Maybe it’s too late to talk about Barbie, the curvaceous doll that took Indian children by surprise in 1991 and the heroine of a recent movie. Too many attempts to go beyond the plastic mould and hour-glass figure have been made in the past, and Barbie, by the time the eponymous film rolled by, was no longer hot news. In what context—feminism, satire, merch opportunity—is she back among us today?
Greta Gerwig, the director of Barbie, which dared to confidently pitch itself against Oppenheimer in the great gender battle, did think it’s time for Cinemascope Barbie. Giving us the doll’s story with sub-plots that include a Ken who is tired of being Just Ken in an explosion of pink, Greta kickstarted a war among reviewers—who really understood this film best?
When Barbie first landed in India, because Mattel tied up with Blow Plast, she was very American. Mothers and daughters reacted to her heels, tiara, handbags, wardrobe, mirrors, jewellery, sparkle and glitz differently. But whatever moms may have felt, the doll grew in population and became a part of desi décor in record time—I personally bought no Barbie for my daughters and still they had a sizeable collection very soon.
The joys of holding a doll include the fact that she is a thing made of plastic, without vital organs that can rot with age, without inherited diseases, without the ability to rage, or feel pain and humiliation when dismembered or replaced with another, more attractive doll. They don’t bleed when cut. Their limbs can be twisted in acrobatic poses, their hair pulled out. They are routinely beheaded, head and torso abandoned in separate rooms. And Barbie still looks serene and amiable if you go by the slightly open pink lips.
Margot Robbie, who is Barbie in Barbie, arriving at a hospital and asking for a vagina goes beyond doll dreams. Kids want to be Barbie, by Mattel philosophy, and may act like she is a fellow person, albeit impossibly proportioned, but Barbie wanting to be flesh and blood, and inhabit the world of humans?
If we go by the movie, this is what we can look forward to in toy shops soon: a live Barbie. As female genitalia come attached to various other internal stuff, like a uterus, ovaries and hormonal agendas, the new set of Barbies will be: Eye-Roll Barbie, Menstruating Barbie, PMS-ing Barbie, Menopaused Barbie, Hot-Flush Barbie, Post-hysterectomy Barbie, Empty-Nest Barbie, Bi-Barbie, Wheelchair Barbie, Senior Citizen Barbie... Imagine the Funeral Barbie version though, with small tiny plastic wreaths and the Barbie-sized coffin free with the set.
Bringing Barbie to life will be too complicated—for manufacturers, for science, for us, for her. The first thing she will want to change is her name. -shinieantony@gmail.com