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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 5, 2016)
4C THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2016 PARTING SHOT FROM JOSHUA BESSEX A weekly snapshot from The Daily Astorian and Chinook Observer photographers A juvenile bald eagle flies near the log yard on Pier 1 at the Port of Astoria in January. ODDITY Doll parts Mattel, the maker of the famous plastic Barbie doll, said it will start selling Barbie’s in three new body types: tall, curvy and petite. She’ll also come in seven skin tones, 22 eye colors and 24 hair- styles. For the world’s most scrutinized body, Barbie has a new look By BETH J. HARPAZ Associated Press NEW YORK — Poor Barbie. She had plastic surgery to become more socially acceptable. But a lot of her critics still don’t like her. Barbie’s manufacturer, Mattel, has announced that the doll has three new body types curvy, tall and petite. Barbie will also now come in seven skin tones, 22 eye colors and 24 hair- styles. Mattel spokeswoman Michelle Chidoni said the product is evolving to “offer more FKRLFHV´WRPDNH³WKHOLQHPRUHUHÀHFWLYHRI the world girls see around them.” But Kris Macomber, who teaches sociology at Meredith College in Raleigh, North Carolina, says she’s “reluctant to cele- brate Barbie’s new strategy because it doesn’t change the fact that Barbie dolls and other kinds of fashion dolls still over-emphasize female beauty. Sure, all body types should be valued. And, sure, all skin colors should be valued equally. But why must we keep sending girls the message that being beautiful is so important?” ‘Relentless focus on appearance’ Josh Golin, executive director of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, said Barbie’s changes are a testament to activ- ists who for years have challenged her “unreal- istic and harmful body type.” But body type “was only one of the criticisms,” he said. “The other was the brand’s relentless focus on appearance and fashion.” Kumea Shorter-Gooden, co-author of “Shifting: The Double Lives of Black Women in America,” has said in the past that Barbie has a bigger impact on black girls struggling with messages about skin color and hair. Short- er-Gooden applauded Mattel “for diversifying the size and look of Barbie,” but noted that “European-American hair still prevails,” and that WKH GROOV¶ RXW¿WV VWLOO ³FRQYH\ D WUDGLWLRQDO DQG constraining gender norm about how girls and women should look.” Aside from whether Barbie’s looks will ever measure up to society’s changing expectations, another question worth asking is whether kids still want to play with Barbies. Barbie sales fell 14 percent in the most recently reported quarter, with worldwide sales falling every year since FREE PUBLISHED THE FIRST FRIDAY OF EACH MONTH January 2015 ess Chronicling the Joy of Busin Mattel via AP 2012. A study by BAV Consulting found that consumers perceive the Barbie brand as being “less relevant” than 80 percent of 3,500 brands in 200 categories BAV studied. BAV’s data anal- ysis also found that consumers perceive Barbie as being in the bottom third of all brands when it comes to social responsibility but in the top 2 percent when it comes to being traditional. Original still for sale Mattel said it will still sell the original 11.5-inch Barbie. The new versions will begin arriving on U.S. store shelves in March and will roll out globally after that. They are available for preorder at shop.mattel.com, and will ship in February. Quiana Agbai, an African-American mother in the Columbia-Pacific Region striverbusinessjournal crbizjournal.com • facebook.com/coa Volume 10 • Issue 1 stry spo allenges Inside: Indu copes with ch Shellfish farm an conditions oce nging s optimistic despite cha tlight: Taylor remain NEWS County makes a splash of two who has written about “the effects of dolls not looking like my 5-year-old daughter” on her blog, www.harlemlovebirds.com, said Barbie’s new look is “a step in the right direc- tion” but noted that “there are brands already ¿OOLQJ WKLV QHHG LQ JUHDWHU GHWDLO´ $JEDL¶V husband’s family is Nigerian, so she found a Nigerian princess doll for her daughter from a line called Queens of Africa. Agbai herself grew up playing with the American Girl doll Addy, whose story line involved escaping from slavery. Some, however, saluted the new Barbie wholeheartedly. Trina Finton, a Hispanic mom from Simi Valley, California, who works in tech and once bought herself an engineer Barbie from the doll’s career line, was “thrilled” to hear about Barbie’s new looks, especially the curly hair. In the past, when she’s taken her 3-year-old daughter to Target, “I avoid the Barbie aisle. I just don’t want her to feel bad that she can’t see a doll that looks like her.” Real progress Kelly Brownell was a Yale psychology professor when he concluded in a 1995 study that young girls notice the body shapes of icons such as Barbie and translate them into unhealthy images. Today, as a dean at Duke University, Brownell said the new Barbie “represents real progress, not only by having additional skin tones but by beginning to correct the wildly unrealistic body shapes and sizes of earlier days. Now inserted into The Daily Astorian and Chinook Observer For more information call 503-325-3211 PacifIc in the pot biz page 10 NEWS Seaside Muffler and Off-Road 21 revs up its reputation page BOAT OF THE MONTH The Sadie out of South Bend, Wash. page 24 crbizjou rn a l.com
