Barbie

Many young girls are horse-crazy, and advertisers have tapped into this attraction to sell everything from toys to cartoons to bedroom sets. But how do they manage to appeal to rough and tumble tomboys and girlie-girls alike? And where to these ads fit among the feminine stereotypes being sold to young girls? 

Here are my picks of the most interesting feminist news of the morning. Enjoy! And add links I missed to the comments. 

• An artist removes Barbie's makeup! [Sociological Images]

• Guantanamo detainees are still on hunger strike. Here, one detainee writes an essay on how Guantanamo is killing him. [New York Times] 

• The tax law of marriage encourages dual-income couples to not get hitched, but incentivizes marriage for couples with only one income. Does that make any sense? [New York Times] 

• Meanwhile, Uruguay legalized same-sex marriage! [Autostraddle] 

• Speaking of which, marriage is great, but many LGBT people of color could really use some job security, too. [Colorlines] 

• With some Republicans' reversal on same-sex marriage, the GOP is losing some of its homophobic base. [Towleroad]

• Here are 18 illustrated responses to street harassment, including a bunch of great comics. [Buzzfeed]

• This weekend in heartthrob relations: Justin Beiber visits Anne Frank's house and wishes she could have been a Beleiber. [Racialicious] 

• First to Die: On race and horror in Evil Dead.  [Feminist Wire] 

• Rookie rounds up the best coming-of-age movies for teens. Oh, the nostalgia. [Rookie] 

• Ooooo! Absurdly sexist Avengers shirts! [Feministing]

Studies on hard-wired sex differences suggest that even Barbie, whose careers have ranged from astronaut to computer engineer, struggles in the science. Why? Because she's a woman.

Yet according to a recent CBC radio story on the "man brain/ woman brain" debate, some psychologists believe that these "studies" lead to unhealthy stereotyping and self-fulfilling prophesies.

Today I focus on Nicki Minaj, a female rapper who is part of Lil Wayne's Young Money crew and has recently gone solo She's been on my radar for some time. Jonah Weiner recently wrote a Slate column about her. Jay Smooth and Maura Johnston had in an interesting exchange about her for NPR. Apparently this Web site gets several searches for her as well, so she's clearly someone we should be talking about.

Barbie was all over the Lakme Fashion Week in Mumbai this year. The doll celebrated its 50th Anniversary by sponsoring the event. At first I thought it was the company’s obliviousness to irony that prompted the fashion show sponsorship, but then it all came together when I read this article last week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are a gadzillion reasons why I'm not a fan of Barbie dolls, and they all apply to the new Lt. Uhura doll, part of Mattel's upcoming Barbie Doll line being released in conjunction with J.J. Abrams' new Star Trek film.  But there's also a hilariously awesome reason to love these dolls: fanboys are freaking out that they make Star Trek too girlie. 

More after the jump!