Well, clicking around today I found such an amusing video simply called Barbie Dolls. I can’t find the lyrics to the song, but, here are a few lines:

I’m a barbie girl in a barbie world,
Life in plastic … it’s fantastic,
You can brush my hair,
Undress me everywhere,
Imagination: life is your creation…

As you know, the whole trip with the Barbie phenomenon is a skinny blond girl with a ridiculously narrow waist, perfect button nose, eyes the color of the Mediterranean sea, full lips, flowing blond hair (Prell?) and big perfect boppers (though, you won’t be seeing any nip slip with them lol)… some have argued that this is just the type of idealized (and largely unattainable … via natural means at least… we’ll get into the plastic surgery angle soon enough) image that has lead to a considerable amount of grief and general melancholy… we tend to forget what I have dubbed “generalized melancholy,” but this is a concept that I’m trying to popularize in my new book … the idea of a generalized melancholy is a demeanor found persistent in most of ones waking moments….. one doesn’t necessarily need to suffer from acute depression, anxiety, or a psychological malady/aberration such as an eating disorder to have a chronic minor glumness, and, I will be exploring this on the blog in more detail later, because, it’s a rich, and, I believe, quite accurate concept …

Okay, getting back to why I like this celebrity as barbie doll video …. you see, it presents very serious information (really, a quite serious perspective) in a humorous way… and, that’s just a wonderful way to present an idea! I try to follow a similar approach, and, I hope I succeed (I’m not an angry feminist!) But, I am an academic, so, let’s touch briefly upon the history of the barbie doll before preceding with the video…

Ultimately, the one to indict is Ruth Handler… she conceived of this American icon, which like so many of our icons is totally retarded and damaging. You see, it started off, as so many inventions do with a simple need: thus the chiche, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” Ruth saw her daughter playing with paper dolls, and, naturally, her little daughter would project adult behaviors upon the paper figures… there is a sound and established psychological basis for this which child behaviorists and psychologists discuss.

Anyway, Ruth suggested the idea for an adult doll to her hubbby, who happened to be one of the founders of the Mattel Toy Company (quite convenient I know) … of course, her husband and the rest of Mattel thought it was a lousy idea (this is true!) and, the rest is history…

So, as I was saying, this video makes an interesting point in a fun way. Some of the celebrities that draw Barbie comparisons: Britney Spears, Gwen Stefani, Christine Aguilera, Gena Lee Nolan, Jennifer Ellison, Jessica Simpson, Pamela Anderson, Paris Hilton (I like the picture where she’s eating the hamburger), Sarah Michell Gellar, and Caprice Bourret… as far as Carpice Bourret: good God…. who even looks like that??? Who could look like that? Does Caprice even look like that???

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