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Skillfully, Barbie comes of age
(by Barbara Christian - October 05, 2011)
WINDOW ON MAIN STREET, BY BARBARA CHRISTIAN
Skillfully, Barbie comes of age
Its 8 o'clock Tuesday night when the phone rings. It's granddaughter Evie calling from New York, and she is so excited her words are getting all tangled up in squeals of pure, unfiltered joy.
It was the sound you might expect from someone who had just won the lottery. In fact, it was as good as the lottery for Evie, the newly minted 5-year-old, who had just opened her best gift ever -- Equestrian Barbie. And guess who had given it to her?
How times have changed. Forty years ago, I refused to buy Evie's mom a Barbie, because, in my opinion, the doll, as pretty as she was, represented the worst role model of all time.
"Materialistic Barbie," we called her. "Clothes Horse Barbie," with her D-cup chest, 2-inch waist and ability to cause all sorts of body-image issues followed by bulimia and a host of other emotional disorders that would come from trying to duplicate all that Barbie was, looked like and owned.
But Barbie has changed since those days. She has come into her own, evolving from a va-va-voom vixen to an accomplished woman with many professions and talents, and she has a whole slew of boxed sets to prove it.
Maybe it was the women's movement that created a Barbie with more ambition and dreams than just looking good and dressing like a New Jersey housewife. Today, Barbie has skills and talents and is what little girls now know they can become. That includes having a profession, lofty ambitions and trophy dude Ken by her side.
Today, Evie's mom seems undamaged by growing up Barbie-less, but I can picture her sitting with her daughter and playing endless story games starring Evie and Equestrian Barbie.
When the history of toys is written, Barbie, now 53, will go down as one of the greatest game changers of all time because of her staying power and ability to reflect the times.
Witness the fact that there are adult women who are members of Barbie fan clubs which gather regularly around the world, including Chagrin Falls, to celebrate her milestone birthdays and her general fabulousness.
That enthusiasm played out last week in New York with my granddaughter's reaction when she opened her presents.
Barbie's allure seems destined to live forever. What other 53-year-old female -- plastic or flesh -- can make that claim?
As for me, I still don't totally "get" Barbie the way other women and some men get her. It took 40 years to give in to Barbie by gifting her to my beloved Evie.
Did I mention you are permitted to break the rules when you are a grandparent? There is one rule this grandma is not ready to break. Toy guns and weaponry still make my soul flinch. Growing up, our son did not get toy weapons as gifts, and one year, when he asked to wear a military costume, we convinced him to be the Tin Man instead.
Unlike giving in to the charms of Barbie, I still cannot bring myself to gift my grandsons with playthings that mimic the real death-dealing devices. It just seems wrong to willingly perpetuate the mythology and romance of conflict. But that's a whole other story for another time.
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