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What the fuck have they been doing for the past fifty years or so? I was kind of shocked to read that today, Mattel announced its first line of African-American Barbie dolls. They’re called the “So In Style” dolls, and the theory is that Barbie’s black BFF, Grace, moved to Chicago and met a bunch of other black chicks and their little sisters. And so now, in 2009, Mattel is proud to announce a line of dolls that aren’t just white Barbie dyed black, but have wider noses, fuller lips, stronger cheekbones, a range of darker skin tones and curlier hair.
I’ll admit, I don’t follow Barbie especially closely. Hell, I didn’t follow Barbie especially closely when I was five. I’m the little girl who spent a few minutes trying to figure out why Ken didn’t have a penis when you took off his clothes, and then I went outside to play in the dirt. But I would have guessed that a line like this came out, oh, twenty years ago? I’m a little shocked to read that it just recently occurred to Mattel to make a freakin’ Barbie doll that actually looks black, rather than implying to young black girls that button noses are the only way to be beautiful. Better late than never, right?
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Better late than never indeed..
I think it’s great improvement…. I’m waiting for the day when barbie won’t be so abnormally skinny… Maybe a more proportional barbie should be a concern now…
Hey now, they widened her waist… from ‘quite literally impossible unless you’re that one corseted lady in the Guinness world book’ to ‘oh who cares, now you’re that corseted lady’s jealous rival with a weaker husband/lacer”
But.. improvement! And you best bet they flaunted that improvement :P
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Barbieswaistwidens.jpg
I had to buy my daughter a Brandi doll because I wanted her to have a black Barbie that actually looked black. Oddly enough, their version of an Asian doll actually looked Asian.
My daughter had a very diverse doll collection.
Hahahaha, my Aunt did that for my cousin! Her words were: “As far as I’m concerned, those Black Barbies are really just Barbie going to a costume party with Blackface on. And I will not support that.”
Uh…why do they all come with a “little sister” doll?
I realize that Barbie has her own “little sisters” but not every Barbie comes with one. In fact, none of the My Scene dolls do.
I want so much for this not to feel like they’re implying that their first ethnic line of dolls are teenage mothers, but it kinda does.
This was my initial reaction too… hmm…
oh my god. that made me LOL inappropriately
They don’t all come with a little sister doll, but the little sister dolls are available to but, just like Stacey and Kelly for Barbie…
Follow the original link. They do all come with little sister dolls. It’s supposed to promote “mentoring.”
But it just looks like they’re all teenage mothers.
That depends on whether there are any white Barbie lines that comes with little sisters…I’m not sure. But if this is the only “mentoring” line, then yeah, it does look awkwardly unintentionally…yeah.
Barbie always had a little sister–Skipper.
they already have made black dolls..i don’t get this post.
I don’t get it either, seems like just another lame excuse to slam white people. My mother grew up in the early 60’s and they had black dolls even then.
How does it “slam” White people? We DO consistently have wider noses, fuller lips, stronger cheekbones, a range of darker skin tones and curlier hair than White people.
Don’t try to white-wash the issue. (No pun intended)
Because many on this site equate ‘anything even remotely good for black people (even if, like this issue, it is really having the exact reverse effect, IMO) is an attack on us poor, harassed, defenseless, powerless white people.’ I apparently hate all white people (like….myself and my father?) for being passionate and concerned with race issues. Pointing out that even one white person did something racist is an attack on the whole race to them.
For the record, if the included picture is any indication, they still fail at ‘black hair’ (even though, interestingly, the first black Barbie had short, curly hair, to my knowledge). You’d think that would be the EASIEST change to make on Barbie, seeing as all Barbie’s had curly hair back in the day.
Bullox Syd, it’s not about that and you know it. From reading your posts and the endless whining about how you’re some big victim of white America it’s clear anything white makes you crazy.
No, Adum is right: many on this site whitewash race issues because you are afraid of your white superiority slipping. The only people who’d think anything white makes me ‘crazy’ would be a KKK sympathizer.
“Superiority”? Well thanks for the compliment but no one thinks white people are superior except for minorities with self esteem issues. Maybe you should work on self acceptance instead of looking for scapegoats for your unhappiness.
Ps: That KKK comment was assinine and symptomatic of your one dimensional view of caucasians.
“no one thinks white people are superior except for minorities with self esteem issues.”
hahhaha seriously? seriously? you said that? ahhahaha I’ve missed this crazy site with its insane people.
Lisa, please take your self loathing ass back to the San Francisco bar you were haning at….no one missed you Wilted Little Rose.
well, I don’t remember a Pollyanna on here, so you must be one of the super-fun name changers.
I do not loathe myself. I adore myself. I am not sure what you are talking about.
Racists (not unlike the KKK, which makes my comment DOUBLE not asinine) are often afraid to show their true selves so they hide. Either behind hoods, computer screens, and in this person’s double-whammy case, behind computer screens AND name changes. Whoever it is seems to think that the acknowledgement of racism is ‘going crazy.’ Because of course, anyone with the slightest shred of education is crazy.
Syd you crack me up. You spend 90% of your time on this board whining about how horrible and terrible it is to be you and blaming the white people for your every unhappiness and you have the nerve to label other people racist? Look in the mirror hypocrite. You aren’t educated, if you were you would take responsiblity for yourself.
When did I blame white people for ANY of my problems? You can call me uneducated, but the fact still stands that I am capable of READING, which automatically makes me and every six year old in this country more educated than you, it seems.
Yeh, you’re effing brilliant Syd. Weren’t you whining a few posts back about how you couldn’t get into STATE college because it was too hard for you? Or did you blame this on mysterious racism that only seems to affect you and not the 10,000 other black people who got in? Get off the racial pity pot and do something with your life.
Um….when did I say I didn’t get into a state school? I got into several. One, I did not get into….and it had nothing to do with race, but the politics surrounding that school. People much cleverer than me, (and no doubt, your own ignorant ass) haven’t gotten into that university, and it has been confirmed and advertised that there is a clout list for that university and that admissions are based more on your connections and money than anything else.
But then again, I complained about SOMETHING unjust and your response is ‘SEE, LOOK AT THE BLACK PEOPLE COMPLAINING ABOUT WHITE PEOPLE’ when it really is an issue and you just have a chip on your god damned shoulder the size of Texas.
Did BD really rename himself Polyanna? If so, how cute. I can’t remember other people really going after me on these boards, and surely few that know where I live (CREEEEEPY).
And Syd, don’t fret. Just some weirdo troll.
If you go back in read it…
“And so now, in 2009, Mattel is proud to announce a line of dolls that aren’t just white Barbie dyed black, but have wider noses, fuller lips, stronger cheekbones, a range of darker skin tones and curlier hair.”
The did have a black Barbie. But it was the same mold as the white, blond Barbie so there weren’t any distinct ethnic features other than the skin color.
Exactly. There were just glorified Barbies who spent too much time in the tanning booth…after putting on tanning lotion.
And if I remember correctly, the Black Barbie’s name was Christy or Chrissy. Something like that.
so are you saying that black people can’t have small noses, thin lips, cheekbones?
not all white women looked like barbie either. the thing about barbie is that it set an unrealistic standard for ALL women.
i don’t understand why this turned into a race thing.
No I’m not! Read my reply to Xenu. NOT EVERY SINGLE BLACK PERSON ON THIS EARTH has defined cheekbones, big lips and flat noses
BUT…
We DO consistently HAVE them more than White people. We’re Black. It’s just a big part of our genetic make-up. Just like having darker skin, we’re going to have fuller lips, higher cheekbones and flatter noses.
I mean, look at is this way. When FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGISTS are identifying the race of a skeleton right off the bat at the crime scene or umarked grave, the FIRST markers they look for are the nasal bones and the arches of the Zygomatic bone in relation to the Maxilla.
Normal speak? How flat the nasal bones tells the shape of the nose and the zygomatic bone in relation to the maxilla shows how high the cheekbones arch. It’s just one of those things that are done right away at the scene, then more studying is needed, but still, it’s used and it’s a very accurate way to make a good guess.
That’s the point.
Don’t try to white-wash the issue. (No pun intended). It’s not turning into a “race issue” They are basically just making dolls that actually LOOK more like African Americans. That’s all. No need to make a fuss. If the can SLANT the eyes of the Asian Barbie (which they have done from the start) they can give a black Barbie a flat nose.
Just my opinion.
Face it, no white women look like the original Barbie.
Actually, no one looks like any of those dolls, Skipper included.
I was never into Barbies either….just Power Rangers, Ninja Turtles, and X-Men for me. But I did always find Ken’s absence of genitalia weird. Not to mention Barbie’s lack of nipples.
I used to draw the nipples on. But all my barbies and kens had these built on, plastic underwear. I guess they were never nudes.
How weird.
I owned one black Barbie that I got for my birthday when they made WMBA Barbie and I legitimately never realized that she was just a normal barbie dyed black.
I need to go dig her out of my basement.
I don’t think I had any black barbies but I wouldn’t have realized either. I grew up in a town with one token black guy and there were no black women. I must have seen some black women on TV and such but not enough that I would have noticed different facial features I’ll bet.
I’m sorry, but to the HAVE to be so urban? Such heavy make up? Yes, It’s about time but why play into the ‘ghetto’ stereotypes?
Erm—have you seen white Barbie’s makeup?
Technically, Christi (one of Mattrel’s other black Barbies) got her ‘own’ facial mold in 1990, in the sense that it had -slightly- more African American features.
Starting in 1990, she featured the ‘Shani’ headmold, something I’ve only found mentioned in backroom, er, collector’s sites.
Previous to that, she had Barbie’s face, and occasionally the Hispanic/Spanish face, all simply printed with darker plastic.
Here’s some great shots of various African American Barbie heads, on a great site… sadly, some of them are quite ‘blackface’. However, many try to create more varied features, to varying degrees of success, in my humble opinion:
http://www.kattisdolls.net/faces/bethnic.htm (The Princess of Africa doll (2001) is intended to be African, rather than African American, but god she’s gorgeous.)
http://www.kattisdolls.net/faces/christie.htm
I recommend browsing the rest of this site, especially the faces by mold, if you’re interested in this at all. It’s semi-interesting to see who they recolored into what :D
First off, I think this news is 30 or so years late. ‘Black Barbie’ has been around for several decades. Kudos for making her look more like a black person, BUT (see point the third).
Second, when the hell did Barbie’s black friend change her name to ‘Grace?’ It was Christy or something like that when I still played with Barbies, which was not so long ago.
THIRD, this is not a step in the right direction at all for race relations. Had they just made Grace, Christy, BlackBarbie, or whatever the fuck her name was more believably black, maybe expanded her into more of the Barbie lines (as a kid, my ‘normal’ Barbies, such as Veteranarian, Cheerleader, or whatever were black, but it’s hard to find them as Mermaid, Fairy, or whatever, if they make them at all), that would have been fine, but to to say ‘Black Barbie no longer hangs out with white, Hispanic, and Asian Barbies and went and made some black friends and now they have to have their own separate lines? Because like I said, black Barbie (who’s name isn’t Grace, I refuse to believe that) already existed, and she did have little sisters and a boyfriend….I owned the black ‘Stacy’ counterpart, in fact! She was my first Barbie, I believe, which means she’s been around since at LEAST the early 90s. This doesn’t do a damn thing for race relations except set it back fifty years. Did Black Barbie need a blackifying makeover? Sure. Did black Barbie need to move far away from blonde Barbie and learn her place and make black friends? Yeah, I don’t see how that helps anything, except maybe imply to little black girls that they should learn their place and stay far far away from all the white, Hispanic, and Asian girls, and to instead make ONLY black friends.
I don’t really get why this is such a big deal. People really need to calm down and take it easy. I loved Barbies when I was a kid, I used to have 94 of them! And yes, I don’t remember having any black barbie.. but we’re making such a big deal about this when it’s not. We should focus on making realistic Barbies, not skinny blonde bitches who look absolutely perfect. That’s what we should teach our kids. Or maybe we should focus on poberty, hunger, and issues more important than this.
I want a Lady GAGA Hermie Barbie. It’s racist that there isn’t one.
hmm… you write:
Barbie doll that actually looks black, rather than implying to young black girls that button noses are the only way to be beautiful.
Do you mean to imply that white chicks need to have button noses to be beautiful? Cos I don’t have one, but then again, I’m a ginger with freckles.. I never felt that I had to look like barbie cos I knew I was never gonna.
Good point. Also, I’m half black….and I have the teeniest, most button nose of anyone I know of any race! On the flip side of the coin, is new black Barbie telling me that I am NOT beautiful with a button nose? (For the record, I am thinking of most of the all-white girls I know, and most of them have huge honkers…..the only other adorable button noses I can think of are on one white girl, another half-black girl, and a few Asian girls) I did want Barbie’s HAIR when I was little, but at five or six, who actually EXPECTS that they’ll look like Barbie? I was just thinking that Barbie was going to pt on her big poofy pink dress and then go fly to the land of the Fairy People.
good for them
the only point is that they are roughly 10 years o more late
now girls prefer Bratz or other toys
Anyway,I am not sad for the slow death of Barbie/Mattel
Well… I’m not sure what to say because i’m afraid i’m gonna sound stupid… But my daughter collects Barbies, she’s been doing that since she was 2 years old.. Now she’s 6, and she’s got over 200.. At least 50 of them are black… And i have never ever seen an asian barbie.. Ever… So i’m not quite sure what’s this all about, since she’s got black barbies for a long time now… I don’t understand how this is new… But maybe there’s something more to it that i’m missing.. So i was afraid to sound stupid.. But there ya go…..
This is new because it’s the first time there’ve been any Barbies that have features we typically associate with “African Americans”.
And I’m sure, as some people have them, that there ARE some asian Barbies…somewhere.
I found an article about the mysterious absence of the Asian Barbie. It’s from 2000, but I think it probably still applies pretty well.
http://www.seattlepi.com/lifestyle/barb27.shtml
Something I always did wonder….I had many white and black dolls as a kid, and a few Hispanic ones, but I never owned an Asian doll, and only saw ‘Kira’ once or twice in stores at all. I really want an Asian baby doll (for totally politically incorrect reasons, interestingly) but it’s pretty hard to find a cheap one. I’d say at Target, 75% of the dolls are white, the rest, black. Once in a while, there is a Hispanic one. Never Asian.
Go to Chinatown genius.
Because there’s a huge Chinatown in Tucson Arizona.
You have an excuse for everything. BUY IT ON THE DAM INTERNET!
The Asian Barbie my daughter had was a basketball player. We had to search high and low for that doll.
For God’s sake, people, they are dolls.
I had a Holly Hobbie doll when I was little. No one looks like them, either.
Or Strawberry Shortcake or any of them.
I don’t remember thinking I should look like the dolls when I was a little girl, just if I liked the way they looked.
I liked the teeny weeny clothes and shoes on the Barbie dolls and all the different outfits you could get.
Didn’t make me want to dress like that or wear heels.
The width of my barbie’s nose never gave me any complex about my being black, because she’s an effing doll. Neither did having white dolls, I was just happy to have one of each hair color, wasn’t paying attention to the color of their skin. Try teaching your kids to care more about real people, and to not get all up in arms because some toys aren’t racially diverse, and maybe they’ll stop senselessly killing each other in the streets over gang wars.
I can’t believe this conversation, I really can’t. Snipping at each other and accusing people of being in the klan, I mean really? Over barbie? Unbelievable. If you’re reading this go hug your kids, or take a cuppa to your neighbor and have a nice chat. We can change this world by not harassing Mattel over the color of their dolls and focusing more on real people relations, and not waiting for the governments to come along and change it for us. If you are reading this and scoffing, you’re not ready to help, just stay on the internet.
Syd is wallowing in her “Wo is me” version of blackness. Stick around, you’ll see, she sees racial plots all around her. I think her cabbage patch doll gave her brain damage or something.
In want to know what drugs you people have been taking simply because the government needs to be alerted. Your wild conspiracy theories against me are getting tiresome.
so is Gia Polyanna too? This shit is so confusing. Can’t everyone just pick one name and stick with it?
*thumbs up*
can we just stop buying/promoting these hideous dolls, no matter what color they are? thank you.