.authored by something.of.substance.
And, in case you weren’t sure that feminism was all but dead, Facebook is bringing back Party Barbie with a technological vengeance.
As I logged into my Facebook.com home page today, one of the perpetually pervasive ads in the right-hand column caught my eye. Forget that the “ads” are placed there based upon key words they find anywhere in your profile or that this Big Brother approach to marketing creeps me out and let’s focus on the ad itself for a moment:
Be Barbie’s BFF
Hey, remember me? I haven’t seen you in ages! Life has been crazy lately: Fashion Week, huge parties, boy drama. Fan me and let’s chat!
Become a Fan of Barbie: All Doll’d Up
Not only does this advertisement presuppose that I have warm and fuzzy feelings of nostalgia for Barbie but that, because I’m female, I’m seriously and into fashion, parties, boys, or any combination thereof. Barbie always did have tunnel vision.
New York Times op-ed columnist Maureen Dowd reflected on the new Millennium by commenting that, curiously, American “women would move from playing with Barbie to denouncing Barbie to remaking themselves as Barbie”. Even Barbie seems to have been aware of both her absence and her new-found societal acceptance.
It isn’t Barbie, herself, that pisses off many women; it’s the concepts that she upholds. Back in the early-mid 1990’s, Barbie had many cute outfits and associated professions. Barbie was a teacher. Barbie was a figure skater. Barbie was a nurse. Barbie was almost more often than not a princess. It’s what Barbie wasn’t that spoke volumes.
Much like the Talking Barbie who once proclaimed that “math is hard”, Barbie was rarely smart. She was never a doctor, lawyer, activist, or graduate student. She was never independent, but sold next to a correspondingly dressed Ken. And, like any good Barbie, she never gained weight; she maintained those impossible curves much of her life.
Getting past Barbie was difficult as a gender. Yet, women rallied against her body proportions which couldn’t occur in nature, demanded more occupational choices and campaigned for female friends. And, it worked! To see that Party Barbie is back and all she wants to do is dance (and gossip about boys and ogle fashion) is a terrible reminder that getting “doll’d” up is once again the way women should act.
Thank you, Facebook, for reminding me of my archaic gender role.
Ahah I also had this one when I logged from work. Remind me to add that facebook ads blocker on the firefox I use here.
There was no geek barbie either…