Barbie and Her Core

BarbieCore translates beyond pink.

I never thought about the negative connotations that have been addressed over the years- weight, shape, proportions, hair color, eye color.

I grew up with the best Barbies. She was there for my birthdays, Christmases, shopping sprees, business deals, space flights, camping trips, pool parties and townhouse purchases. She was from the USA, Spain, India and Oz. Barbie was an astronaut, executive and cowgirl. She was never a housewife or a girlfriend.

My Barbie steered the wheel of her silver Corvette on dates with Ken. But only when she had time in her busy schedule. My Barbie told Ken if she wanted to see him or not. She always left him at the door to get a good night’s sleep and wake up early for her important career. My Barbie didn’t rearrange her life for Ken or anyone else- not even Skipper.

The Barbie Movie with Ken tagging along on Barbie’s adventure.

My Barbie didn’t want me to transform into a blue-eyed, blonde-haired glamazon. She showed me how to be a confident grown-up. To be anything I wanted… stylishly.

I had no interest in baby dolls, the main choice for little girls before Barbie was introduced. Never did I want or dream of being a mother or housewife. Her outer form never inhabited my mind. My imagination projected my image onto her.

All I wanted to do was dress up and go to an important job. Never in pink- that glamour I saved for Fiji-Indian parties. My color was purple. Barbie provided the essence.

The core.

“BarbieCore should be yellow to ignite the solar plexus, which rules the purpose of our souls.”

— Ayurvedic Tidbit by Dr. Kuver

To have a purposeful existence and career. A fabulous townhouse and to steer my own life. To be self-reliant. Barbie told me to be me. It was the real life women who told me everything about natural me was off- a little blush on my prominent cheek bones, some highlights to lighten my jet black locks, some concealer to cover my freckles. The list never ended. Even during my PhD I was told to get a designer bag instead of wearing the Esprit hobo I got in the best Esprit outlet in San Francisco. All this would make me a better woman in STEM researching cancer and neurodegeneration? Did all this get Indra Nooyi the CEO position or turn Sandy Lerner into a revolutionary tech founder?

I grew up wearing very little makeup. Not because I didn’t like it, but because I felt fake. I wasn’t allowed to have fake nails. No, if I wanted long nails like the Lee Press-Ons, then I’d need to grow natural ones. So I did. My father advised me on that one. The Ken’s always told me I didn’t need makeup. Not that they didn’t appreciate the hint of eyeliner here and a little gloss there. But, I wasn’t completely transforming myself to fit into some weird view of “perfection”. Today I can’t walk anywhere without running into a “med spa” handing out special deals for fillers, botox, or ice and dice “perfecting” body treatments.

Luckily I never listened. Or followed.

Ironically, the ideal aesthetics of a woman was never at the core of Barbie. The protests and uproars may have re-engineered Barbie’s size, shape, hair color, etc etc. But, real life women have not been persuaded to revise their view or quest for perfection. The rapid growth of the accessible aesthetics service industry in conjunction with the massive follower count of the most manufactured women on this planet is evidentiary of this “perfect woman” belief system.

An anti-Barbie protest in Berlin 10 years ago.

Two female reality star/social media influencers who have molded themselves into plastic dolls, boast 400 million acolytes on IG. Each. That is approximately 42% of the US female population and a 10th of the global female population. In comparison, a media mogul, the first woman to create an empire in her industry, has less than 20 times that follower count and a ground-breaking veteran reporter, who challenges world leaders on her own show, has around 1/2000.

Do whatever you want.

But, what is your core message?

Nerd Barbies hover over real women in STEM. And that one crazy-haired physicist. (Image: AKJAM Publishing)

Bottom Line

As always, we at The BKDWN don’t judge. But we do wonder what the fuck a lot of you are doing.

Unlike Business Barbie’s power suit, what you’re saying as a society and what you’re doing, doesn’t match.

So far, BarbieCore 2023 doesn’t wear deeper than a Pantone 219c trend.

The irony of allowing a plastic Mattel doll dictate beauty standards has no end. A. Doll. Honestly, does this really need to be said in this era?

Barbie changed out of Dream Date to Astronaut look to take her meaning beyond pink. Pink everywhere has a shorter half-life than lip fillers. Long after #BarbieCore, when the world moves on from pink to purple to Oppenheimer nuclear gold, you’ll need to decide who you want to be. Driving out pink via a Hollywood-driven fad might be the subtle genius of Greta Gerwig.