The Barbie chronicles : a living doll turns forty / edited Yona Zeldis McDonough.
Publisher: New York : Touchstone, [1999]Copyright date: ©1999. Description: 240 pages : illustrations (black and white) ; 22 cmContent type: text Media type: unmediated Carrier type: volume001: 27272ISBN: 9780684862750Subject(s): Popular culture | Barbie dolls--History | Mattel toysDDC classification: 796.1 MCDItem type | Current library | Collection | Call number | Copy number | Status | Date due | Barcode | |
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Book | MAIN LIBRARY Book | 796.1 MCD (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | 1 | Available | 111057 |
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Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
A fascinating and poignant collection of twenty essays and five poems exploring Barbie's forty years of hateful, lovely, disastrous, glorious influence on us all from award-winning authors such as Jane Smiley, Meg Wolitzer, and Carol Shields.
To some she's a collectible, to others she's trash. Since her creation in 1959 by Ruth Handler, Barbie has become a worldwide icon and an extremely divisive topic. To some she represents an inspiration to young girls, to others she has only wreaked havoc on feminist progress. No other tiny shoulders have ever had to carry the weight of such affection and derision, and no other book has ever paid this notorious little place of plastic her due.
The twenty-three authors who contributed to this book--including Meg Wolitzer, Jane Smiley, Carol Shields, Anna Quindlen, and Ann duCille--explore how Barbie has affected their lives, and delve into the numerous controversies Barbie has faced over past decades and the complex issues of race and conformity in the toy industry.
Whether you adore her or abhor her, The Barbie Chronicles will have you looking at her in ways you never imagined.
Table of contents provided by Syndetics
- Introduction
- Who's That Girl?
- Golden Oldie
- Dangerous Curves
- Barbie Buys a Bra
- Elegy for My Mother
- Teen Idol
- Leslie Paris
- Barbie Meets Bouguereau
- Barbie's Body Project
- Wendy Singer Jones
- Sex and the Single Doll
- Yona Zeldis McDonough
- Happy Birthday to You!
- Barbie at 35
- Anna Quindlen
- My Mentor, Barbie
- Barbie in Black and White
- Barbie Does Yom Kippur
- Rabbi Susan Schnur
- Postmodern Muse
- Photographing the Dolls
- Jeanne Marie Beaumont
- Of Mere Plastic
- Planning the Fantasy
- Wedding
- Holocaust Barbie
- Barbie's Gyn Appointment
- Material Girl
- Barbie Gets a Bum Rap
- Our Daughters, Their Barbies
- I Believe in Dolls
- You Can Never Have
- Too Many
- Barbie Doesn't Live Here
- Anymore
- Barbie, Twelve-Step Toy
- Twelve Dancing BarbiesErica Jong
- Barbie as Boy
- Notes and References
- Contributors
- Index
Excerpt provided by Syndetics
Reviews provided by Syndetics
Library Journal Review
No longer just a child's plaything, "Barbie has become an icon and a fetishÄto some angelic, to others depraved." In honor of Barbie's 40th birthday, McDonough (Tying the Knot) has collected 20 stories and five poems in one volume: Steven Dubins's essay on Barbie's origins as a German pornographic doll; Jane Smiley on Barbie's "genius," which took girls from big hairdos and pink jeans to women's self-knowledge and rights; Anna Quindlen on her desire to "drive a stake through Barbie's plastic heart"; and a lots of essays with priceless titles ("Barbie Does Yom Kippor" and "Sex and the Single Doll"). Speaking largely to today's 30- to 45-year-olds, the varying intellectual and emotional perspectives here make for an engaging blend of idiosyncratic remarks and in-depth social commentary. Comparable in its irreverent style to Adios, Barbie: Young Women Write About Body Images and Identity (Seal Pr.-Feminist,1998); recommended for public and academic libraries.ÄKay Meredith Dusheck, Univ. of Iowa, Anamosa (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.Publishers Weekly Review
Since her birth at the hands of Ruth and Elliot Handler in 1959, Barbie has been decried for her bad influence on girls' self-esteem and become the object of praise for her ability to elevate girls' play beyond baby dolls and kitchen sets. Though she's only a molded hunk of plastic, Barbie has wielded a curious amount of power over the last 40 years. McDonough (Tying the Knot) attempts to present differing points of view about Barbie, but the overall tone is one of admiration, even from the doll's critics. Anna Quindlen wistfully imagines driving a silver lam stake between Barbie's perfect breasts, while Ann duCille discusses issues of race and conformity, positioning Barbie at the center of what's wrong with the doll section of toy stores. Other essayists strike a gentler tone: Jane Smiley, Erica Jong, Carol Shields and Steve Dubin see the dark side of what the doll could represent to young girls, but recapture the original, guilty delight they felt when posing, defacing and, predominantly, undressing her. This well-chosen group of writers artfully explores the world that created Barbie, the childhood selves the authors remember and the meaning behind one of our era's most controversial pieces of plastic. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reservedKirkus Book Review
A collection of essays, and some poems, about the posable plastic icon at the 40th anniversary of her creation. Everyone has an opinion about the Barbie doll. Created in 1959 by the founders of Mattel (and named for their daughter Barbara), she was the first American-made doll to represent the world beyond the nursery, and if her proportions are unreal, her influence on millions of little girls, as well as on popular culture, is indisputable. McDonough, whose 1997 essay in the New York Times Magazine was the jumping off point for this book (and who is a former Kirkus contributor), has herein gathered a diverse and mostly talented group of writers to celebrate, denigrate, and otherwise explain what Barbie has come to stand for in American society. Exemplifying as it did the conflicted mores of the late 1950s, with her body that, while obviously sexual, lacks nipples or genitals, the creation of the Barbie doll also coincided with the second wave of feminism and the surge of the civil rights movement. The best essays in this collection discuss Barbie as seen through the lenses of sexuality, gender, and race. In ``Barbie Meets Bouguereau,'' Carol Ockman places Barbie's body in context of other idealized notions of feminine beauty. In ``Black Like Me,'' Ann duCille explores the Mattel company's many attempts to create Barbie dolls of color and realizes that the message of their packaging, meant to convey black pride, ``is clearly tied to bountiful hair, lavish and exotic clothes, and other external signs of beauty, wealth, and success.'' Sherrie Inness points out that Barbie alone, in contrast to other dolls on the market, represents independent single women and their diverse career options. Good, bad, or indifferent, there's obviously still fun to be had in playing with Barbie dolls. (8 pages b&w photos, not seen)There are no comments on this title.