I am so tired of listening to people complain about Barbie, from “feminist, dieticians and psychologists” and what have you. It’s been resurgent recently thanks to the whole fiftieth birthday thing (I honestly thought she was older than that by now) and I just have to roll my eyes at it all. The one thing they always get hung up about is the fact that she’s out of proportion. Now excuse me but, she’s a freaking doll. Who cares if her neck is too long to realistically hold up her head? That’s the whole point, she’s not meant to be realistic. And honestly, if you want to talk about things being out of proportion, then let’s talk about Bratz dolls. Not only are their heads hopelessly too big for their bodies (even for dolls…they just look ridiculous) but they also stand for absolutely everything that is disturbing about modern society. Barbie never did that. She was always classy and stylish, she was successful and had that whole empowerment thing happening. She was whatever you wanted her to be.
I was big into Barbie. I’d get one for my birthday and Christmas every year up until about the age of twelve. It gave me an outlet for my creativity. She hasn’t impacted upon the way I see the world, I never looked at her and thought “Hey, I really should have a body mass index of 10 to be a real woman.” You can’t blame a doll for objectifying women or for making girls vacuous and misguided. Modern society does this all by itself. Besides, these are things you should be taught by your parents if you ask me. My mother raised me in an environment where I could do anything or be anything I wanted. It was made perfectly clear very early on that their was no prototype for “being a girl”, and rather than trying to impress upon me some sort of preconceived notion of being a perfect woman, future wife or mother, I like to think I was instead taught how to be a decent human being. I never felt any expectation to be girly or spend three hours on the phone with my girlfriends cause that’s what girls do. There was no “let’s bake cookies for the boys!” or “don’t ask me, I’m just a girl”, to use the Simpsons as an example for this whole thing. This whole idea of dieticians, psychologists and feminists pointing fingers at Barbie just seems ludicrous to me. She’s a bloody toy for crying out loud. In the same breath, I’d have to admit that we probably couldn’t blame Bratz either; as much as I dislike them (they’re just ugly).
The real problem lies with modern society, with real life supposed role models like Paris Hilton, who bring nothing to the table but shopping, partying and standing around saying nonsensical things while looking pretty. This is far more devastating than anything you can pin on a toy, because this is real. These people function in society and as such it’s easy to look at them and think, yes, that’s how it should be. That’s what I should be. Barbie might be a shining example of consumerism, but is it horrible if anyone aspires to be like her? She’s stylish and successful, she has everything she wants and you can’t say she didn’t work for it, hell she’s had tons of jobs. Is the body issue such a huge deal? She doesn’t look unhealthy to me, she just looks…like a doll. How exactly would one go about making a doll that realistically reflects human form anyway? Why does it matter? No one actually looks at Barbie and thinks 'yeah, I want to look like her'…do they? I can’t believe that. I mean that’s just crazy, she stands on her bloody toes.
Bah. I don’t know. I just don’t get it. It just seems stupid to me accusing a doll of being a bad role model or being a bad influence on young girls, when it’s just a means to an end really. I’d think it was more important to worry about having real role models for kids. In year 3 they made us talk about our role models in class, most of the girls in my class said Princess Diana. Walk into a year 3 class now, what’s the bet they’d say Vanessa Hudgens or Miley Cyrus. I’m just saying.
To be honest, I’ve always found the idea of role models a bit strange. Humans are so intrinsically flawed and everyone is so messed up in their own ways, how can it be expected for someone to be this shining example? That’s why they’re always going on about celebrities being bad role models, it’s impossible to be on the ball all the time. I’m far too worried about keeping myself together and figuring out what exactly this ‘myself’ actually is, to have any spare time to look at anyone else as some sort of template.
This, when you come right down to it, is a major part of why I love Torchwood as much as I do. Everyone is so messed up, everything is so messed up. That’s life, isn’t it? Flawed and grating and annoying. I love Gwen in all her annoying contradictions, and Owen in all his bastard ways. I love Tosh in her shy presence, her secretive superiority over the others. Because there are people just like them out there, in class with me even, and yeah, I don’t like them every much, but I have to deal with them, because that’s life. There are people like that, and there’s nothing you can do about it. I love Ianto for his dry wit and the infallible composure even after unspeakable tragedy. And Jack. In all his fucked up glory. At the end of the day, he’s still human. He’s not a vampire or a changed being; he’s just some guy who happens not to stay dead. He doesn’t have any special gifts or powers that help him deal with this. He’s just there. Always. It’s humanity, in various different guises. Everyone I’ve watched it with has at some point said to me that it’s really quite depressing, and yes, it is. So is life. Sure it’s a fictional world centred around aliens, but it seems more real to me than half the dramas on TV. It also makes no apologies for it’s absurdity. I love it for that and I don’t want it to ever change.
Yes. Because all things come back to Torchwood. What can I say? I’m invested.
Music: Time - She Wants Revenge/Timbaland
Mood: Lazy
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