1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910787045203321

Autore

Rand Erica <1958->

Titolo

Barbie's queer accessories / / Erica Rand

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Durham : , : Duke University Press, , 1995

ISBN

0-8223-1620-X

0-8223-9924-5

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (225 p.)

Collana

Series Q

Disciplina

306.76

Soggetti

Sexual orientation - United States

Homosexuality - United States

Barbie dolls - Social aspects

Barbie dolls - Marketing

Popular culture - United States

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (pages [197]-208) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction On Our Backs, in Our Attics, on Our Minds -- Chapter One Making Barbie -- Chapter Two Older Heads on Younger Bodies -- Chapter Three Barbie's Queer Adult Accessories -- Conclusion. On Our Backs, in Our Hands, on Our Broadsides -- Notes -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

She’s skinny, white, and blond. She’s Barbie—an icon of femininity to generations of American girls. She’s also multiethnic and straight—or so says Mattel, Barbie’s manufacturer. But, as Barbie’s Queer Accessories demonstrates, many girls do things with Barbie never seen in any commercial. Erica Rand looks at the corporate marketing strategies used to create Barbie’s versatile (She’s a rapper! She’s an astronaut! She’s a bride!) but nonetheless premolded and still predominantly white image. Rand weighs the values Mattel seeks to embody in Barbie—evident, for example, in her improbably thin waist and her heterosexual partner—against the naked, dyked out, transgendered, and trashed versions favored by many juvenile owners and adult collectors of the doll.Rand begins by focusing on the production and marketing of Barbie, starting in 1959, including Mattel’s numerous tie-ins and spin-offs. These variations, which include the



much-promoted multiethnic Barbies and the controversial Earring Magic Ken, helped make the doll one of the most profitable toys on the market. In lively chapters based on extensive interviews, the author discusses adult testimony from both Barbie "survivors" and enthusiasts and explores how memories of the doll fit into women’s lives. Finally, Rand looks at cultural reappropriations of Barbie by artists, collectors, and especially lesbians and gay men, and considers resistance to Barbie as a form of social and political activism.Illustrated with photographs of various interpretations and alterations of Barbie, this book encompasses both Barbie glorification and abjection as it testifies to the irrefutably compelling qualities of this bestselling toy. Anyone who has played with Barbie—or, more importantly, thought or worried about playing with Barbie—will find this book fascinating.