Hide your impressionable children because Barbie just became risqué…again! Barbie has had her share of controversy for as long as I can remember being old enough to pay attention. Scantily clad in itsy bitsy teenie weenie Barbie bikini’s to pregnancy, Barbie always seems to offend someone but has she gone too far this time? Panties are wadding as you read this over Barbie’s newest look; L.A.-based company tokidoki has designed a barbie doll with pink hair, and tattoos. Keep in mind that Barbie has had tattoos in the past, once in 1999 (Butterfly Art Barbie) and again in 2009 (Totally Stylin' Tattoos Barbie), but nothing as in your face as this new look. This blatantly tatted up Barbie has sent some people in the blogosphere right over the edge. One commenter on the Ms. Twixt blog for tweens and their parents stated, “Why don't they make a suicide Barbie, complete with rope and gun!” Whoa now Ms. Rational, that amount of hysteria seems a bit much. Another pointed out the fallacy of Barbie’s tattoo promotion seeing as how they don’t age well and can sag, as if Barbie has to worry about that! So are these arguments as silly as they sound?
When I met with my advisor for the first time after transferring to MSSU from MSU I was asked if I had any tattoos. I was at first confused by the question because I didn’t see its relevance but I was then informed that if I had any, or planned to get any in an area that could be seen with clothes on, that I would not be eligible for the nursing program. Lucky for me that I had never found a tattoo I wanted to commit to for life, even though I had spent some time looking. I know that the policy of MSSU is not the policy of every nursing program but wow; a tattoo you got at some point in your life could potentially keep you from getting the education you need for the job you want. I can only assume, since I didn’t ask, that this policy is due to some sort of discrimination against people with highly visible tattoos. After the initially shock of such a question, and after I silenced the screaming libertarian voice in my head, I began to think about how I would feel about a tatted up nurse. I found that I had extremely conflicting opinions. Part of me thought I would cringe at the sight but I quickly realized that the mental picture I had in my head of a tatted up nurse would not be the truth about the educated professional who happened to have tattoos in front of me. It actually took me a while to realize that I was ascribing tattoos to low intelligence and poor decision making, when I know better! If I did that then I can hardly fault these outraged anti-tattoo people but I at least had the sense to get to the bottom of what I was thinking and find my way out of flawed reasoning.
As far as this new collector Barbie goes though I have no issues. If my kids were still playing with Barbie’s I wouldn’t care if she was in their collection. They stopped dressing like Disney princesses eventually and I am sure they would just as quickly let go of any infatuation with neck tattoos.
I think that Barbie is just trying to imitate society as it changes. You can't make everyone happy.
ReplyDeleteI mean seriously people, it's a doll. You don't HAVE to buy it for your kids.