{"id":1887,"date":"2010-05-23T17:40:24","date_gmt":"2010-05-23T22:40:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlwpen.com\/?p=1887"},"modified":"2010-05-23T17:40:24","modified_gmt":"2010-05-23T22:40:24","slug":"beyond-pink-blue-taking-barbie-to-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/2010\/05\/23\/beyond-pink-blue-taking-barbie-to-work\/","title":{"rendered":"BEYOND PINK & BLUE: Taking Barbie to Work"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently, the Barbie.com website became a polling place where participants could vote on what the legendary doll\u2019s next career move should be. <\/span>Toymakers at Mattel offered five choices for its new \u201cI Can Be\u201d Barbie: <\/span>architect, anchorwoman, computer engineer, environmentalist, and surgeon. <\/span>Girls overwhelmingly favored the \u201cNews Anchor Barbie\u201d\u2014whose glamorous get-up (tulip skirt, pink velvet jacket, black camisole, high heels, and cordless microphone) draws more inspiration from American Idol than it does from Katie Couric\u2019s nightly wardrobe. I didn\u2019t see Surgeon Barbie\u2019s proposed garb, but I\u2019d bet that her lab coat lacked a certain glitz factor. Of the five career options, anchorwoman fits most snugly within the media-and-entertainment realm that saturates kids\u2019 fantasy lives. <\/span>Newscaster Barbie\u2019s popularity among girls is hardly a shocker. <\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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In a surprising twist, however, the computer engineer beat the anchorwoman in the popular vote. <\/span>But it wasn\u2019t because girls vouched for her. <\/span>Rather, a vocal group of adult female computer engineers launched an online campaign to lure voters\u2014parents included\u2014to elect the leggy lady with the pink laptop. <\/span>\u201cPlease help us in getting Barbie to get her Geek on!\u201d they appealed. <\/span>Their campaign worked. <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Mattel did its best to glam-up Engineer Barbie\u2019s attire, which includes \u201cgeek-chic glasses,\u201d black leggings, a Bluetooth headset, and sporty yet sensible pink shoes. <\/span>But while real-life girls love electronic gadgets, most don\u2019t seem to aspire to high-tech careers themselves. <\/span>Or, at least, they don\u2019t take a shine to a doll that does. <\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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In the end, Mattel decided to play to both constituencies, and announced plans to manufacture the top two winners in the coming months. <\/span>But let\u2019s take a step back for a minute. <\/span>Does it really matter what career path Barbie takes? <\/span>Do toys really influence girls\u2019 future aspirations? <\/span>Clearly, women engineering professionals think they can.\u00a0 According to Ann Zimmerman of the Wall Street Journal<\/span> (who reported in the April 9, 2010 issue): “Why grown women felt so strongly about having themselves represented by a doll\u2014especially onethat feminists have always loathed\u2014speaks volumes both about the power of the iconic Barbie doll and the current state of women who work in computer and information sciences. <\/span>Their ranks have declined in the past two decades. <\/span>In 2008, women received only 18% of computer science degrees, down from 37% in 1985, according to the National Center for Women & Information Technology.”<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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In the early 1970s, when role models for girls in male-dominated professions were sorely lacking, proponents of gender equality successfully lobbied toy makers and educational publishers to design products depicting diverse career options for girls. <\/span>They strongly believed that early play experiences would make a difference in kids\u2019 future aspirations<\/span>.\u00a0 So they worked actively to shape the material culture of childhood. <\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Back then, Barbie was so anathema to feminists that it would never have occurred to them to collaborate with Mattel. <\/span>But times have changed. <\/span>Over the past three decades, commercial toymakers have perfected their absorption and co-optation of liberal feminist ideals; Barbie\u2019s latest career makeover is just one recent example. <\/span>So today, many women\u2019s groups are apt to adopt the strategy: \u201cif you can\u2019t beat \u2018em, join \u2018em.\u201d <\/span>We can interpret these Barbie dolls as \u201ccompromise formations\u201d (to use an old grad-school phrase) because they represent an uneasy combination of traditionally feminine beauty standards with forward-thinking advocacy to enhance women\u2019s economic and professional status. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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With these Barbie dolls in our daughters\u2019 playrooms, are we on solid footing, or shaky ground? <\/span>Will the new Computer Engineer Barbie help reverse the decline of women in high-tech careers? <\/span>We don\u2019t know. <\/span>But real surgeons\u2014and I\u2019d bet most computer programmers\u2014don\u2019t wear stilettos to the workplace. <\/span>It\u2019s too bad that Barbie dolls still have to. <\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently, the Barbie.com website became a polling place where participants could vote on what the legendary doll\u2019s next career move should be. Toymakers at Mattel offered five choices for its new \u201cI Can Be\u201d Barbie: architect, anchorwoman, computer engineer, environmentalist, and surgeon. Girls overwhelmingly favored the \u201cNews Anchor Barbie\u201d\u2014whose glamorous get-up (tulip skirt, pink velvet […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1925,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21095],"tags":[2721,21351,21395,4374,21926],"class_list":["post-1887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beyond-pink-and-blue","tag-femininity","tag-feminist-history","tag-girls","tag-parenting","tag-womens-history"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1925"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1887\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}