Thanks for coming to the Barbie Nation page.
In 1998, when I made the first Barbie Nation (and barbecued that Barbie doll) I thought there were only two types of people in the world: Barbie glorifiers and Barbie defilers.
I was a Barbie defiler. I was six years old when Barbie debuted in 1959. My parents bought me one and I promptly cut off her ponytail. But back then, her hair was only rooted around the edges of her scalp. So the hair fell over her face, revealing her completely bald head.
The illusion of beauty disappeared. I’d like to say that freed me from the constraints that the idea of beauty imposes, but it did not. My personal struggle didn’t have so much to do with gender and sexual orientation – struggles that Barbie plays into for some of us – but I have struggled with body image, and the rigidity of gender roles and permissible sexual expression. And Barbie triggers these struggles, too.
So when I had a daughter, Nora (the Nora in Barbie Nation), I didn’t run out and buy her a Barbie. Her older cousin sent her one, and soon I (and my husband, Nora’s dad) were playing Barbie with Nora.
One day, Nora was playing a game in which one Barbie was jealous of another Barbie.
“Women don’t have to be jealous of other women!” I said to Nora, with deep second-wave feminist assurance.
Nora just looked at me. “Why don’t we first play what I want to play and then we can play what you want to play?” she said.
