Barbie CultureThis book uses one of the most popular accessories of childhood, the Barbie doll, to explain key aspects of cultural meaning. Some readings would see Barbie as reproducing ethnicity and gender in a particularly coarse and damaging way - a cultural icon of racism and sexism. Rogers develops a broader, more challenging picture. She shows how the cultural meaning of Barbie is more ambiguous than the narrow, appearance-dominated model that is attributed to the doll. For a start, Barbie's sexual identity is not clear-cut. Similarly her class situation is ambiguous. But all interpretations agree that, with her enormous range of lifestyle `accessories', Barbie exists to consume. Her body is the perfect metaphor of modern times: plastic, st |
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accessories African American ambiguity appearance artifice auction Barbie Bazaar Barbie collectors Barbie doll collectors Barbie represents Barbie's world beauty become black Barbies Bob Mackie body boys brown calls Caviale cent childhood clothes color commodity culture consumerism consumerist consumers consumption corporate cosmetic surgery costumes cultural icon cyborgs daughter demeanor Dream dress emphasizes emphatic femininity employees experiences fantasy FAO Schwarz fashion dolls female feminine mystique feminine success Foek Foek's friends gender glamour gynoids hair heterosexual Hispanic identity instance licensed lives look Madonna magazines manufactured Margie Marsden student Marsha mass media Mattel means messages modern never observes one's outfit parents people's pink plastic points politics popular culture postmodern Press puts Rand reports romance RuPaul Ruth Handler says selfhood semiosis sexual shape shows sister social class Susan Bordo technologies teenagers Teresa things today's Wal-Mart wardrobe woman women young girls youth