Never a Barbie

As a child, I held no fascination for Barbie. I didn’t desire or own one, and even though my classmates had retinues of them, the fashion doll seemed unrelatable to me. I mean blond hair, blue eyes, a keen interest in the kitchen — thanks but hard pass! In fact, dolls in general did very little to pique my interest. Call it bad parenting, limited access to superfluous cash, or general disinterest of my parents, but dolls really weren't anything that I missed. For the entire length of my childhood, I had two dolls brought back by my father from a Kathmandu trip. The duo lasted perhaps a month or two. I was bored of them easily and my inquisitive self found it infinitely more exciting to take them apart to examine the little motors that had them walking and crooning. RIP, my dolls.

Obviously, you know I’m leading to the mass hysteria surrounding the latest ‘Barbie’ movie. Grown-ups dressed in pink, thronging the movie halls in a sort of collective global euphoria. The film is a marketing success. The publicity blitzkrieg had brand partnerships and collaborations that turned our living experience into cotton-candy pink. An X-box, a Balmain hoodie, a Barbie Dreamhouse Airbnb, even the Google homepage when you search for ‘Barbie’ — you name it and the pink publicity campaign changed their hue to form what undoubtedly is the marketing campaign of the year. It is also blatantly evident that Barbie’s success is an attempt by the doll-maker, Mattel Inc., to reinvent and stay relevant in the highly competitive toy space.

I have read enough spoilers to deduce that Barbie may be an entertaining film but to celebrate it for being feminist is fallacious. It is, at best, a shallow attempt to showcase what women face in the real world and provides a fantastical solution to gender inequalities. Would I ask children to refer to Barbie to understand feminism? Nope. Barbie, the movie, joins the line of attempts by the doll-maker to shed its problematic past. And there are many! From projecting women as bimbettes not liking mathematics, or needing male help with computer virus, or teenage babysitter Barbie sold with a tiny diet book simply asking kids to ‘Don’t Eat’ in order to lose weight — many vintage Barbie dolls have been steeped in controversy and were eventually discontinued.

But the doll’s most harmful long-term impact has been created in the minds of young girls. For the longest, Barbie dolls peddled impossible notions of beauty and bodies to children around the world. A 2006 study in the journal, Developmental Psychology, deduced that 5 to 8-year-old girls who played with Barbie dolls “reported lower body esteem and greater desire for a thinner body shape”. Over the years, the company attempted to course correct by introducing career Barbie dolls to showcase that women could shine in all spheres, tried to be more inclusive with dolls such as the hijab-wearing Barbie based on Olympic fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad, and gave Barbie a new ‘curvy’ body. The latest being a limited edition of ‘Weird Barbie’ dolls based on Kate McKinnon’s character from the film (why they would call this unique character “weird”, which carries a negative yet eccentric tag, is beyond me). Mattel’s endeavours, while a step in the right direction, still belies an approach that largely feels plastic (no puns intended).

So, watch the film for its mediocre entertainment. But don’t put it on the pedestal for being a torch bearer of feminist thought. The agent provocateur’s clear intent in all this is to benefit the doll franchise. Therefore, let us call out capitalism and consumerism, and not camouflage it in the rosy garb of being progressive. Will you catch me in the film hall? Sure; I’ll be dressed in black.

The writer is an author and media entrepreneur. Views expressed are personal