Saturday, October 10, 2009

Mattel introduce New Black Barbies with features and "long hair"


Mattel has released new black barbie dolls that are diverse in skin tones and features.

Barbie designer Stacey McBride-Irby (I'm jealous, BTW) created the "So In Style" line, which has Grace, Kara and Trichelle, with their little sisters Courtney, Janessa and Kianna.

They are cute and I will get my niece one, but some folks are not feeling them.

"Why are we always pushing this standard of long hair on our girls?" asked Gail Parrish, 60, a playwright in Alexandria, Va., and a mother of four grown children. "Why couldn't one of the dolls have a little short afro, or shorter braids or something?"

McBride-Irby said she originally designed all the dolls with long hair. Combing her Barbie's long hair when she was a girl was the "highlight of my play experience," she said. She was advised to create some dolls with curlier hair, so she did.

Black mothers who want their girls to love their natural hair have an uphill battle and these dolls could make it harder," Parks said in an e-mail. Aside from the hair, some black women are concerned about the dolls' thin frames.

Okay, I get that. However, these dolls are creating a new trend and acceptance of our features. The hair thing will always be an issue, but I think Mattel is heading in the right direction.

source

9 comments:

lelocolon said...

Hey I stole Barbies when I was a kid just to play with the hair. I was not allow to play with them because I was a boy, My mom would punish me if she ever saw me with one, and I will steel them and hide them on my closset, go figure, the closet had to be good for something, lol. But I also think that I will be nice to see a designer with cojones to come up with a great doll concept that will include Afros, Bold, Fat Mamas, and Even wheel chairs dolls. That will be so great. To start fucking up with this normalized beauty myth.

great post. thanks

Daddy Squeeze Me! said...

Yes Im happy to see black dolls but I do get the long hair issue!

Christopher said...

This isn't the first time Mattel has tried this. In the early 90's they introduced SHANI and her friends--which I thought looked much nicer than these.

J. Clarence said...

Well I'm excited to see more diversity in the Barbie collection. The hair thing is an issue, but you're right, V, it's at least a step closer in the right direction.

WilsonW said...

barbie has done a lot of black dolls haven't they? And I don't mean the poor brown plastic in the white Barbie mold ones. I could have sworn that they had African Barbies and even celebrity ones like Brandy and Destiny's Child and even Diana Ross. Did none of those have corn rows or Afro's? (Also I think they did International Barbies that had Asian, Latin and so on Barbies) But I agree that it would not have been hard to do a Barbie with shorter hair, even if it was a Halle Berry style cut rather than a mini-fro.

Wonder Man said...

I remember the SHANI line, they had a Soul Train version.

I have the Diana Ross doll and at one time, I had a collection of Christie dolls from the 70s

Mistress Maddie said...

Alright, now don't laugh but I played with dolls when I was young. GASP! A gay man playing with dolls! I know. Anywho, I had three barbies and I remember painting one black once. My mom asked why I ruined my toy and I said I thought Barbie had all kinds of friends, not just white dolls! She started to laugh. I then tried to create a Asian one, but alas it failed! I thought they already had a black Barbie by now. These toy companies need to get up with the times.

Prince Todd said...

I think Mattel has always done a black barbie for every era. These black barbies are designed to have Hip Hop appeal. The hair is what all young hip hop girls wear.
True, I would love to see natural African hair come into vogue (and stay that way...which it sorta is. I see more and more naturals everyday); however, as mentioned previously...These dolls are supposed to be trendy.

I love them!

On the otherhand when I first saw them I was pissed with the little sisters. My first reaction was, "Oh no they DIDN'T make these dolls into baby mamas!" Thankfully that was clarified.

WilsonW said...

But you know what's funny Toddy, everubody that looks at these dolls aytomatically assumes that the little girls are there children and not there little sisters. What does that tell ya?

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Viktor is a small town southern boy living in Los Angeles. You can find him on Twitter, writing about pop culture, politics, and comics. He’s the creator of the graphic novel StrangeLore and currently getting back into screenwriting.