Monday, November 22, 2004

Barbie, The Fairy Tale, and Socio-Economic Class Division

I like cartoons, so I'm frequently inundated with ads for toys and sugary breakfast cereals under the assumption that I'm a five year old. Recently I have been seeing a lot of ads for the new Barbie Princess and the Pauper dolls.
In addition to the dvds, talking cats, and various playsets to be truly outfited you must buy two dolls, the Princess and the Pauper (true, a construction of Twain's but certainly fits nicely into the fairy tale canon). The dolls are supposed to be identical twins, but since all barbie dolls are made from pretty much the same mold, that could be said of any two Barbie dolls. The Princess is a blonde, the Pauper a brunette. They both wear beautiful dresses, though the Pauper's features slightly less sparkles.
Both of these dolls are programmed to play a song: The Princess' song is about living her dreams and the Pauper's is about finding her true love. I find it interesting that the Princess is provided the freedom to sing about living her dreams, no doubt because of her privileged economic status. The Pauper dreams about finding a husband to secure that same economic security. Even in our supposedly more feminist society the rich blonde doll always beats the poor brunette doll.

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