Umm, what the hell is this?
I just saw the print ad for this on the phone booth
outside our offices on 8th and 35th in NYC: Mattel is turning Barbie into a fashion
line.
Am I the only one who finds this wretch-inducing? How many times have I heard the mantra of "Barbie is evil" and heard her name associated with such cultural ills as a racial stereotypes, negative body image, and the tendency of her spine to break under the weight of her own boobs if she were real.
All the while Mattel has been claiming that it's just a toy, that girls won't try to model themselves after her, and by the way, look at all the good things Barbie has done...
Meanwhile, they profit
off the very concept
of grown women modeling themselves after their shallow icon. Perfume
and
makeup lines are in the works as well, along with another line of clothing for - you guessed it - young girls.
Somewhere in a corporate corner office, Matthew Bousquette is cackling like a madman.
Anyone want to take bets on how long it is until we see "Hot Wheels" brand custom car mods at AutoZone?
UPDATE: I just saw another one of the NYC posters and snapped a photo (left). I think this poster captures the essence of what I was talking about a bit better. This girl is maybe 16 but probably younger, covered in makeup to smooth her features and make her resemble the doll, and maybe it was just the angle of the poster in my photo, but isn't her head a bit large for her body?
The Mattel site has absolutely nothing about this right now, so I can't tell if this is the "With love, Barbie" teen line, or the Adult fashion line. I'm not even sure which would be worse.
