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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2016
PARTING SHOT FROM JOSHUA BESSEX
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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