Minggu, 18 April 2010
Jumat, 16 April 2010
Barbie :)
Since 1995 Lord has been a regular contributor to The New York Times Book Review and The New York Times Arts & Leisure section. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including Discover, Travel + Leisure, ARTNews, Vogue, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times Book Review, and The New Yorker. In 2005, she published Astro Turf: The Private Life of Rocket Science, a social history of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a family memoir of aerospace culture during the Cold War. She lives in Los Angeles, where she teaches in the Master of Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern California.
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Britannica: So today is Barbie’s 50th birthday — she was introduced this day in 1959 by the Mattel company of Southern California. Despite the glam and glitter traditionally associated with her, Barbie’s origins are actually rather low-brow, aren’t they? And her curvaceous figure immediately became a controversy. Tell us about her origins and how Mattel got around this controversy.
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Britannica: Wasn’t there a 1994 study that analyzed Barbie’s figure and the healthiness of a woman with her proportions? How does Barbie feed into our perceptions of feminine beauty and issues of weight in particular, especially in the age of “size zero” models and actresses?
Lord: Almost since her inception, Barbie has been accused of causing eating disorders in young girls. But what I learned interviewing therapists for my book is that there will always be societal ideals of beauty, which, by definition, are difficult to achieve. What matters to a girl’s healthy development is how her family feels about those ideals. If her family sends her a strong message that she is lovable regardless of how she looks, she will likely not have problems. But if they convey the idea that to be lovable she has to look like a size-zero model, she could develop an eating disorder.
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Britannica: You’re a first-generation Barbie owner. What attracted you to her when you were a child, and have your views of her changed over the years? What accounts for Barbie’s lasting appeal?
Lord: When Barbie was introduced, she was a revolutionary toy. She didn’t teach us to nurture, like our clinging, dependent Betsy Wetsys and Chatty Cathys. She taught us independence. Barbie was her own woman. She could invent herself with a costume change: sing a solo in the spotlight one minute, pilot a star ship the next. She was Grace Slick and Sally Ride, Marie Osmond and Marie Curie. She was all that we could be and — if you calculate what at human scale would translate to a 39-inch bust — more than we could be. And certainly more than we were — at six and seven and eight when she appeared and sank her jungle-red talons into our inner lives.
Today the talons are gone; Barbie is kinder and gentler, no longer a revolutionary toy but a traditional one — one that Boomer moms give to their kids.
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Lord: In my book Forever Barbie: The Unauthorized Biography of a Real Doll, I position Barbie as a proto-feminist. She was highly sexual and unmarried — far from the norm in the nuclear-family-obsessed 1950s. From the get-go, she had outfits for a career — first as a fashion designer, next as a registered nurse. The message that her playsets conveyed to little girls was very similar to what Helen Gurley Brown’s 1962 landmark book, Sex and the Single Girl, conveyed to their older sisters. Despite its breathy prose, Brown’s book was very much an anti-marriage manifesto and an argument for women’s financial and sexual autonomy. To this day, Barbie has never been a mother. When consumers clamored for a Barbie-scale baby doll in the 1960s, Mattel issued “Barbie Baby Sits.”
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Britannica: Finally, how has the rest of the world received Barbie over the years — especially, say, the Muslim world — and what do you think of the proposed bill last week by a lawmaker in West Virginia to outlaw sales of Barbie in her state?
Lord: Barbie has been outlawed in Saudi Arabia — yet her sales are boominLihat Blogg in other parts of the world. In the 21st century, Barbie asserted herself as a powerful global brand. Just last week in Shanghai, a six-story Barbie store opened. It features a spa, a beauty salon, and an alcohol bar that serves pink Barbie cocktails. The idea is that women will buy clothes and services for themselves, their daughters and their daughter’s dolls. You could almost call it a teaching tool for Western patterns of consumption.
I don’t advise anyone to thwart children who want a Barbie — in West Virginia or anywhere else. Kids denied the doll often grow up to be major collectors. If you don’t want your son or daughter to have a Barbie at age five, do you want him or her to have 4,000 Barbies at age 50?
Selasa, 13 April 2010
Marilyn Dolls
This series of Marilyn Dolls was released in 1983.
It featured 2 vinyl dolls and 3 in porcela
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Barbie as Marilyn
Hollywood Legends Collection
In 1997, Mattel released a set of three Barbie dolls portraying Marilyn in some of her most famous costumes; Seven Year Itch and 2 from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. I think these dolls are wonderful! Not only are the costumes highly detailed but the display boxes are simply gorgeous.
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Timeless Treasures Marilyn
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Marilyn Inspired Barbies
| There have been a couple of other Barbies released that certainly have a Marilyn feel to them. HOLLYWOOD PREMIERE BARBIE This one looks very much like a typical Marilyn appearance on the red carpet. Everyone knows that Barbie® is a star! Presenting the Hollywood Movie Star™ Collection depicting Barbie® doll at her most glamorous. First in this exciting collection, Hollywood Premiere™ Barbie® doll looks sensational as she prepares to make her grand entrance at an opening night gala. Her stunning off-white gown shimmers in the spotlight and her floor-length faux fur stole trails behind her as she glides down the red carpet while the cameras flash. Faux diamond jewelry adds the final sparkling touch. What a fabulous Hollywood movie star Barbie® makes! |
| HOLLYWOOD BOUND BARBIE This one looks very much like Marilyn in Something's Got to Give. Created exclusively for 2007 BarbieSM Fan Club members by designer Robert Best, Hollywood Bound™ Barbie® doll exudes pure glamour and grace! Dressed to impress in a lovely floral dress with a crisp white coat and matching accessories, this breathtaking starlet is poised to take Tinseltown by storm! Whether rushing to an audition or traveling to set, one thing’s for sure – Hollywood Bound™ Barbie® doll is the ultimate professional, oozing talent, confidence and style. Isn’t that what Hollywood is all about? No more than 4,000 units produced worldwide. |
Aishwarya
If rumors are ture, Ash is going to be the first Indian whose personality will inspire a Barbie creation. Celebrity Barbies are in vogue in Hollywood, with celebrities like Diana Ross, Cher, Beyonce etc lending their looks to the Barbies. Sources say that Ash is currently in secret talks with Mattel Toys India and the deal will take some time to finalize.
London, Beauty queen turned actress Ash Bachchan could be the next to join the league of female Hollywood celebrities like Beyonce Knowles and Elizabeth Taylor to have the next “celebrity Barbie” doll modelled on her. Representatives of the 35 year old were reported to be in negotiations with Barbie’s manufacturer Mattel as it plans to give the iconic doll a Bollywood face and sell throughout India, the Daily Telegraph reported Wednesday.
If the deal happens, the new Barbie will have Ash’s green eyes and wear outfits created by top Indian designers.
Lady Gaga
The Lady Gaga Barbie Doll
Wherever I turn my head, there’s got to be something about Gaga! This time, it’s the Barbie!Someone’s putting a world of creativity into transforming normal, adorable looking Barbie dolls into Lady Gaga replicas. And he’s doing it so good, I get chills down my spine when looking at all these Gaga-miniatures! Bad Romance, you say?
Most Expensive Barbie Dolls
1959 No. 1 Barbie
The first Barbie dolls were introduced by Mattel, Inc. in 1959. Produced in Japan, their clothing was hand-stitched by home workers. Creator Ruth Handler based them on a German doll called Bild Lilli, which was itself based on a comic strip character. Since then, of course, the Barbie doll has become a household name. Having been around that long, Barbie’s been through quite a few editions.
On her 40th birthday, for instance, we were introduced to the most expensive Barbie doll at the time. Created by jeweler De Beers, this unique Barbie’s dress is covered in diamonds—160 of them, to be exact. She also wears 18k white gold jewelry. This expensive Barbie has an extraordinary price tag of $85,000.
For those who prefer the nostalgia factor to the bling factor, the most expensive classic Barbie is naturally the very first—Barbie No. 1. Featuring a ponytail and zebra-striped bathing suit, this vintage Barbie doll is considerably cheaper than the De Beers Barbie at an estimated $8,000.
Currently, the world’s most expensive Barbie doll is one that was introduced in Mexico City. The doll was created to promote a new Barbie movie, Barbie and the Diamond Castle. According to Giancarlo Melloni, Barbie’s brand manager in Mexico, the film has themes near and dear to the hearts of young women—“friendship, music and shiny jewels.”
Barbie and the Diamond Castle promotional doll
Mr. Melloni is clearly breaking new ground there.
The most expensive Barbie doll was not created for sale but has been valued at 1 million pesos (US $95,361). It features a total of 318 diamonds weighing in at 20.66 carats. Forty-four of the gems decorate her dress while the rest adorn her white gold accessories.
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