Recent online visits to Angelic Dreamz and Pink Ponytail Presents made me wonder:
Is it possible for any DOTW Barbie from Ireland to have ANY other hair color BUT red? Are there no blond or brunette Irish lasses? And is "lasses" an offensive term nowadays?
Can DOTW from China wear any other color but RED? Yes, the Mattel dolls from China look lovely in red, but would it KILL them to dress in another color. Just once ...
Do the dolls from Australia HAVE to be blond? Although this one looks interesting - she's not grinning for a change. Please no more Mackies though. I am overrun by Mackies. Especially blond ones.
Suggestion: grab up the Shoe Obsession Barbie ASAP - looks like she actually eats. Or has eaten. She looks as though she has a bit of substance to her. Imagine a fed-looking, healthy Barbie. We'll forgive the fishnet stockings. Okay, I will. Speak for myself, right? Wink.
DOTW Argentina breaks the mold on TWO counts. Can you guess what they are?
6 comments:
There is always a danger of interpreting the other culture. There's always the trap of stereotype and/or exoticism.
It's sooo Mattel to fall for the trap. But who can argue if it sells? It's all about the profit anyways.
Fishnets tend to give an illusion of larger legs. The Shoe Obsession doll looks as thin as most Barbies to me.
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DOTW Argentina seems to be on the older type (Shani?) body. I'm not sure that isn't just the prototype though.
I think Shoe Obsession looks chubbier in the face because they went overboard with the retouching and got rid of her chin altogether. It happens sometimes with celebrity photos when someone inexperienced does the airbrushing :D
You've got it, Niel. Mattel does their interpretation of what a particular culture is - and sometimes they resort to stereotypes like redheaded Irish dolls and brunette Latin American dolls.
(That's why the Argentina DOTW seems to break the expected Mattel look, IMO. She's blond, not brunette. Then she is NOT wearing red - that's another surprise.)
Thanks for that information about fishnet stockings, DBG! Sigh ... rounder Barbie would have been nice.
There are so many Barbie bodies, Alrunia, That's not a complaint, I like some of them, especially the poser ones. The Shani body followed the TNT body. (The TNT used to be the default Barbie body. It has a slightly wider torso than the Shani body does. Therese wrote a post about those body types.)
It would be refreshing to have a doll from Ireland not be a redhead but any reason to introduce a doll with that hair color, Mattel will take the opportunity. If I had a choice to get a doll with any other hair color except blonde, I will do that and I'm a blonde too. Funny, but actually Scotland has more redheads than any other country, including Ireland.
I have a lot of red-haired dolls I love so I'm not against the color. It's just having the Irish doll ALWAYS be red-haired. Sigh, but it is pleasant to have a change from the plethora of blond Barbies. A change from the same old, same old.
(And I'm not against real-life blonds ;-D )
It's cool that Mattel actually has a blond doll for the DOTW Argentina doll. That is a mold-breaker for them. I'm looking forward to seeing her.
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