Summary
Contents
Subject index
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. Her body is the perfect metaphor of modern times: plastic, st
Introduction
Introduction
Before launching this project, I shared the prospect with a close friend and colleague. Like me, he teaches sociology and is an aficionado of social reality. Imagine my dismay when he urged me not to do the book. His concerns, which were multiple and not unreasonable, revolved around the dismal prospect of yet another work on popular culture that says little about anything else. I took seriously his strong reservations. Indeed, they have guided this effort more than he (or I) will probably ever know.
The more I pondered my friend's misgivings, the more I saw the value of looking in depth at Barbie or any other cultural icon. At its best such an endeavor shows that a single artifact can shed brilliant light on ...
- Loading...