Barbie Gets Inked!

Remember my earlier post celebrating Barbie's 50th birthday, where everyone seemed to agree with my statement that little girls use their Barbies as a creative outlet? Remember when EVERYONE commented or came up to me and told me (outside of the blogosphere! omg!) that they used to draw tattoos on all of their barbies too? Well, Apparently Mattel has picked up on this 'popular' trend and created, Totally Stylin' Tattoo Barbie, which allows little girls to not only put little sparkly tattoos all over their doll, but on themselves as well.

As you can imagine, this new line of Barbie that comes complete with cutesy butterfly, hearts and flower tattoos has caused a lot of controversy, and parents world-wide have been filing complains stating Tattoo Barbie will make their little girls grow up too fast.

In this really hilarious and terribly written article, Robert Elessar states, "I don't know about the idea of little girls thinking about getting permanent tattoos before they graduate from medical school."
...WHAT? Yes Robert, all girls choose a path toward medical school, and they should wait until they've graduated to put ink on their bodies...???? How specific can you get?

Jenn Alcayaga, a parent from Sacramento, California, in a much more legit argument states, "It's attracting kids too young to want to expose parts of their body to show off tattoos."

In one way I think it's kinda cool, taking the MOST popular girl driven product and having her sport something that is usually seen as taboo. According to the Bitch Blog, only 1 in 4 women have tattoos, so essentially, this could create a giant shift in perspective. Plus, they're just moving a long with the changing times. It's not like they're giving Barbie tattoos of guns and spiders (like in these two photos where someone decided to give their own twist to tattoo barbie), it's still very innocent.

With that in mind, you also have to remember that Barbie is Mattel, and Mattel is a corporation who is obviously feeding off of the huge insurgence of tattoo culture and taking this opportunity for a little bit of corporate appropriation. Mattel argues that Totally Stylin' Tattoo Barbie, "let's children express themselves and be creative."

What do you think? Yay or nay?
Would you buy your kid Totally Stylin' Tattoo Barbie?

P.S. Happy International Women's Day! Don't forget to come celebrate tonight at Phog!

Plastic Fantastic: Barbie Turns 50!

Barbie is the most iconic, popular and controversial doll of all time. Approximately 3 barbies are sold every second of the day, bringing in $3.6 billion in revenue every year. Just about every North American girl has owned one at some point in their lives. At 50 years old, Barbie is still maintaining her banging, and completely unrealistic dimensions, which have (thankfully) been widened from the original 36-18-38, 5'9 stature.

Barbie's body has been under criticism ever since her creation. She instills an image of false womanhood in the eyes of little girls, which has even inspired eating disorders and low-self esteem. According to Robert Dobson's article in The Sunday Times,

“These ultra-thin images not only lowered young girls’ body esteem but also decreased their satisfaction with their actual body size, making them desire a thinner body.”

Dr Margaret Ashwell, science consultant and former director of the British Nutrition Foundation, said: “These results are very important and show that children can be influenced at a very early age. We need to be aware of that and take the appropriate action.”

In 1965 the creation of "Slumber Party Barbie" hit the stores. She came with a book entitled "How to Lose Weight" that suggested, "Don't Eat." She even came with a cute scale that was stuck on 110lbs. Approximately 35lb lighter than any healthy woman would be at 5'9. Adorable! Right?

Even though Barbie has the "perfect" body that any 14 year old, prepubescent teenage boy would swoon over, she's also been depicted in a variety of different ways other than her tall-blonde-decked-in-hot-pink self. She has had a wide array of powerful careers over the years. You can buy Doctor Barbie, Astronaut Barbie, Rockstar Barbie, PRESIDENT Barbie, and she has never been seen as a woman who has been pressured to marry or procreate. So why is Barbie an object of such feminist scorn? Shouldn't she also be regarded as an empowering play figure for young girls?

Carol Oakman, an Art professor at Williams University did an Interview with The Economist about her extensive research on Barbie, and she believes Barbie is not seen as female empowering because, "ultimately, it's the fact that people think a woman can't look like that, and be so obsessed with her appearance without being a bimbo... Barbie's origins in that time makes it hard for her to ever escape the thinking that formed her, which was less empowering for women."
As adults, it's easy for us to write off Barbie from a much more critical stand-point, but in the eyes of a young girl, Barbie encompasses a world of endless possibilities. Barbie can be used as a form of escapism and an outlet of creativity. Personally, I know when I was younger, I never looked at Barbie as a "hero" or "role model" hoping one day to grow torpedo breasts and dye my hair platinum blonde. Instead I used to chop off all her hair, draw little pictures to put around her house and constantly change her outfits. I admit, her unrealistic body is definitely problematic, but Mattel has been making the necessary changes. Barbie's body has since been redesigned to look more realistic, as well as more inclusive to different races of young girls.