www.thealmightyguru.com/.../EvilBarbie.jpgI was just reading metrodad's blog, and apparently his next post will be in defense of buying his three year old daughter a Cinderella doll for Christmas. Sigh. Late in the year, our daughter just put 'a Barbie' on her school Santa letter, and asked us individually too.
Dilemma!
I think Barbie is fairly evil. I remember the Christmas I was three, saying I wanted a Barbie, and my parents worriedly saying I was maybe too young for one - but it didn't matter, I was actually asking for a Spacehopper, and I'd got confused. (This still happens - I spent the holiday saying Stephen's Green instead of Christmas Eve, and I can't say saxophone without thinking jaccuzzi, and vice versa). Back to Barbie: The thing is, the insidiousness of her. I remember playing with the two dolls my aunt brought me from the States - one was black, the height of exotic. But I clearly remember how beautiful they were. With their supermodel figures and perfect, vacuous faces. They spent their naked (and often tied up!), but I'd wrap them in a square of green satin, secured about the waist with a hairband - instant ball dress.
Right now, my daughter looks a lot more likely to conform to the Barbie figure than I ever did or will -she's looking long legged and athletic, but likely to be curvy too (she's gorgeous! If only she'd smile more!). Me, I was always dumpy and frumpy. Apple shaped and overweight. It has to be that beautiful Barbie reinforced my sense of self loathing brought about by being the shape I was.
My husband and I sheepishly came to the conclusion that we had to get her one - I don't want her to stop believing in Santa at four because he ignores the one direct request she made. The other alternative was to go to Imaginarium in Dun Laoighre - they have lovely dolls, a la Barbie but with a healthier lifestyle, and they look more like children than super-waifs. But then I didn't want my daughter to be the lentil child who has the homemade, eco-ethnic alternative - Momma says this doll promotes a healthier body image...' like Eddie Murphy's bit about his mother making him her version of McDonald's, a giant, greasy home-made burger with green peppers in it, leaking oil onto two slices of wonderbread - that's not McDonald's!
I suppose the compromise is to get her one of the other ones too at some point, and let her draw her own conclusions.
As for me, I was surprised how crappy Barbie is these days. I remember her being quite an expensive, quality toy back in the day - now she's fragile, with limbs and a head that don't match her torso. Cheapo Barbie! She doesn't seem so beautiful anymore.
