Now comes Barbie robotics – News Life: Society



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If you want to learn a little more about the pitfalls of feminism, you should look at Barbie. It has been a few years now that this country has become an ambassador for diversity and empowerment. The last step: In August, Barbie will be marketed as a robotic engineer. The manufacturer Mattel points out that it's about showing young girls that they can be and do everything – for example, build robots. A nice thing commendable. But if something seems too good, there is usually a catch somewhere.

Stevie Schmiedel, founder of the protest organization "Pink Stinks", fights against the clichés of gender in product design and advertising. She just had her hands full explaining to the media that the robotics engineer is a pure marketing trick, just as she was in 2016, when the dolls appeared in body shapes. "Big", "small" and "sinuous". ,

Feminism as Makeup Artist

The company reacted to the growing criticism of Barbie's classic ideal body, so thin that not all organs fit into a person real. This was also noticeable in the sales figures. Since Barbie's offensive on diversity in recent years, they are increasing again.


Sales of the classic slender Barbie declined significantly. Image: Daniel Acker (Getty Images)

For Schmiedel, progressive puppets are only "short impulses that are not produced for the masses". They were just there to give an emancipated touch to Barbie. Feminism as a makeup – as an oil company that puts wind turbines somewhere and says, "Look, we are shaping the future!"

The robotic engineer seems to implicitly confirm this accusation. She has appeared in the "Career of the Year" series, which has existed since 2011, and has made Barbie a computer specialist, civil engineer and game designer. However, only for a year. When a new Carrière doll of the year is on sale, the previous one comes out. That's what makes Barbie an eternal trainee. Each one of them moves the previous one that held the special place – while on all the other spots, the Ken Ken Ken will likely continue to change and control Ken. The robotics engineer is only available in super thin body shapes.


Barbie Robotics is the new "Career of the Year" doll. She only gives it super thin. Photo: PD

The Mattel company does not give figures on the sale of the "Career of the Year" dolls compared to the classic models. However, if you search through the various commercial portals, the mermaid, the "fashionista", the princess and Barbie prove to be the best sellers with the doggie pure doggie. All white, all super thin. "You can be anything," is Barbie's slogan. He also stands at the end of each episode of his video blog, where computer-animated Barbie talks about his fictional life and as a kind of big sister encourages the courage of his viewers. She encourages her not to constantly apologize and believe in herself.

In one episode, the video Barbie tells, for example, how she should paint her dream job as a little girl – and decided to combine dancer, doctor, astronaut and, of course, princess. A friend teased her at that time and said that she could finally only be one person. But on the Internet, she had met Mae Jemison. A dancer ("check!"), A doctor ("check!") And a former astronaut ("check!"), An inspiring model and, in this sense, a kind of princess ("check!").

Always cute at home

While Barbie tells him, a tutu, a nurse's cap and an astronaut's helmet appear on the drawing of the l & # 39; one on the other, one on the other, to which she adds a sweet wreath in the end as it 's been different layers of doll clothes. Some of them are progressive, but they still carry the classics that they have to wear at the same time.

So, the ideal Barbie is now adventurous at work as a space traveler, but still cute and adorable at home, the nurse for the soul her husband and children. And then she should put everything under a hat – or a crown – with a dancing ease.

No matter whether she is fat or informed, Barbie remains a doll.

An appeal to Mattel gives an indication of the root of the problem. On the phone, the German press secretary Anne Esau. "When Ruth Handler invented Barbie in 1959, there was only the classic doll to play with," she says. On the other hand, with Barbie, young girls would for the first time "recreate the adult game", or even the entire social spectrum. From the fairy to the presidential candidate today, there is no "limitation".

However, at least one limitation remains rather fundamental. No matter the rudeness or intelligence of Barbie, she is and remains a doll, a woman as an object. There lies the biggest take on Barbie's feminism: when women are now celebrating a wider range of bodies by showing off their normal breasts, their normal arched belly on Instagram – then they are, proud or not, still at the end of the day. a view from the outside. If, on the other hand, men are fat, then they are fat, but for their self-image that usually does not matter much.

If Ken was standing near the stove

It may be why they are playing rather with figurines like little boys, instead of preparing for the roles that they have. they always have, with always mini-men

So there had to be a revolution for Barbie, it should come from Ken. True equality between the sexes would only be possible if he sometimes showed up on the stove, sliding from head to toe and worrying about the baking pan until Barbie returned to the kitchen. home as an obese astrophysicist suffering from starvation. (Tages-Anzeiger)

created: 25.07.2018, 18:25

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