I was alerted to these toys thanks to Kaylie. Back in the blog about the Vamplets and Skelanimals, she commented on finding these dolls called The Monster High Dolls, which were "the thing to have" over the Christmas season, and even have their own site dedicated to them. This caused me to dig around a little bit further and to my surprise I actually not only found the Monster High Dolls (top right) but when I did a search for "goth Barbie" I actually found gothic Barbie dolls. The punk-rocker Barbie that you see below is part of the Barbie Gold Label Collection, which is selling for anywhere between $70.00-$80.00. Digging even more, I found other "Goth" Barbie dolls. Just by doing a simple image search on google, you come up with dolls that are downright scary. Now, I have to admit, the punk-rocker-Hard-Rock-Cafe Barbie does look pretty cool, but I honestly don't know how to react to these things. I mean, yeah it's a great step forward that things that are well-known in the mainstream are reaching beyond normals borders and picking up on things that used to be strictly left in the underground. But at the same time I have to ask myself "Is this necessarily the best way to go about it?" I mean, the punk-rock Barbie is only available to a limited few (a.k.a. people who have money to throw away on dolls) and isn't really targeted towards kids at all. It's meant to stay perfectly packaged up and on a shelf. Not that I ever understood the concept of having dolls you can't play with in the first place anyway. But even with the Monster High Dolls, it still gives a skewed perception of the goth world. Goths don't go around every day dressing like that and most definitely aren't going to wear super-low-cut shirts and skimpy shorts and skirts. Maybe I'm just not savvy enough about the toy-industry today, but that's not exactly the image I would personally want portrayed about a lifestyle I've lived for almost half my life. But it's like I said, it's one of those instances where you have to say, "I appreciate the effort and all, but this isn't the best way to go about it. Could you go back to the drawing board and come up with something a little more realistic?" What do you guys think?
I think Gothic Barbie is a fail.
ReplyDeleteI think that the Monster High Dolls are a big fail also, but they are at least a bit more appealing than this.
It is a bit of a slap in the face to what you guys are all about.
I appreciate the effort put forth by the Barbie brand, but you're right. It needs to be more realistic.
I mean, I would never see this and think "Oh, that reminds me of Rin."
My actual reaction was, "WTF?"
Well, in some ways, isn't Barbie all about a look anyway? The doll in the picture suits that purpose.
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