, she h ad a
hum orous answ er. "Lots of toys have outrageous proportions, like really
big feet o r heads, o r polka-dotted skin, or w hatever. No body is criticizing
M r. Potato H ead. Besides, why d o toys have to be based in the real,
anyw ay?" W hile her answ er is sim plistic, it brings up the question as to
w hether or not we are placing an undue am ount o f responsibility on
m anufacturers to be so politically correct in their toy design, th at the
traditional elem ent of fantasy is lo s t A nd isn 't fantasy part of w hat play is
about?
Instead of the conventional fem inist approach that sees anorexia as
an attem pt to obtain a culturally im posed physical ideal, Lord m entions
how recent psychoanalytical research shows the disease has m ore to do
w ith a g irl's attem pt to control her body through stunting its sexual
developm ent (Lord 56). Even Bordo, who w rites, "Adolescent anorexics
express characteristic fears about grow ing up to b e m ature, sexually
developed, potentially reproductive wom en," (102) seems to adm it this.
M ajer O'Sickey continues her negative interpretation of Barbie by deem ing
her asexual sim ply because she d o esn 't have a functioning vagina, hence,
Barbie rep resen ts," . . . a denial of the sexual functions of the fem ale body,
including reproduction." (35) If she is a denial of the sexual, then w hy
w ould young girls starve them selves to attain the culturally invented
"physical ideal," clearly sexual, th at Barbie supposedly represents? As
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Lord states, "A t least Barbie em braced w om anhood, how ever cartoonish
her interpretation; she w asn 't a fem ale Peter Pan dem anding car keys and
the right to vote w hile shirking the burden of sexual developm ent." (56)
M ajer O'Sickey's m ost dubious statem ent is her assertion that sexual
exploration of any kind in the context of childrens' play w ith Barbie
cannot occur. Sex play w ith Barbie is im possible because, "... trying out
the lim its of sexual behavior by play-acting can obviously only take place
w hen sexual function is m ade visible." (34) She has clearly never watched
children play w ith Barbie, n o r has she spoken to adults w ho played w ith
Barbie as a child. N early all the collectors I have spoken w ith w ho played
w ith Barbie as children adm it to having a t least m ade their dolls sexually
grope each other, if not attem pting full "intercourse" w ith them , in a way
to explore their sexual curiosity. M ajer (ySickey seem s to deny the pow er
of the im agination of children, and the sexual pow er of Barbie.
Barbie is also criticized by fem inists as perpetuating the "m ale
gaze," a sem inal concept developed during the 1970s by film theorist
Laura M ulvey. Simply put, the m ale gaze is the notion that, w ithin
m ainstream film the view er is alw ays assum ed to be m ale, the viewed,
fem ale, w ith the w om an objectified as a result. "In their traditional
exhibitionist role wom en are sim ultaneously looked a t and displayed,
w ith their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic im pact so that
they can be said to connote "to-be-looked-at-ness." (M ulvey 6) A lthough
M ulvey's w ork has since "... generated m ountains of scholarly rebuttal,
qualification, and elaboration" (Lord 103), fem inists took the idea of the
m ale gaze and have since applied it to every aspect of w om en's lives, and
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have built m uch of their theory on that idea. To them , Barbie seem s to be
a perfect exam ple of the above objectification, as she is prim arily
concerned w ith aspects of physical appearance, such as hair styling,
m akeup application an d the pursuit of the fashionable, an d hence, sets up
little girls to be concerned w ith such activities, placing them eventually in
the "view ed" position.
Recent fem inist w riting, however, particularly th at on fashion, has
called into question the notion of the m ale gaze. "The history of W estern
fashion poses a serious challenge both to the autom atic equation of
spectacular display w ith fem ale subjectivity and to the assum ption that
exhibitionism always im plies w om an's subjugation to a controlling m ale
gaze." (Silverman 183) Elizabeth W ilson explains the recent interest of
fem inists in providing alternate analysis of dress as an exam ple of "... an
im plied reaction against the idea that w om en's dress is only about sexual
allure— a view after all, w hich rested on conventional ideas of w om en as
concerned only to attract m en." (Wilson 12)
Those conventional ideas W ilson refers to d id n 't em erge suddenly
as a result of the male gaze theory, b u t can be traced back historically to
how everything traditionally "fem inine" (from an interest in fashion and
personal beauty, to the decoration of the home) was deem ed negative by
the dom inant male culture. For Penny Sparke, this devaluing of the
fem inine cannot be separated from the aesthetic ideology of the m odernist
m ovem ent and its devaluing of consum erism . Sparke states that the
cultural shift of feminine taste into the negative was, " ... little m ore than a
thinly disguised attem pt by m asculine culture to set the cultural term s of
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reference for m odernity such th at women, w ith their new -found pow er as
consum ers, w ould not take over the reins." (12) She d te s the period of the
Industrial Revolution as being a tim e w here the fem inine realm w as seen
as the glue holding society together, based in the attem pt by Victorians to
carve out a safe niche in the hom e, away from the uncertainties of a
m arket economy:
The C ult of Dom esticity resided at the intersection of
religious belief, politics, commercial activity and family
life, serving to bring together all these facets of existence
by m aking the fam ily, and w ithin it the idealized image
of wom an, a vital com ponent not only o f the m oral
com m unity b u t also of successful business practice and
national prestige. (Sparke 17)
It was w ithin this realm th at wom an dom inated the home, w hich
w as the center of fam ily life. It w as an im portant role, if not seen a t the
tim e as being equal to that of m en, it was at least seen as being a
com plem ent to his role, and w as definitely infused w ith m ore value than a
sim ilar role has today. So m any im portant functions of the social fam ily
u n it happened in w om en's dom estic realm, from the teaching of values to
her children, to the form ation of a safe, private haven for her husband
from the public arena, and m ost im portantly, as the center of the cottage-
industry type of production u n it (Sparke 21). It w as the shift into
m anufacturing and industry th at led to the gender based division of taste.
"W ith the dem ise of the sm all, fam ily based production unit, a w idespread
form of m anufacture before the advent of the factory, wom en becam e less
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and less involved w ith the process of production and increasingly
involved w ith the activity of consum ption." (Sparke 21)
The aesthetic of particular item s the V ictorian w om an once created
for her home influenced the look and function of the type of products she
could now buy, and it is here th a t the m odernist design reform ers took
offense (Sparke 12). The aesthetic of the m odernist m ovem ent, proponents
of w hich were m ales, valued function over form in all aspects of design,
from clothing, to furniture, to architecture, and expressed a particular
disdain for ornam entation that d id n 't som ehow enhance the intended
function of an object (Sparke 65). Aspects of V ictorian dom estic style, like
knick-knacks, large num bers of pillow s, gathers upon gathers in drapery,
an abundance of fringe, overstuffed furniture and the covering of hard,
plain surfaces like tables w ith y ard s and yards of sum ptuous fabrics w ere
in direct contrast to this aesthetic an d cam e to be seen by design reform ers
as evidence of w om ens' inability to exhibit taste (m odernist taste, of
course) w ithin the dom estic sphere (Sparke 51-69).
But the developm ent of such "frivolous" design features had its
roots w ithin the fem ale C ult of D om esticity, w here, as m entioned earlier,
p a rt of a w om an's job w as to create a safe, com fortable hom e environm ent.
A wom an could achieve this partly through choosing item s th at conveyed
com fort in the decoration of her hom e (Sparke 27):
The idea of physical com fort could be expressed, for
instance, by cushioning, so ft textures and surfaces, and
soft blends of colours, by gentle curved form s and
patterns rather than harsh, geom etric ones, by visual
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reference to the natural w orld rather than to the m an-
m ade w orld of technology. (Sparke 27)
It w as precisely w ithin the m anm ade technological w orld th at the
design reform ers based their aesthetic, and they began to lobby publicly,
w ith aim a t the consum er, for a change in consum er taste. A t the same
tim e, they began a concerted effort, again through public discourse, to
convince m anufacturers to produce only items that fit their aesthetic,
ensuring that public taste was changed even if by default (Sparke 49-50).
We can see the residual effect of this m ovem ent today, in that those
sam e aspects of the Victorian hom e w hich came to be negatively fem inine
— sum ptuousness, ornam entation, in essence, w hat I refer to as "the
aesthetically excessive"— are still seen as feminine traits today, an d are still
m arginalized because of it. Barbie is in the vortex of the negatively
fem inine mess, a plastic, sexualized incarnation of all that the m odernists
hated about Victorian style. C urved, organic, w ith the purchased facade
of frilly clothing, extravagant hair and gaudy m akeup, she em bodies the
excessively fem inine, and, like the new -found consum er pow er of the
post-industrial wom an, is threatening because of it.
It is here we find the last, an d perhaps m ost im portant critique of
Barbie— th at she is the invention of capitalist, hence, patriarchal
institutions, and as a m oney-m aking object can only be evaluated in terms
of the hegem onic intentions of her m anufacturer. This is w here R and (170-
192) m akes her argum ent for how radical lesbians, gay m en and other
m arginalized groups can use Barbie for pleasure or political gain, by
placing their ow n personal characteristics (which are not a part of the
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dom inant culture ideology) in opposition to Barbie's, and artistically
subverting her by rem aking the doll w ith their own characteristics, in art,
film, m agazines, etc. Hence, w e see in the m edia a grow ing num ber of
ironic portrayals of AIDS Barbies, Q ueer Barbies, and U rban Gang Barbies.
Rand is quick to po in t o u t that in h er use of the w ord "hegem onic"
to describe M attel, she does not w ant to equate Mattel w ith more
traditional exam ples of the w ord, such as fascist dictators. But she does
criticize the com pany for very sim ilar reasons. "Mattel... is in the
business of trying to shape the actions and opinions of m any people for its
ow n benefit, and it does so precisely by m anipulating the concept of
freedom so th at consum ers w ill embrace a very lim ited range of actions
that w ill seem to have been chosen from an infinite range of possibilities."
(Rand 8) From an advertising standpoint, this is probably true. If a little
girl strips her Barbie naked and throws h er in the bathtub, M attel m akes a
profit only on the doll. But if the child has the Barbie M erm aid Playset
complete w ith Live A ction Lily Pad... one can see w here M attel's
interests lie, and how its creation of num erous play sets, fashions and
accessories is only in p art to prom ote an "infinite w orld of fantasy" in
which children can use the doll.
C reating m ultiple, offshoot products of a sales h it is nothing new to
the w orld of m anufacturing and advertising. But w here Rand goes
overboard is by her im plication that M attel, through its advertising, is
partially responsible for creating the cultural standards she finds so
abhorrent, instead of just reflecting them:
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M attel prom otes com pulsory heterosexuality by m aking
it look like the m ost natural and attractive choice; it
prom otes capitalism and the unequal distribution of
resources by glam orizing a character w ith a huge am ount
of apparently unearned disposable cash and, to
understate grossly, a disproportionate am ount of luxury
item s; it prom otes ageism and sexism by suggesting that
a beautiful body is a w om an's m ost valuable comm odity;
it prom otes racism by m aking "w hite" Barbie the
sta n d a rd (9)
Rand m akes such statem ents throughout her book, in order to
create a dichotom y of difference betw een Barbie and the radical gay and
lesbians she studied: either you have nothing in common w ith Barbie so
you hate her and subvert her for political gain, or you are just another
consum er sheep w ho identifies w ith her. She doesn't exam ine the
possibility that people w ho like Barbie can subvert her as w ell, through
their creation of sm all ironic m asterpieces such as M ichael's RuPaul doll,
or C orazon's seduction scene, objects th at M attel w ould never authorize.
To collect Barbie does not m ean you agree w ith or are representative of
dom inant cultural values, w hich can be seen through the fact that m any
Barbie collectors are gay men.
It seems R and's perspective is an exam ple of the reason why
academics in general are so uncom fortable w ith Barbie being read as a
positive cultural sym bol— if people can take personal inspiration and exert
political pow er, no m atter how subtle, through a capitalist constructed
entity, then m aybe capitalism isn 't so thoroughly evil after all. Since
patriarchy, ever dem onized by fem inists as the cause of so m any evils, is
so intertw ined w ith capitalism , it w ouldn't make m uch political sense to
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adm it th at positive aspects can be found in an ideology you have built
your theories and career opposing. Paglia (100) refers to this fear as part
of the reason for a lack of true, innovative, intellectual grow th in
universities, citing how academ ics have learned, .. the cam pus as a
'com m unity7 . .. w as governed by invisible codes of acceptable speech,
opinions, and behavior." This is especially true w ith regard to hailing
Barbie as an icon o f positive, fem inine glam our, since Barbie represents
the excessively fem inine and sexual, both criticized by feminists.
This resistance is p a rt of the postm odern dilem m a— how can we
evaluate the popular as being valid, w hen the popular as such has
inextricable ties to capitalism , an ideology postm odernism challenges?
Insight to this dilem m a can be seen through Shum w ay's (166) exploration
of how culture theorists set up binary oppositions betw een high an d low
culture, and end u p marginalizing them selves from w hat is being studied.
H e states, "By continually opposing the popular and the high, w e tend to
forget th at it leaves us as academ ics out of the picture entirely . . . w e
recognize that w hile w e readily deny an affiliation w ith high culture we
cannot claim an identity w ith popular culture." (166)
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Conclusion: Bettering Barbie
As negative interpretations of Barbie become m ore om inous, it is
tim e to exam ine her in an alternate m anner, to see w hat she has to offer
contem porary w om en as a sexual, glam orous icon. Each argum ent against
Barbie barely m ars the veneer of h er plastic surface, encouraging us to
delve further. By exam ining the num erous exam ples of how Barbie, or
w hat she represents, can be interpreted positively, we see how Barbie is a
projective icon revealing m uch about our culture.
T hrough Sparke's exam ples, w e see the narrow ness of the critique
of Barbie as a capitalist entity. Sparke shows how wom en achieved a great
am ount of pow er through their ability to choose products for the home
and th at their role as arbiters of m orals and taste w as extrem ely im portant
the sodo-cultural and economic landscape of the time. Like m yself, she
expresses her dissatisfaction w ith such a critique o f fem inine coded
m aterial culture as sim ply being gobbled up by the unsuspecting
consum er w hen she says, "The evidence from objects suggests, however,
that the relationship betw een w om en and gendered goods is m ore
com plex and am biguous than this, and that it can be seen to have liberated
w om en as m uch as it has oppressed them ." (Sparke 9) As Pabboo told me
w hen I asked his opinion on w hy people criticize Barbie, "It's very simple;
Barbie is big business, and nobody likes big business."
If such fem inine coded objects can be a source of pow er, then my
inform ants display it through their fantastically visual, creative use of
Barbie. The collectors I looked at have turned the notion of the m ale gaze
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on its head through creating Barbies whose "to-be-looked-at-ness" becam e
an exam ple of w om an's true sexual pow er, w here a m uch more complex
interaction w as going on betw een creator and the created. Regardless of
their econom ic or ethnic backgrounds, or w hy they originally began
collecting Barbie, they see her as a role m odel because she allows them to
explore the infinite creative possibilities of w om anhood, just like children
do, b u t in a m ore sophisticated, ad u lt fashion.
The quote in C hapter 3 by Bartke, her reference to the "tyrany of
slenderness and fashion," is telling of the old school nature of anti-Barbie
argum ents. Luckily, a trend is developing w here fem inists are praising
fashion as an arena of personal control and identity, detailing their ow n
personal relationships to fashion, and attem pting to evaluate it as other
than a patriarchal attem pt at constraining wom en. Silverm an reveals her
im patience w ith fem inism 's 'Tack of sartorial audacity" (193) when she
proclaims:
I am fordbiy struck by the fact that every current
vestim entary code th at insists upon w om en's so d al and
political equality also tends either tow ard the m uted
im itation of m ale dress (jeans and shirts, slacks and
jackets, the 'business suit') or its bold parody (leather
jackets and pants, the tuxedo Took,' sequined ties).
Feminism w ould seem to be in the process of repeating
m ale vestim entary history. (194)
Hopefully, such re-evaluation of fashion, a traditionally female
realm , w ill allow the excessive, overly ornam ented nature of Barbie's
fem ininity an d sexuality to be evaluated in a sim ilar way.
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I d o n 't believe the collectors I profiled see themselves as being
politically subversive or as reappropriating anything, because I don't
think they design their Barbies w ith that intention. For all of them , they
m ake and design Barbie dolls they w ant to see, b u t can't buy because they
d o n 't ex ist The dolls are an extension of a glam orous fantasy w orld the
collectors imagine them selves in (like the dolls rem ade in their creators
im age) b u t may or m ay not actually be a p art of. B ut it is fust this creative
exploration of glam orous fantasy, seen in the details I provided from their
collections, that separates them from the average person. As Michael said,
'I t takes a very special person to be a Barbie collector."
But a lack of political intent, or a lack of aw areness that one's
actions could be seen as political, doesn't invalidate the subtle and not so
subtle pow er of the collectors' actions. In her research on female Star Trek
fans, Constance Penley (488) w as struck by how they appropriate an
aspect of male popular culture for them selves, saying it is an example of
"... w hat women do w ith popular culture, how it gives them pleasure,
and how it can be consciously and unconsciously rew orked to give them
more p leasu re " These wom en, called slashers, revise and invent new
plot lines, w rite sexually explicit literature, an d create artwork, all
influenced by the series and m ost of it of a sexual nature. They sell or
exchange the inform ation at conventions and through the Internet, m ostly
to o ther women (Penley 482-484). Like the Barbie collectors I studied,
Penley7 s inform ants, "... took their disappointm ent— everything they
thought was m issing from Star Trek— that pushed them to begin
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elaborating on the Star Trek universe, to m ove it im aginatively tow ard
w hat they w anted " (489)
But Penley w as disappointed by her inform ants' reticence to
associate them selves w ith any aspect of fem inism , despite the fact that she
continually heard them expressing them selves as having liberal political
views. "We w ould love indeed to take this fandom as an exem plary case
of female appropriation of, resistance to, and negotiation w ith m ass
produced culture . . . b u t the slashers... do not feel they can speak as
fem inists, they do not feel th at fem inism speaks for them ." (Penley 492)
I see Barbie as a positive fem ale role m odel in p art because she does
w hat real, contem porary w om en aren 't allow ed to do— openly appear
excessively sexual, fem inine, and glam orous. We have seen how Barbie,
and those w ho see her as a role m odel, w ear the excessively fem inine as a
badge of honor, a reappropriation of w hat dom inant m asculine culture
has deem ed negative. It is no surprise that m any Barbie collectors are gay
m en, since they have a long tradition of adopting the m ore outrageous
attributes of the fem inine and m aking them their own. The cleverest, m ost
hum ourous, exaggerated, and ironic Barbie fashions and creations I have
seen were m ade by gay m en. Fem ale collectors who create Barbie item s
are usually m uch older, and tend tow ard the m ore conventional in their
designs. They create elaborate ball gow ns, detailed couture fashions, and
stylish furniture, b u t seem never to delve into the darker, stranger
potentials of Barbie's sexuality— only the m ale collectors m ake M arlene
D eitrich Barbie, RuPaul Barbie, an d I Love Lucy Barbie. This is the
unfortunate reason w hy only one collector I profiled was a woman. The
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saddest observation I m ade about the Barbie collecting w orld I studied
was the lack of outrageous wom en like Corazon.
Psychoanalyst Louise J. K aplan w ould probably call women like
Corazon "hom eoves tites," saying they ad o p t excessively fem inine traits as
a m ask of fem ininity, in an attem pt to cover up their masculine attributes
like aggression and professional am bition (251,271-283). For such wom en,
hom eovestism is a . strategy th at em ploys a caricature of fem ininity to
disguise her forbidden 'm asculine' strivings." (Kaplan 283) Again, w e see
the fem inine deem ed negative, in th at a w om an can 't exhibit such
attributes w ithout having it interpreted as an unconscious apology for
treading in a m ale w orld. I disagree. Isay it's time w om en should reclaim
these attributes as our birthright, in all their gaudy, glam orous, glittery
glory. We should look to the style and creativity of those w ho have
beautifully salvaged w hat was ours, the gay male and d rag queen, who,
"... unlike fem inists, know that w om an is dom inatrix of the universe.
They take on supernatural energy w hen ritualistically donning their
opulent costume, the historical regalia of w om an's pow er." (Paglia 93-94)
Barbie, all bust and legs, sequins an d lace, show s w om en how to recapture
that power.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Shum way, D avid R. "Post-Structuralism and Popular Culture."
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Asset Metadata

Creator Hope, Tiffany Lynn (author)

Core Title Barbie: Popular culture icon as positive female role model

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

School Graduate School

Degree Master of Arts

Degree Program Visual Anthropology

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag anthropology, cultural,OAI-PMH Harvest,sociology, theory and methods,women's studies

Language English

Advisor Simic, Andrei (committee chair), [illegible] (committee member)

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c16-8030

Unique identifier UC11341957

Identifier 1383530.pdf (filename),usctheses-c16-8030 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier 1383530.pdf

Dmrecord 8030

Document Type Thesis

Rights Hope, Tiffany Lynn

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the au...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA