Thursday, December 10, 2015

Barbie Lives!!




All you doubters out there, prepare to recant.



If you’ve been wandering the Christmas toy aisles, amazed at the longevity of a product for children that is still around in spite of its anatomical impossibility, I have news for you.



Barbie lives.



According to an article in the Economist a few years ago,

. . .  wrapped up in her pouting lips and improbable figure—buxom breasts, wafer-thin waist and permanently arched feet waiting to slip into a pair of high heels—is an apparently enduring statement of aspiration and western aesthetic. She is, according to M.G. Lord, who has written a biography of Barbie, “the most potent icon of American popular culture in the late twentieth century.”



Just check the website of any major toy distributor  - she’s still doing fine.



But the real breakthrough is that I’ve discovered the original model.

Granted my premise is a bit flawed since Barbie was born in 1959, but after my visit to John Gray’s blog today, I’ve found the source:
Jamie Lee Curtis in her prime.

12 comments:

  1. That is one scary doll.

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  2. I agree with Delores: scary.

    PS: about Trump; first we were laughing, now we’re truly worried. Are there really Americans who might vote for the man?

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    1. Well, those voters should be easy to spot. Just look for the scrapes where their knuckles dragged the ground.

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  3. Who IS that woman? She looks a little like Jane, but I hope it's not. And Trump? I keep hoping any minute he will self destruct. :-)

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  4. Well, damn. I shoved a chocolate in my mouth, then saw Jamie Lee Curtis.
    sigh. I bet she had bigger feet than Barbie though. Even for a doll, Barbie's feet are ridiculously tiny.

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    1. Yeah. Speaking as a 10 (and that's shoe size, not hotness level), I find that the most egregious design flaw of all.

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  5. Didn't she make a movie called Perfect, or something like that? Maybe that's what the still is from? I never saw it. I guess she was emulating Barbie rather than the other way around, even back then.

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  6. Oh good grief!! I thought she looked a little familiar when I read the post yesterday. I never knew Jamie Lee Curtis looked like that.

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  7. I had an encounter with a plastic surgeon years ago (no, I was not getting altered) and he was making his wife into a living Barbie doll.

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Thanks for stopping by and I'd love to hear what you think.