Tell me about your Barbie. Mine had long blonde hair, of course, and a tiny waist. She had a pink car and pink house. She also looked nothing like me. Barbie has represented an unattainable beauty standard for many little girls, but especially Black and Brown ones. The new "Barbie" movie made history by earning $155 million in its domestic debut over the weekend — the biggest North American opening for a movie directed by a woman. The marketing has been hard to escape — pink everything! — and got me thinking about how much things have changed. Barbie "acquired her first minority friend in 1967, a short-lived doll with the unfortunate name 'Colored Francie' who was quickly replaced by Christie. In 1980, Mattel introduced a Black version of Barbie herself, along with a Hispanic one," The Post has reported. Now there's a doll dedicated to Black American journalist, suffragist and anti-lynching crusader Ida B. Wells, and others with vitiligo, a prosthetic leg and a bald head. My colleague, Style writer Helena Andrews-Dyer, recently captured how things different things are for her six-year-old daughter. "To her, it's a given — and how incredible is that? All her Barbies have been Black. Unlike in the Toys R Us aisle treasure hunts my own mother had to do in the '80s, I've never had to search too far or wide to give my children the kinds of dolls that look like them." What a different world. |
No comments:
Post a Comment