So what is my beef with Barbie? Is it just that she doesn't have any? Let's be honest as a young woman it's easy to hate the b*tch with her effortlessly flowing blonde hair, perfect boobs, endless legs and minuscule waist but my frustration with Barbie is a little heavier than just her weight! It's the infamous ideal of perfection that we've all come to expect from Barbie Culture, the plastic not so bloody fantastic!
As a child I was a boisterous borderline tomboy, even though I undenyably had a Barbie she won't have kept her head on for long but that doesn't mean her image of perceived perfection went unnoticed. As an impressionable five year old I no doubt thought that the most glamorous way to live life would be with an eighteen inch waist, flawless skin and glamour model boobs. As a teenager I fought tooth and nail to achieve this ideal as it simply didn't seem ok to be pale and interesting. It particularly didn't feel ok to have anything over an eighteen inch waist, even though in reality a lot of women would struggle to maintain an eighteen inch thigh! However much you airbrush the argument, for me having these ideals meant one thing, borderline starvation. Sadly borderline starvation coupled with teenage angst and confusion don't make for a happy marriage! Luckily the older I got the quicker creativity obliterated my delusions of Barbie but with forty percent of nine year olds reportedly being unhappy with their looks, the problem lives on.
For all of the above and for the fact that Barbie seems to exist solely to serve two purposes, representing Bimbohood and for Ken to play with, designing a print that Crucifies Barbie seemed long overdue! I'm not going to lie, as sad as it sounds a lot of fun was to be had crucifying plastics, especially when it came to shooting the look book on Sunset Boulevard. Posing and dodging traffic seemed a fast track way to literally crucify Barbie, who on this occasion was myself complete with Dolly-wood Bustle!
(Madame Allsorts wearing Crucified Doll Bustle)
As far as this blog post goes Barbie seems to be taking a lot of the heat, this feels appropriate as for most this is where the problem starts but the message certainly doesn't end at the foot of this specific kids doll, it encapsulates any image and body stereotypes that appear aspirational. As a designer I think it's really important to provide the message that it's aspirational to be content in your own skin and to also offer something that cuts a little deeper than just what's visual. I'm not suggesting all kids should aspire to look like Cabbage Patch Dolls but I'd happily fight to get individuality celebrated in classrooms! I appreciate that the creative world's have evolved to the place where some minorities are being celebrated but there are days where I still feel like I'm drowning in a sea of clichés and I fear one day I'm going to wake up to the news that the English Channel has turned orange due to all the fake tan that the cast of TOWIE are omitting!
(Crucified Doll T-Shirt by Madame Allsorts Couture)
To find out more about Madame Allsorts Crucified Doll Collection visit www.madameallsorts.com Reported by Huffington Post 10 hours ago.
As a child I was a boisterous borderline tomboy, even though I undenyably had a Barbie she won't have kept her head on for long but that doesn't mean her image of perceived perfection went unnoticed. As an impressionable five year old I no doubt thought that the most glamorous way to live life would be with an eighteen inch waist, flawless skin and glamour model boobs. As a teenager I fought tooth and nail to achieve this ideal as it simply didn't seem ok to be pale and interesting. It particularly didn't feel ok to have anything over an eighteen inch waist, even though in reality a lot of women would struggle to maintain an eighteen inch thigh! However much you airbrush the argument, for me having these ideals meant one thing, borderline starvation. Sadly borderline starvation coupled with teenage angst and confusion don't make for a happy marriage! Luckily the older I got the quicker creativity obliterated my delusions of Barbie but with forty percent of nine year olds reportedly being unhappy with their looks, the problem lives on.
For all of the above and for the fact that Barbie seems to exist solely to serve two purposes, representing Bimbohood and for Ken to play with, designing a print that Crucifies Barbie seemed long overdue! I'm not going to lie, as sad as it sounds a lot of fun was to be had crucifying plastics, especially when it came to shooting the look book on Sunset Boulevard. Posing and dodging traffic seemed a fast track way to literally crucify Barbie, who on this occasion was myself complete with Dolly-wood Bustle!
(Madame Allsorts wearing Crucified Doll Bustle)
As far as this blog post goes Barbie seems to be taking a lot of the heat, this feels appropriate as for most this is where the problem starts but the message certainly doesn't end at the foot of this specific kids doll, it encapsulates any image and body stereotypes that appear aspirational. As a designer I think it's really important to provide the message that it's aspirational to be content in your own skin and to also offer something that cuts a little deeper than just what's visual. I'm not suggesting all kids should aspire to look like Cabbage Patch Dolls but I'd happily fight to get individuality celebrated in classrooms! I appreciate that the creative world's have evolved to the place where some minorities are being celebrated but there are days where I still feel like I'm drowning in a sea of clichés and I fear one day I'm going to wake up to the news that the English Channel has turned orange due to all the fake tan that the cast of TOWIE are omitting!
(Crucified Doll T-Shirt by Madame Allsorts Couture)
To find out more about Madame Allsorts Crucified Doll Collection visit www.madameallsorts.com Reported by Huffington Post 10 hours ago.