Friday, July 18, 2008

Trashy Barbie

For one of her birthday presents this year, The Fred received her first Barbie doll, a magical Mariposa Barbie. Seeing The Fred's reaction brought back pleasant memories of when I was a little girl with my Barbie dolls. I remember having a Guinevere dress and a black-and-white swimsuit for my Barbie. That was a long time ago.

As I reminisced, DH and The Roomie and I began to think about what kind of Barbie would be a big seller with the baby boomer generation now:

HotFlash Barbie
Bifocal Barbie
Insomniac Barbie
Mood Swing Barbie
Depends Barbie
Forgetful Barbie
Osteoporosis Barbie
--comes with her own cane
Plantar fasciitis Barbie--she's traded in her high heels for "sensible" shoes with orthotic inserts
Plastic Surgery Barbie--turn a tiny hidden crank and watch her features tighten
Sun-damaged Barbie--the older version of Mailbu Barbie. Comes with a special light to reveal all the sun damage from those years on the beach

And now, Barbie’s in the news again. The other day, I was
walking by the Giant Television when a disturbing image popped up onto the screen. I saw what appeared to be a Barbie doll, dressed in a leather jacket with fishnet stockings and very little else. One of the so-called news channels was reporting that the doll was based on a comic book character and that religious groups were upset.

Uh, yeah.

The Cosmopolitan web site (we at Terribly Shy are very particular about our sources) reports that “Mattel has released a doll based on a character from the Black Canary comic book, clad in leather, fishnet stockings and thigh-high boots [Ed. note: Those aren't thigh-high.]. The doll, to be released in September, has outraged Christian groups, who have dubbed the toy ‘S&M Barbie’." Hey, we hadn’t thought of that one!

The group Christian Voice said, "Barbie has always been on the tarty side and this is taking it too far." They're probably right, but I like that word, "tarty." I actually found the word "tarty" in my Merriam-Webster, and it means exactly what you think it means.

So now, we have more ideas for the iconic Mattel toy:

Tarty Barbie
Trashy Barbie
Slutty Barbie
Dominatrix Barbie


And some people think our vintage dolls damaged our self-image . . .

“Barbie tends to reflect what’s going on in society,” mused DH.

Well, that’s encouraging. We’re all going to be pole dancers soon.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Since in addition to being The Roomie, I am also "The Queen of Google," you knew I'd have to explore this even further. Seems like this is just one more in a line of Collector Barbies of questionable taste. Seems there was a "Happy Family" Barbie. She had a very pregnant belly that could be attached by a magnet. Then there is "The Birds" Barbie a la Alfred Hitchcock. Yep, she looks like Tippi Heddren complete with plastic birds attacking. Check it out on eBay. What a strange world we live in!

TS said...

I will fight you for that title! Kudos for the research and the brainstorming.

Lady R (Di) said...

Great post! I always knew Barbie was a hussy!

TS said...

Oh, yeah--and an old hussy at that!

MommaDrool said...

The Fred better not ask for one this Christmas!