Doll Culture

Question 1

Barbie as Stubbornly White

Answer 1

White skin privilege and White Supremacist patriarchy, she is the ‘dominant ethnicity’ she represents whiteness and spreads it throughout society, everyone is forced to learn about whiteness. Even when black Barbie is introduced she is “Coloured Francie” the exact same doll with dark skin… why is she labelled coloured.

Question 2

Main Point of “Can the Subaltern Shop?” By Guerrero

Answer 2

Barbies/Bratz and various other dolls serve as narratives of race for little girls, they normalize whiteness and turn race into “others” or “exotic” fetishes. Despite all the problems Bratz have begun to represent race so that at least young girls can see that whiteness does not necessarily equal ideal.

Question 3

What “social imaginaries” (a term we’re taking from Gail Guthrie Valaskakis) are produced and reproduced in the world of Barbie? What social imaginaries are produced and reproduced in the world of Bratz?

Answer 3

Barbie is white (supremacy), created by a capitalist corporation who exploits it’s workers, represents the ideal body for men (represents desire, ideal femininity: independence, fashion, beauty, success, happiness, fantasy) –> no aspects of conflict, problems, struggle: false utopia, make believe world is white, associates whiteness with perfection

Question 4

Naturalization of Whiteness

Answer 4

Representation in media, school, society depict mostly white people which makes it seem the norm, little girls become encultured as all they see as ‘successful’ and who they look up to is a white women → Never just different always different from…

Question 5

Doll culture as “whitewashed”

Answer 5

Portraying the ideal woman as white, since all representations that young girls see are white they are slowly enculturated into white culture and perceive whiteness as ideal, want to be/behave “white” because they idolize Barbie.

Question 6

“Hip Alterity” of Bratz

Answer 6

towards hipness, modern alternative (offered as alternative to barbie - don’t play with Barbie’s and Bratz at the same time), race is seen as “otherness” which is mysterious and “hip” because it is different

Question 7

Native Informant Tour Guides

Answer 7

“Street-cred” culture with which the line is imbued creates a kind of tourist opportunity of the exotic urban imaginary space, as well as racial identities in that space without the messiness of urban reality and without having to leave the suburbs. → Allowing girls to explore race & “play the exotic” through the dolls separate from it’s reality, many of these girls’ racial and urban imaginary comes solely from these dolls. Can also play in foreign and “primitive” landscapes as Bratz go to Tokyo, Africa etc… Exotic locations that fetishize race

Question 8

Bratz as an alternative to Barbie

Answer 8

Produced in response to Barbies, they are the anti-Barbie. A modern alternative that is more “fun” and rebellious (rejects Barbie’s nice/girl next doorness)

• Redefining what it means to be powerful, feminine & fashionable
• Wide variety of girls that represent a wide variety of femininities = variety of skin tones > these things are deployed in order to be read as mixed race

Question 9

Representations of Race

Answer 9

‘hip’ and ‘other’, racial difference is made visible and beautiful, race is a form of fashion: it is chosen & something you wear, you can be racialized or not.

Question 10

Race as a style or accessory

Answer 10

Race exists in a social and political vacuum where the dolls can inherit ‘hipness’ without incurring actual costs of race in the real world, deployed as a personal style rather than as a set of socially constructed categories used to regulate people

Question 11

Reliance on racial stereotypes to signify race

Answer 11

Asian doll has narrower eyes, these things immediately convey race to society, Race is indicated not only through skin tone, but through urban hip edginess of the dolls (otherness of the dolls) – no ponies, castle, ferrari: street clothes

Question 12

Does Barbie Signify race?

Answer 12

Mattel did not create a new mold (new face, body) just use diff hair color and skin color.. Keep hair same(long straight hair)

Question 13

Barbie’s Appeal

Answer 13

It’s the associations with the body that appeal to us, not the body (we don’t love Barbie’s figure we love what it means) –> Consider what Barbie stands for

Question 14

4 Spaces of Inquiry into Doll Culture (Guerrero)

Answer 14

1. ) Paradoxical Investment in Racial Identities
2. ) Interrogates Gender & Sexual Politics of the Line
3. ) Influence of Materialism and Commodity Culture on the look, feel & appeal of the line
4. ) Exoticization of the line