This is certainly not the kind of attention she’s used to getting.
Barbie, with her legs for miles, perfect (yet perfectly impossible) measurements and glittering, shimmering presence doesn’t seem to be wowing her critics with her latest incarnation: black Barbie.
The three new Mattel Barbies – Grace, Kara and Trichelle — were conceived with features more in keeping with African American females (fuller lips, curlier hair) to give young girls Barbies they could more readily identify with. The misstep, some detractors say, is that the new Barbies aren’t black enough. The hair is largely straight and long, and not styled in afros or braids, but isn’t that just par for the modern day course? White kids have dreadlocks and African American girls bleach their hair. (Where’s that Barbie, actually?) And, ultimately, black Barbie’s creator, Stacy McBride-Irby, who is black, would have faced a multitude of opinions no matter how her plasticized girls looked.
Let’s face it: there’s nobody — black, white or in between, that could really ever identify with Barbie, and that, we think, is a good thing. After all, she’s plastic.
[Via CNN]
Photo: Mattel
