Now don’t get me wrong, I am of the feminist leaning that loves to slap on the make-up and a mini-dress, throw on the high heels al la high femme and blow far too many non-profit earned dollars on a dye job, but for some reason the latest spring line at MAC cosmetics got my thong panties in a knot. MAC, a Canadian company primarily famed for it’s gender-bending and drag-queen friendly take on high glam cosmetics, has recruited none other than our favourite antifeminist icon, Barbie, to sell its wares:
“Many women’s first experiences with fashion and beauty were playing with Barbie. Today this fantasy continues with Barbie Loves MAC, a color collection that allows women to rediscover their inner girl,” said Richard Dickson, senior vice president of Marketing, Media and Entertainment, Worldwide, Mattel. “Barbie is about aspiration and inspiring girls to explore a world of possibilities, and now today’s woman can do that in beauty with the Barbie Loves MAC collection.”
Um, thanks Richard.
But, well, excuse me? Barbie is all about aspiration? Aspiration to do what? Drive a pink Corvette and win over Ken with an unrealistic and anatomically absurd figure? An aspiration to realize and tell the world that “Math is hard?” or wonder “Will we ever have enough clothes?”
All these warped ideals of female beauty from a company that has seemingly been about social responsibility, been a champion for AIDS related causes and has commonly used less than typical models as style icons in their advertising campaigns. I mean come on, Ru Paul was the first face of MAC. The print campaign itself is perhaps the most disturbing part of the partnership, it’s visuals of vacant “doll-like” models staring absently into a void.
All I can say is that I’m a little disappointed. And I’m not the only one: Susan Wagner at Blogher says, “Unlike RuPaul, who was entirely self created (a man who becomes a woman through sheer force of will and great makeup and clothes), Barbie is a plastic mock-up of an unattainable female form. The models in the new Barbie Loves MAC ad campaign are styled to look like dolls; their facial expressions are vacant and frankly, a little frightening… this line will most certainly appeal to young women, specifically ‘tweens. It is naive for anyone to think that Barbie makeup will not be incredibly enticing to girls who are teetering on the brink between playing with Barbie and making themselves up to look like her.”
Are we going backwards, or is it just me?
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18 comments
I'm a little cynical about make-up products in general. So I guess I'm not that shocked that a company that thrives on the socially inculcated belief that people, particularly women, are ugly unless they're wearing cakes of make-up sees Barbie - the pinnacle of North American white beauty - as something to aspire to.
(DISCLAIMER: I'm not saying that anybody who wears make-up thinks all women are inadequate! And neither am I saying that people who feel like they're ugly are guillible or anything like that! I'm just trying to get at the fact that beauty product manufacturers profit off people's insecurities about not embodying a certain, usually racist, classist, sexist, heterosexist..., ideal of beauty. Whether or not manufacturers exacerbate that insecurity or agree/disagree with it, they do wind up profiting from it.)
What I am surprised by is that if Barbie Loves MAC is about embracing everything that Barbie is, then this is a campaign that is solely marketed to women, and to white women (even if there is a black model in the picture) and I'm guessing to biological women (though I guess since Barbie doesn't actually have genitalia that could be contested). It seems like they're just alienating a whole whack of their buyers. It's like the time Cristal Champagne dissed hip hop.
Posted by Thea
March 15, 2007, 1:22 PM
I myself, like Stacey, am a feminist who puts a lot into my appearance. But I do feel that I need to come to the defence of my childhood friend, Barbie. Yes her figure is greatly misleading to young girls among other anti-feminist aspects of the whole barbie phenemenon. But look at what young girls are playing with now, Bratz dolls who are just as unrealistic. At least Barbie was available with some interesting careers such as a pilot or a doctor.
Posted by Kirie
March 15, 2007, 11:15 PM
i think it's poor logic to say "well, at least barbie isn't as bad as bratz because barbie had career choices"
at least women have less of a pay gap against men than they used too. at least.
at least our older ideals of femininity aren't as bad as our new ones. at least.
at least we barbie teaches girls to be ornamental and then maybe instramental while bratz teach them ornamentation only. at least.
AHHH! neither is better than the other. at all.
Posted by holly shock
March 16, 2007, 7:32 AM
I completely agree with the comment about "alientating buyers." It's almost as if they've done the complete opposite evil of the Dove campaign in the sense that MAC initially invited those of us who had a "create your own (genderless) ideal" approach to beauty to use their products for glam play, and then suddenly said, "no wait, we were kidding, we're going to go back to being unrealistic and stereotypical." I'm struck by the reaction of those of my friends who use make-up for gender play- they feel betrayed in many ways and primarily disgusted.
Thea is right in the sense that ALL beauty product lines are built on the premise that we are not beautiful just the way we are, but MAC had a long history of supporting those individuals, particularily drag queens, who wanted to alter their appearance beyond preconceived notions of gender acceptability. Perhaps just clever marketing, but MAC always seemed to be about decorative "costuming" rather than concealment or altering of an individual's beauty.
"at least our older ideals of femininity arent as bad as our new ones. at least..."
Sometimes I feel like we've gone from bad to bad but different.
Posted by Stacey May
March 16, 2007, 8:03 AM
Then again, perhaps MAC feels that using the Barbie image is its own kind of gender-play, rather than a return to stereotypical femininity - those ads are so self-consciously superficial, they're almost explicitly saying "Look! Femininity is totally constructed! Anyone can look like Barbie with the aid of an airbrush and a dumptruck of makeup! For all you know, these models are your great-uncle Emmet!" Okay, I don't want to give the company too much credit. But I actually find the vapid, wholly fantasy-based Barbie ads way less creepy than all the "fresh, natural YOU" ads where the models still have the crap airbrushed out of them.
Posted by Anna
March 16, 2007, 9:20 AM
I can not believe grown women are getting their panties in a wad about this. It's a line of makeup. MAC is not any better than any other comany, they are all money hungry and will do what they need to to make money. This line has turned out to be a huge success and frankly I can see why. Barbie, as warped as her figure may be, is a money maker. If you have children and you let them play with barbies, but then you go complaining about how unrealistic her figure is, then you are a hipocrit. Barbie is the most correct figure I have seen on a doll as of yet. If people don't like it maybe they should start their own company and make a doll that looked like everyday women, do you really think young girls would want to play with that? I highly doubt it! Barbie is beautiful and children like beautiful things. So if you tell your kids it's wrong to want to be like barbie, are you really trying to tell your child that it is wrong to want to be pretty and have a cute boyfriend? Lots of us played with barbies growing up, but we didn't grow up to think we had to have a figure like her. If someone did then there is obviously something very wrong metally with that person that has nothing to do with barbie. I for one just do not see what the big deal is, two of the world's biggest companies hooked up to create a line of makeup so they could make money. If you do not like it, then do not buy it. I think there are worse things in life to be concerned about. And also whoever said that the cosmetic companies are playing off people's insecurities, that is a bunch of bull. I am just glad we have makeup in today's world because like it or not most women do look hideous without it. What I think is so ironic is most of the women that don't wear makeup and campaign against it are the ones that need it the worst of all. Atleast us women have something to cover up our inperfections.
Posted by Brooke
March 28, 2007, 3:57 PM
Speaking personally, my mother had some serious (feminist) reservations about getting me a Barbie as a kid. Turns out her fears were pretty unfounded, as when she finally caved in to my whining and bought me one, I mostly just cut its hair, made it S/M outfits, and threw it down the stairs. I agree that we ought to give more credit to women and kids in terms of being influenced by dolls; there are multiple meanings people can make out of the objects in their lives, and assuming that those objects directly affect our self-image is kind of demeaning. As I said above, MAC's Barbie campaign could be just as much about fantasy and "playing dress-up" as the RuPaul campaign.
But, on the record, whoa Brooke, I have to seriously disagree with you about women looking "hideous" without makeup. While there's nothing wrong with enjoying how makeup makes you look and feel, yeesh, let's not internalize this idea that there's only one way a woman can be attractive, and that's with the aid of a truckload of cosmetics. I mean, have you ever seen women who live in countries where everyday makeup is not the norm? Do they all look like frightful monsters? Maybe I'm a freak, but I'd rather see a woman with character in her face than lipstick on it.
Posted by Anna
March 28, 2007, 6:20 PM
brooke brooke brooke...
i know you look just as beautiful with out makeup as you do with makeup.
i'm sure your beautiful face is lovely right after you've washed it and go to bed. and in the morning when you wake up and your hair is slept in and the skin on your back is rumply with sheet marks...i bet your eyes are very very bright and pretty.
Posted by holly shock
March 29, 2007, 3:51 PM
it's barbie!!!
it's a makeup company!!!!!
what do you expect??
Posted by Andrea
April 11, 2007, 8:09 PM
turning the plastic art of plastic imagery projected onto plastic looking women (the models in the pix) to replicate a plastic idea of feminity. if the women nowadays don't aspire more like walking plastic Barbies, then why does the image stick so? If Barbie doesn't make a dent as to what little girls think and feel, then why are we groomed into becoming one? Agreed with Thea, it's a racist, bloodless, colorless, odorless, featurless, hairless, no muss no fuss idea of beauty. we're not women, we're bloody vacuum cleaners! and those two models are freakin' me out man.
Posted by lealea
April 29, 2007, 3:39 PM
I LOVE BARBIEEEEE!!!
Posted by Jess
April 30, 2007, 2:13 PM
Why does this have to firstly be aspirational to barbie? Why can it not be seen purely as an aesthetical induldgence into a new style of makeup? Mac's pink lipsticks have sold out all over Britain. This does not mean everyone wants to be Barbie, but pink lipstick looks hot at the moment.
Trying to aspire to Barbie's empty perhaps brainless life is no more pathetic than aspiring to celebrity status. In fact, if anything, it is better to aspire to something that is stupid and doesn't exist rather than women who are actually airbrushed and pampered to within an inch of their lives.
I think anyone who has a problem with this is jumping the gun and misreading the signs. At least barbie is not some attitude filled, whore bag toy like bratz. That is definately something too many people are aspiring to.
Posted by H.A
May 17, 2007, 4:36 AM
Oh my God girls, get a life. It's a make-up range. Not anthrax.
Posted by Gibberish
May 29, 2007, 5:44 AM
[...] Interesting, but filler. It makes my blog look cool. [...]
Posted by This is my apology « Pseudo-Intellectual Rambling
June 18, 2007, 9:25 PM
Basically Barbie sells - she's beautiful, gets everything she wants, etc. MAC is just like any other company out there, they need money to be successful and they're going to use their common sense to adapt their ranges to what sells. So personally, i'm not surprised they brought out this line of makeup and i'm also not surprised it sold so quickly. Yeah, barbie gives us a false image of how to look like but im sure the size zero craze is making teenage/young adults' minds more derranged than a cosmetics line.
Posted by Melissa
July 25, 2007, 7:50 AM
wow! not in a good way! dats all i got 2 say! oOo... also GET A LIFE!
Posted by anonymous
August 20, 2007, 6:33 PM
Get a life?! When did it become okay to dismiss and attack people's concern about beauty standards. If you read the article, clearly it's pretty dynamic. It's tempting to throw all this abusive stuff right back at some of you. Are these ideas so dangerous to you that you can't stand the idea that there could be some substance here?
Posted by Myra
December 26, 2007, 1:48 PM
I think everyone should look past barbie and look into the homes of these girls who have such low self esteem.
Posted by mierro
May 6, 2008, 3:53 PM
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