The inspiration for this project came about with my decision
to donate some of my childhood Barbies to a younger girl. I rummaged through my
collection and found myself sadly getting caught on the idea that she may be
less enthusiastic about a minority Barbie (even though she is Mexican herself).
It made me question the roots of my thoughts.
We are socially programmed to recognize beauty as straight
white femininity (represented by my dolls on the left) and disregard all else.
Being that this girl identifies as something other than that, I realized that I
had the ability to make a difference in the way she sees beauty and in turn
sees herself. I decided to give her dolls that are more representative of different
groups (my dolls on the right) in order to challenge these harmful ideologies.
I love this picture! it's so true. Growing up my neighbor only had white barbies, and i thought my family was different because they are not all white and had black barbies. This picture sows that beauty comes in many different shades. Nice job!
ReplyDeleteYou did a great thing giving her a variety of barbies. Having different race barbies is a great way for children to learn that skin color isn't a big difference between people. It is kind of creep how similar all the white barbies look together, like little clones. Diversity is so great and this picture shows that!
ReplyDeletehaha you read my mind.
ReplyDeleteI was actually thinking the same thing about freaky clones.
That just goes to show how much it doesnt represent reality if it looks so strange to us.
thanks for the comments!
I think it is great that you are reaching out to someone younger. I think reaching kids about important topic is the best before society closes them off. I personally only had my moms old barbie and back in those days they didn't have much for selection, I think I only grew up with a few barbies that were not light skin, blonde hair. This girl will be ahaed of the game!!
ReplyDeleteI think that it is great that you realized that you had been looking through your dolls and ended up giving her a larger, more diverse representation of beauty with the dolls pictured on the right. I think that your pciture does a great job of helping people see the beauty in all types and that there is more to women than just the classic platinum blonde Barbie. Well done.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree. When I was younger, my white barbies were all the pretty, feminine, happy dolls, while my minority barbie always got the role of being made fun of or getting picked on because she was different. I hope kids aren't still treating their minority barbies like this.
ReplyDelete