Barbie Culture
How are images of the body mediated through cultural signs? How does sexual stereotyping work? In what way are these themes bound up in modern consumerism? This book uses one of the most popular accessories of girlhood, the Barbie doll, to explain key aspects of cultural meaning.\ Some readings would see Barbie as reproducing ethnicity and gender in a particularly coarse and damaging way - a cultural icon of racism and sexism. Rogers develops a broader, more challenging picture. She shows how...
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This book uses one of the most popular accessories of childhood, the Barbie doll, to explain key aspects of cultural meaning. Some readings would see Barbie as reproducing ethnicity and gender in a particularly coarse and damaging way - a cultural icon of racism and sexism. Rogers develops a broader, more challenging picture. She shows how the cultural meaning of Barbie is more ambiguous than the narrow, appearance-dominated model that is attributed to the doll. For a start, Barbie's sexual identity is not clear-cut. Similarly her class situation is ambiguous. But all interpretations agree that, with her enormous range of lifestyle 'accessories', Barbie exists to consume.
IntroductionEmphatic Femininity(Hetero)Sexuality and Race in Barbie's WorldChallenged Childhood and Youthful ConsumptionThe Making of an IconPlastic BodiesPlastic Selves
