Barbie : Bimbo or Feminist?

Barbie is everything perfect. Perfect smile, perfect composure, a perfect doll. Never overweight, dressed immaculately, clean, pure, and beautiful, there’s nothing out of place. This applies to her personality too, her perfect manners, sweetly spoken and polite. There’s always a fitting answer from Barbie, every time someone speaks to her, her response is always appropriate, and she doesn’t talk too much, able to understand modern life and culture. In the new film, she speaks in a high tone, surfacing hers and your better side, and encourages you to respond back with idealistic sentiments that are suitable to ‘Barbieland’. This is an example of just some of her gushing press too, on initial inspection. You must be squeaky clean, as thinking pink, uses the ‘higher’ more upright part of you, and beauty is for good girls only. It’s all important, as is the casual talking each day, such as important pink shoe colours, and even fluffier pink kitty heels. In the first scene of the new trailer for Barbie, the world’s most famous doll, steps out of her kitty heels, and onto a bright pink carpet, with perfectly poised feet, entering a utopia called ‘Barbieland’. With press abound everywhere about the dangers of ‘Barbieism’ (which could sound like Barberism) and how they can have a negative impact on the self-esteem for most Women, should we be thinking about the importance of idealism, and it’s inevitable negative impact, or should we finally question the status quo and ask why people don’t shake off the shackles of ‘thinking negatively’ and leave it all up to Barbie instead? So what does that mean? Maybe life is simpler if we ditch the constant speculation, and just copy Barbie instead, as she is an already established great role model for Women, with none of the problems we have. Think Pink? Maybe not. It may not be as simple as you all think. The makers of the doll, Mattel are reported to have a simple goal with the well-known dolly, that it is merely a toy for young girls. However, looking deeper into the background of Barbie, can lead to more than it being just a toy doll. The word Barbie seems to stem from a slang word to describe a feminine young boy, say 100-200 years ago in the United States. Which makes you wonder why so much press concentrates on two angles, that Barbie is categorised into two areas, either a Bimbo or Feminist Icon. As many think it’s just a simple toy, like makers Mattel, maybe it’s time to notice why Barbie would be associated with anything near Feminism or even any type of social activism, apart from attending an ice-cream party. So again, why does the press for instance, keep insisting that Barbie is a feminine icon, and how is this all linked with a plastic toy doll? Well, firstly it maybe the attention she attracts, because if you are only bothered about attending a beach party, there is an inevitable dark cloud that perhaps follows every Bimbo, called lesbians, and if you don’t look like Barbie within this area, someone will call inevitably call you a ‘lezzer’. With any type of categorisation, there is always an antithesis, and in this case it maybe Feminism, cashing out on Barbie’s good luck and good looks, skulking behind her, or standing as her opposition in front of ‘intelligent people’? Society always needs to put things into a box, an ordered society is like this, and without it nothing is possible. The tendency for society to put people into an already established box, in this case, Bimbo or a Feminist, means there is no real argument about anything possible in between. One day, even that may change too. Thinking out of the barbie-box, may just get you ostracised. It is just the way some crazy Barbie fans and her ‘critics’ organise Barbie land, and the murky waters that surround the toy doll. The de-rigeur is that anything non barbie, has already been categorised as something Feminist, which is bought into being by clever journalists and writers, with new terms like the ‘hyper-feminine Bimbo’. Much of the press seems to follow a pattern like this, and there seems to be nothing in between, if you all want to get to the next stop, of course. So, who would decide what category Barbie fits into? Well, the first thought would be perhaps a Women’s magazine, or an important Editor, who would tick her beauty as a definite yes. After researching into this, the answer was no, with the majority of Women’s magazines preferring someone like Eva Mendes, Jlo or someone with more character and a ‘Womanly’ feel about them, and as Alexandria Shulman stepped down from her position as Editor of Vogue, to be replaced by Eddie Enningford, a new racial divide has been surfaced within the Women’s magazine industry, with critics asking if ‘Women of colour’ will ever grace front covers properly, and anything Barbie, perhaps would not be appropriate during this clash. Barbie’s tall height, and long legs are indicative of other ideals of beauty, perhaps Gay Men in the fashion world? Well, Barbie does look like a model, which may mean that Bimbo vs Feminist is important within these spheres, something not expected from members of an ordered society or group, dealing with issues such as human rights or employment rights for women, or women who stand for abortion within the United States. Whatever it is, things are looking serious within these areas, and Barbie just can’t cut it, as a contender for anything worthwhile within these areas.