The Barbie I remember most from when I was a kid was the one called Pretty Hair. I don’t know if it was a genuine Barbie Barbie, if you know what I mean? I’ve realized a lot of things we get in these backwaters are knockoffs. Today in the age of the glocal and the internet, we can usually tell the difference. Although authenticity and ethics and wallet-friendliness tell different stories.
I mean, come on, who wouldn’t laugh at the twin of Puma’s black cat jumping over a lovely calligraphy “Tiger”? It is an art! Con art, maybe, but art nonetheless.
On Barbie, I remember Pretty Hair because she had such beautiful long hair. Of course, when you’re only about 12 inches tall, even hair that reaches your ankles would only be about 11 inches long and then there’s only so much you can do with that hair. But she looked good. And that was what mattered. Her whole purpose was to have long hair and be pretty. She was a doll. She was not real. And whatever role she had in this life, she fulfilled.
Growing up, I came to realize that Real Life was just a world of play-acting for grown-ups. With real money, of course, so the stakes are infinitely higher. It seems like the purpose had shifted but the totem remained the same – to appear nice, to look good. Call me cynical but I’ve come to accept that the totem of Society is a giant non-existent emperor’s robes. Necessary evils aside, how far should we allow invisible linen to dictate our lives? The robe of the emperor is invisible. There isn’t even an emperor!
Yet, we persist on back-breaking sycophancy. Some of us bow so low to money and perceived authority our noses must surely touch our knees. We sacrifice principles at the altar of Acknowledgment of the Rich and Powerful. Mouthful of an altar. Many times, we don’t even hobnob with the R&P; we just want them to know us. We would always rationalize it as acts of not ruffling feathers unnecessarily which is understandable, god’s honest truth! But of basic decency, dignity and loyalty, we can no longer claim to be practicing members. It is always the choice between what is easy and what is right. Always with the choices since the bloody Garden of Eden. What a pain!
Anyhoo. I discarded Pretty Hair the moment my sister cut off her hair to satisfy her curiosity or maybe to test her barber skills. I’m sure Feli would have felt the sting of cutting Barbie’s hair, though, because surely I must have avenged Pretty Hair for such a heinous crime which must not – could not – go unpunished.
Of course, real world punishment for heinous crimes against decency and principles are not as swift. But I believe Karma will out. And actually, constantly does so. Whether or not we choose to see it. I guess for now, we stick to ass-kissing and generally just throwing people to wolves whenever it benefits us. Ah well, c’est la vie!
Greta Gerwig is making a Barbie film and I can’t wait to see it. I want to see what she makes of the doll and her plastic world. I thoroughly enjoyed playing with Barbie when I was girl. I absolutely adored Barbie Girl as performed by Aqua. There’s never really been a Barbie news I’ve not been interested in. Barbie is in a world of structural non-functionality as I call it because she has seemingly everything but in a weird, incompatible size to her and also, essentially inoperative. Yet somehow we accept it. Like real life, really.
Inkhualtelem life... with real money.
Pretty Hair is a distant memory. The plastic remnant of her must lie in a dump somewhere, waiting to decompose, maybe. Hazard to the environment, no less. I wonder where the totem of Real Ethics rest.
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