Leather, Fishnets, Tattoos, and Barbie

Luckily Barbie has come a long way since the Bild Lilli days mentioned in the previous post. She's no longer scantily clad and suggestive like her predecesser doll was. Barbie has definitely left the sexual promiscuity thing behind...



Well, wait, except for maybe the new collector's Barbie, fondly referred to as the "S&M Barbie."

This is the 1950's-60's Bild Lilli doll

And below is the 2008 Black Canary "S&M Barbie"





There's an odd resemblence between the 1950's-60's sex doll Bild Lilli and the Barbie doll released in 2008. In fact, these dolls are almost identical.

 Not only are both dolls dressed like prostitutes, but they both began as over-sexualized comic strip/book characters. The S&M Barbie is justified by Mattel because it is a recreation of DC Comic super heroine Black Canary. Mattel aptly describes her outfit on their website as a signature black leather body suit and patterened tights. Come on Mattel, cut the euphemisms. Those tights are fishnets like you see hookers wearing on the street corner, and that leather underwear does not have enough material to qualify as a "bodysuit."




To Black Canary Barbie's defense, she is not intended as a children's toy. She is marketed as an adult toy or collector's item. But that does not guarantee that she won't make it into the hands of children.





So if S&M Barbie isn't meant to be a children's toy, let's talk about a Barbie that is supposed to be appropriate for children.


In April 2009, Mattel released "Totally Stylin Tattoos" Barbie, and "Totally Stylin Tattoos Nikki", the brunette version.


Not surprisingly, parents slammed Tattoo Barbie with complaints. In fact, this is actually Mattel's second time trying to market tattoos to kids. In 1999 Mattel released "Butterfly Art Barbie" which was also a tattoo-able Barbie but was pulled from shelves four months later due to compaints from parents.

Don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against tattoos. However, I do think there is a problem when children's good pal Barbie is advocating tramp stamps with men's names in the middle of hearts.



Does that say independence and girl power to you? It says "I'm Ken's bitch" to me. Children don't need to get the idea that they should be so devoted to men that they should get his name tattooed on their body. Mattel has openly defended the tattoos as "a way for children to express themselves and be creative." Somehow I don't find "I love Ken tatoos" to foster anything other than the idea of female submission to her male counterpart.


And wait, aren't girls supposed to love themselves as they are, instead of covering up their own skin? This seems like another way Mattel is telling girls they're not ok the way they look right now.





Once again, Mattel, stop marketing values to kids. There's a reason why the first tattoo Barbie got booed off the shelves. Kids might not fully understand you're marketing ideas that are sexualized or suggestive through Barbie dolls, but parents do and they don't like them. You should try listening to your consumers and stop pushing Barbies into the hands of kids when most parents don't even find them appropriate.