Bad Bad Barbie?

Emily loves Barbie. She has 4 of them. Only one is a real “regte egte” Barbie, the other three are 20 baht poor imitations - a fact which thankfully makes no difference to a 3-year old. I never thought a daughter of mine would play with a Barbie. I never had a Barbie in my life. In fact, I thought Barbies were bad news. Bad bad bad. I had this really negative impression about Barbies, based on … I'm not sure what.

Barbara Millicent Roberts (alias “Barbie”) was born on 9 March 1959. She is ten years older than me, but looks about 20 years younger! Barbie is an interesting person. She has a range of pets, from the usual cats, dogs and horses to more exotic pandas and zebras. She has many vehicles, and while she may have once been a flight attendant, she now flies the aeroplane. In fact, she has even flown a space shuttle. She is international too – and, has a large family. She has adapted over the years, always keeping pace with the times.

There has been a lot of controversy about Barbie – some of it valid, some of it positively ridiculous. The bits that were valid, it would appear the makers took to heart, and responded quickly and appropriately. Even her waist has been “thickened”!

Barbie-mania in our home stepped up a notch a few weeks ago when Emily was given the “Barbie and the Diamond Castle” DVD by Kawanor and Ben, our Japanse/Korean neighbours. As always, I watched it with Em the first time. I was surprised to find that I was quite impressed. For starters, the animation somehow captures the fact that these are dolls – their movements and facial expressions are much like actual Barbie dolls (I could almost visualize a little girl holding them and playing). Point is, you never forget that these are just dolls, not real people.

But, perhaps more importantly, the Barbies in this particular story are really good: they are loving, kind, gentle, generous, resourceful, bright, funny, caring, intelligent, respectful of differences, they work well as a team, they are respectful of the elderly, hardworking, brave, they keep their promises, they are faithful, they are not greedy, they sing like angels, they’re gracious, and … they’re beautiful. There is no getting away from the fact that Barbie is beautiful, tall and thin. But you know what? There are worse things for a role-model to be! Besides, Emily’s favourite part of the whole movie is when the chubby little puppy dances!

So, if Emily wants to watch Barbie DVDs and play Barbie computer games and play with her Barbies … that’s OK with me. For now.