The Barbie 'Issue'

Are we supposed to be impressed with Mattel's new line of African American Barbies? Are we to applaud Mattel for being so progressive, finally producing, in 2009, its iconic Barbie in several shades of brown?* I'm surprised at the amount of folks who actually are happy with the So in Style line of Barbies, or at least, the amount of folks who aren't as critical as I think this moment in Barbie history warrants. Don't get me wrong, I'm certainly behind efforts to diversify the world of dolls, but the way in which we've been introduced to the So in Style line makes me a little wary of this effort. See, for example, a supplement to the July 2009 issue of Vogue Italia - a tribute to 50-year-old Barbie featuring dolls of color in some interesting (ah, I love how vague that descriptor is) contexts. There are the S&M dolls, the bathing beauties, the lingerie-clad models, and the supplement itself is a nod to last year's 'all black' issue of Vogue Italia - an issue that is often read as a statement on the whitewashed fashion industry. It certainly says something that there must be a purposeful effort to produce an all black issue of Vogue and that the follow up this year is questionable in its depictions of black dolls. At the very least, I think we can safely say that that something these texts tell us is that most youth culture in the West remains white youth culture.

*The very first black Barbie appeared in 1980, but the first black doll in the Barbie family was Christie, who became friends with Barbie in 1968. Anyway, the difference between the earlier incarnations and the So in Style line is that the latter are touted as representing more 'authentic' or 'real' black girls and teens.