Preference Personnelle
Wednesday, November 20
 
As people who frequent library blogs likely already know, Mattel is considering a 'Librarian Barbie.' I posted this response to the Kent State School of Library and Information Science's listserv. For this posting I hypered up the links a little (I don't put html in e-mail).

Tuesday, November 19, 2002, 3:56:03 PM, Sarah wrote:

s> www.barbie.com/Activities/Calendar/icanbe_skater.asp

s> Ok, some of you may think this is silly, but I really want a Librarian Barbie.

s> Matel is having a poll for which career Barbie should be a part of next, and a
s> librarian is one of them!

"Math class is hard!" I wonder if that's what's keeping her from
becoming an architect.

It could be that I'm just naturally contrary, but it's hard to see why
a librarian would want there to be a librarian Barbie doll.

Expecting Barbie to do anything positive for the profession, or
thinking that Mattel has the interests of librarians or
librarianship in mind, is laughable.

Mattel has a long and sordid history--forcing Barbie creator Ruth
Handler out of her business, blocking Barbie fan clubs from using the
name, suing artists who use the Barbie image--and other criticisms,
about Barbie's eating-disorder-inspiring proportions and seedy German
sex-doll origins, are already numbingly familiar.

Librarians and others committed to freedom of information may be
interested in a more modern criticism: Mattel's Web-censoring
software, CyberPatrol, blocks sites which are critical of Mattel.

I'd strongly recommend the documentary 'Barbie Nation,' which the KSU
library owns, the books 'Mondo Barbie,' edited by Lucinda Ebersole and
Richard Peabody and available via OhioLink, and 'Forever Barbie,'
by M.G. Lord, and the Simpsons episode 'Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy.'

A few links:

Barbie and trademark/copyright: http://www.trademarks.org/barbie/
The Distorted $arbie--cultural criticism: http://users.rcn.com/napier.interport/barbie/
Barbie's new body--Mother Jones, 1998: http://www.motherjones.com/hellraiser_central/features/jervis.html
Wired article on Mattel and copyright: http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,8037,00.html
Slashdot coverage of Mattel/CyberPatrol: http://slashdot.org/yro/00/03/20/0845236.shtml
Declan McCullagh CyberPatrol links: http://www.politechbot.com/cyberpatrol/
Barbie Nation Freedom Fighters: http://www.essentialmedia.com/bnff.html
Australian doll Feral Cheryl: http://www.feralcheryl.com.au/
Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy summaries: http://www.thesimpsons.com/episode_guide/0514.htm
http://www.snpp.com/episodes/1F12.html

  3:38 PM
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