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.
