Ken turned 50 this month. Barbie is older than Ken. In 2009, when Barbie reached 5-0 I started rescuing chewed, green-eared, haircut, forgotten Barbies on eBay and changing each into a 50-year old. We got older, why didn't Barbie? Wrinkles were created with marble dust, rather than life experience. I took off the face paint and repainted more age appropriately. The Barbie pictured here was the Unicef Barbie circa 1989. She had bitten fingers and toes which became arthritic with a little sanding. I gave her a cool haircut and gray hair. I had trouble with one poor doll whose legs were bent. The repair sites told me to plunge her in boiling water, and bend the legs back. I preferred to just give her a cane and tell the story that she needs a knee transplant, but can't afford it. Each doll got reading glasses around her neck, and in her handbag a membership card, proudly proclaiming membership in WWWBY. I didn't get my first Barbie until I was 35, because when I mentioned I'd never had a Barbie to my then husband, he thought I missed having one. I didn't. I appreciated that my mother and grandmother thought the doll was strange gear for a little girl's toybox. But I sure loved every one of the Barbies who weren't born yesterday!
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
For Women Who Weren't Born Yesterday
Ken turned 50 this month. Barbie is older than Ken. In 2009, when Barbie reached 5-0 I started rescuing chewed, green-eared, haircut, forgotten Barbies on eBay and changing each into a 50-year old. We got older, why didn't Barbie? Wrinkles were created with marble dust, rather than life experience. I took off the face paint and repainted more age appropriately. The Barbie pictured here was the Unicef Barbie circa 1989. She had bitten fingers and toes which became arthritic with a little sanding. I gave her a cool haircut and gray hair. I had trouble with one poor doll whose legs were bent. The repair sites told me to plunge her in boiling water, and bend the legs back. I preferred to just give her a cane and tell the story that she needs a knee transplant, but can't afford it. Each doll got reading glasses around her neck, and in her handbag a membership card, proudly proclaiming membership in WWWBY. I didn't get my first Barbie until I was 35, because when I mentioned I'd never had a Barbie to my then husband, he thought I missed having one. I didn't. I appreciated that my mother and grandmother thought the doll was strange gear for a little girl's toybox. But I sure loved every one of the Barbies who weren't born yesterday!
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This is awesome. I'm reposting this everywhere.
ReplyDeleteLinda, Love your Barbies for WWWBY! I think you'd enjoy to have a look at my friend Rich's Switched On" Barbies.
ReplyDeleteRich's Barbies don't know if they are coming or going, and their legs match their situation: one points forward, the other backward.
Their "heads" also light up when they think, but someone else has to flip the switch, because they don't have opposable thumbs! There are some other minute differences between the Switched On Barbies and women in real life if you look closely! ;)