Um...Relax.

Since I was trusted to handle small non-digestible objects by my parents all of 25 years ago, I've been a huge Barbie enthusiast. German Barbie never did it for me, but Christie was my girl! Me and her, and eventually Kyra, the east Asian Barbie buddy, became best pals. I never looked at them in all of their size 0, waist-length maned, perfect-skinned glamor and thought any less of myself. Now, with the generation of children witnessing Oscar the Grouch being relegated to a recycle bin and "Veggie Monster" (not our cookie-craving chum) raiding the local garden, there's the complaint that black Barbies are too European featured--their hair too straight, their noses too narrow, etc...things that African American P.C. police have come up with to launch attack on America's beloved lady doll. So now, Mattel responds with this:

http://www.racewire.org/archives/2009/11/barbie.html

Now....the fact that this doll comes with a straightening iron could be a problem. But I feel that black women (and women in general) get a little too riled up on the issue of Barbie. While there is complaint about how black Barbies were just Barbies painted brown, I never had a problem these brown plastic women (aside ...from the fact that all her clothing fit strange) because they looked like someone I'd seen before. For example, the picture they include of "Colored Francine" from 1963 resembles my grandmother's style when I see old pics of her (slim, long straight hair (always too fine for a 'Fro), brown, narrow facial features, etc)

With the complaint for fuller hair and features, black Barbie opponents amongst women of color are failing, as well, to realize that we are all diverse, with varying hair preferences, hair textures, and bone structures. It is due time for a dark and lovely doll with some beautifully curly hair (oh but that's been done by Mattel--Shani, 1990s--I had that doll; did you?), but I don't see why Christie has to go to the wayside because she's not "black enough".

And as a matter of fact, scratch that point about the straightener being a problem. Nowhere in the ad, I'm sure, does it say "Straighten Grace/Trichelle's hair so she can be beautiful/get a job!". It is a CHOICE; she can stay "natural" if the girl who adopts her wants too. That's pretty forward thinking to recognize the VARIETY of beauty present in the black community. I'm done lol