Mg Lord Forever Barbie Analysis

For over 50 years, Barbie has not only existed as a simple child’s plaything, but as a cultural phenomenon; an iconic piece of painted plastic impressed with untold amounts of potential. If you speak to any girl today in her twenties, she will be sure to regale you fondly with tales of the doll from childhood memories. It is easy to interpret how Barbie is marketed, at a foundational level, to promote a societally constructed definition of all things ‘ideally’ feminine, however, what is important to analyze is the way in which people collectively resist those definitions through the doll herself. M.G. Lord, author of Forever Barbie, explains that Barbie transcends the physical feminine ideal, that “she didn’t teach us to nurture, she taught us independence. Barbie was her own woman. She could …show more content…
Upon analyzing several articles discussing how capitalism and consumerism is heavily interwoven with the history of the doll, I elected to ‘put my money where my mouth is’ and alter an actual Barbie doll into a physical representation of my research. Erasing everything that the doll once was except for the classic Barbie logos, I left her completely naked and faceless, quite literally a ‘blank slate.’ Adopting the name “Tabula Rasa Barbie,” the reconstructed packaging is minimalist, painted to resemble a blank chalkboard. On the back of the packaging, I repurposed the Barbie slogan “You Can Be Anything” to remain the same, but with the addition of the word “really” to convey how this ‘new doll’ can be transformed into whatever the owner so chooses. Also on the reverse of the box, I included a brief description of the potential the doll carries as well as a lengthy list of accessory kits which acts to further explore the possibilities that the doll possesses. Moreover, in the spirit of Barbie’s relationship with consumerism, I advertised the kits as ‘sold separately, batteries not