Barbie. The feminist's nemesis, long-accused of playing a role in—or at least failing to combat—the hyper-sexualisation and prevalence of body image issues among young girls; a toy that encourages children to buy into gender stereotypes. There's been a princess Barbie; a bride Barbie; a rather controversial Barbie wearing a leather leotard and fishnets; even a talking Barbie who, in 1992, declared that, "Math class is tough" and "Meet me at the mall!"
But there's more to Barbie than a shopaholic bride: she has now had 150 different careers, including presidential candidate (above, second left) and astronaut (above, far right). Latest to join the party is Entrepreneur Barbie, launched this week with the billboard pictured above, a LinkedIn profile and hashtag, #unapologetic. Some commentators have lauded this as a step in the right direction for Barbie-makers Mattel. I'm not so sure, since I've spotted a few problems with the high-flying Barbies featured in their advert.
1. Footballer Barbie sure looks great, with her cute pink T-shirt and side pony tail. The problem is, she'd have difficulty playing any actual football, considering that she's stuck standing on tip-toes (to make her legs look more elegant) and she can't bend her knees—which, I feel, would be fairly fatal to any career in sport.
This is one of the historical criticisms of Barbie: she wasn't able to bend her limbs, in contrast with, for example, Action Man, who was launched a few years' later. To be fair, Mattel did later introduce "articulated" Barbies with knees and elbows, and many versions of Barbie's male counterpart, Ken, don't have joints either. But Ken was always a sidekick, and to this day it's common to find Barbie without joints, her knees airbrushed out for a smoother appearance, like one of those before and after shots of celebrities.
What's the lesson here? Imagined as the ideal woman, Barbie is designed for looking at, not for moving around and doing things.
Also, had she done any training whatsoever, Footballer Barbie would definitely be more muscly, her hair would be messy, and her make-up would be dripping down her face. Footballer Barbie is not a footballer: she's just a model in footballers' clothing.
2.
This is a picture of a real female astronaut. Sunita Williams is pretty badass: she was the Commander of the International Space Station during 2012, and she was the first person to do a triathlon in space (you read that right).
Does she look sexy right now? Is her spacesuit tailored to highlight her waist, with tiered detailing? Does she have a hot pink helmet? I'm afraid I can only conclude that the Astronaut Barbie pictured above is hopelessly inaccurate. Also, I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure that wedge heeled space boots—lovely as they are—would present some kind of health and safety issue.
The underlying theme here is that Barbie, in all her ambitious forms—whether presidential candidate, doctor or entrepreneur—is more about how she looks than anything else. Entrepreneur Barbie might look like she's encouraging young girls to get into business, but really she's encouraging them to believe that beauty is everything and that, as long as you've styled your hair nicely and put on some make-up, as long as you've got a great figure and a pair of hot pink stilettos, you can do anything #unapologetically. The flip side of that lesson is that if you're a little chubby, flat-chested or can't be bothered with make-up, you won't be going anywhere fast. Entrepreneur Barbie does little to combat gender stereotypes: she's the same as all the other Barbies—with her perfect figure, waisted dress, diamond necklace and paralysed limbs—except they've given her a smartphone and called her an entrepreneur. She'd have to get up at 5am everyday to look like that and get into work on time. Yes, it would be worse if Barbie only came in beauty queen or princess versions, but that's little reason to celebrate.
Businesswomen, footballers, pilots—they don't need to be beautiful. Until Barbie gets that, I won't be hailing her as a feminist icon.
