Queering Barbie

Friday night I flipped through the stations of my newly purchased cable, trying desperately to find something that would peak my attention for longer than 3 minutes. It's damn hard to do so. ("They" should rate television shows by how much I like them, I'm just saying...) Often I start to watch a show that may look inviting, either by the title, ratings or initial description and then I find out that the show annoys me for varying reasons. Sometimes its the poor acting, often its ridiculous story-lines or mostly its that shows are a bore or that they are disturbingly oppressive. Maybe that's why I hate that unreasonable beast of burden so much. I detest the media, I won't say I can't live without the 75 sports stations I have and reality tv is an abomination. To top it off, in order to enjoy these deadening life portrayals, "we" as consumers must consume the massive corporate commercials that employ the network and keep profit margins large. They exploit our brains at the cost of our societies ethics and morales. Perpetuating biased unrealistic stereotypes and depicting unethical people who would do anything in the name of a product.

Friday night, while I was actually working on a project, I decided I needed some background noise to keep me stimulated. I sat there willingly participating in this process (manufactured consent well at work), I rested the remote for a moment to continue working and because frankly I was tired of flipping through stations of nothing. I landed on a commercial for Wedding Day Barbie. I watched intensely as two little girls walked Barbie and Ken down the aisle. It was Barbie's dream come true, it was complete with flower girls and even a wedding cake. The last 2 seconds showed a close up of the two little girls pushing the plastic lips of Ken together with the plastic lips of Barbie. -Wait let me reiterate TWO LITTLE GIRLS HAVING THEIR DOLLS MAKE OUT!!! Instantly I began to wonder if somehow this relates to the culture of fear being circulated currently around gay marriage by pushing heteronormative relationships. In all of my years, from the time that I was a wee lad until now, I don't think I've seen a commercial for Barbie where she was getting married...and I especially have never seen little girls so blatantly pushing the heterosexual norm in my face. In all fairness...this could be an innocent attempt to sell a doll to little girls...but I've got to be a little critical. It's plausible that this commercial is only a millionth of a percentage of the media persuasion that is being propagated by those who want to maintain the status quo. Those who fear change...who fear the lgbtq community and who will seek every means possible to pervade the subconscious minds of children with their agenda. They'll deny the fact that gay men and women exist regardless of "societies normative rules" and they'll continue to try and sexually repress.

The other thing I began to wonder is "Why isn't there a Queer Barbie?" What about Butch Barb? or Gay Kenneth? Or Drag Queen Skipper? Maybe what Mattel isn't realizing is that there is an entire market out there ready for that kind of change. I wonder what would happen. Would Religious Fundamentalists picket the Mattel corp? Would Right Wing Conservies respond in an uproar? Would Barbies be burned in the streets? I also wondered why I thought that it might be inappropriate at first for children to own "Queer Barbies"- then I realized why. Even though I am aware and believe that homosexuality is not deviant, I have been taught subconsciously and consciously by the world to think that anything gay is bad, and if it is accepted it is **FOR ADULT USE ONLY**! All the while heterosexual couples are allowed to dominate our culture. At the same time other social injustices are deemed acceptable, for example forms of physical and mental violence are deemed okay and inflicted daily on at least a quarter of the world's population. How would the world respond if Mattel introduced "Rambo Barbie", hyped up on steroids, dressed in torn camo and ready to kill her enemies? Maybe that option is one to be desired!!!