Blog 3: Pop Culture Influences

Bria Quarles-Harris

WMST 205

     As a young girl, I will never forget the amount of love I had for Barbies and by love I mean all I ever did was talk, eat, sleep, and play with Barbies. Even annoying my parents enough to join me in my imaginary world of "Barbieland". Now as silly as Barbieland sounds now I will always remember the importance of it serving as an escape world from reality until I reached the 4th grade. Ever since I was in 1st grade I was always getting bullied or teased. I would be taunted for the way I dressed, my hair, looks, and my interests/hobbies which made it extremely difficult to make friends and would often go home crying because nobody would play with me during recess or talk to me in class. Looking back you could say that I was sort of an easy target considering that I was a crybaby. However, when I got home and saw all my Barbies everything that had ever happened at school suddenly drifted from my mind once I stepped into my made-up world of Barbieland.

      At the time Barbies had allowed me to imagine myself as someone different and in that world, I could be anybody that I wanted. Barbieland was a world without judgment, without bullying, without teasing, and I was in control. Sometimes I would even create a scenario from a moment in the day and re-enact how I wish the scenario had played out. For example, if someone made fun of my shoes at school I would re-enact what I would've said to that person through Barbies. While Barbies were a great way to help me relieve stress and blessed me with having a fun imagination altogether they did not come without leaving damaging my self-esteem.

      It is important for me to note that I am a black female who has gone through a series of appearance issues. Sometimes I would be happy with who I was or what I looked like and other times I would overwhelm myself with hatred, more often than not I found a strong disliking of myself a majority of the time. Most if not all of my Barbies were white, blue-eyed, and had blonde hair (actually that was really most Barbies at the time and it was nearly impossible to find any others with different features) and I remember the only Barbie that stood out was a black male. In other words, out of the 50+ Barbies I had only one was different. I remembered thinking that in order to be considered beautiful I had to have straight blonde hair, with blue eyes, and be skinny (a being skinny was the only thing I had going for me so far), but here I was with kinky hair with dark brown eyes and thinking to myself how ugly I was for not looking like my Barbies. There were times where I would beg my mom to the point of crying to let me straighten my hair and wear makeup (again this was when I was like in the 1st or 2nd grade). I believe that when my parents saw how my Barbies began to lead me on a path of self-deprecation they knew they needed to act fast before more damage ensued.
       One day coming back from school I saw two wrapped boxes waiting on the table with my name on it and I quickly ran to inspect and to my surprise, it was black Oreo Barbie and a black limited-edition summer Barbie both having kinky hair and a darker complexion! I was over the moon when I saw them and from there on out, I remembered them being the only two dolls I would play with because they looked so similar to me!
       Overall I have noticed that the new generation of Barbies have evolved tremendously by creating dolls that come in all shapes and sizes, disabilities, features, styles, etc. The latest generation is much more realistic and has taken the everchanging demographic into consideration something that I wish I could have experienced as a young girl and maybe then my mindset would have been changed in a  more positive light.