Posted on 02/20/2014 9:02:11 AM PST by SkyPilot
Barbie gets a lot of heat nowadays. People shout at her for her figure. They complain about her plastic perfectness and general lack of realism. But they forget just how pivotal Barbie has been in helping challenge barriers in society. For example, the first African American President Barbie was released in 1992 - 16 years before Barack Obama took office.
In 1992 Barbie released the Barbie for President African American doll. It took the United States another 16 years to elect one... a male one. Yay, Barbie, setting out good messages everywhere!
In 1988 Dr. Mae Jemison completed astronaut training, as the first female African American astronaut for NASA. But Barbie was three years ahead of her with their African American Barbie doll astronaut...and then they released another doll in 1994. Each astronaut helmet had a white helmet and included an American flag. Because the All American Doll is any color.
Black women have a troubled relationship with hair, and though the natural hair movement and “natural Barbie dolls” today are going someway to help, it’s still not perfect. Barbie didn’t get it quite right when she debuted the Super Hair African American Barbie doll in 1986 as the hair texture was pretty standard, but the fact that Mattel accepted that women of color might need to have different styling choices and styles was HUGE for the time. The doll came with barrettes to put hair in twists and rolls, and while the hair looks like standard doll hair, we give props to Mattel for recognizing the diverse audience.
(Excerpt) Read more at fusion.net ...
Everything’s a “barrier” until affirmative action is applied to the equation, according to the ‘equality quota Nazis’.
LOL great post!
They probably want a "Social Justice" law for Barbie.
To make it fair, white people would have to buy one black Barbie for each white Barbie they purchase.
What barriers?
I bet there were black dolls long before Barbie
Thank you ...
With this kind of material, the jokes almost write themselves...
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