A New Face of Barbie

Trichelle & Janessa

So I’m sure you’ve heard by now that Mattel has launched a new African-American Barbie doll, “So In Style,” and it has received mixed reviews.  I had known about the dolls but I had no idea about the controversy surrounding them until yesterday on my way home from work.  (Though I should have figured, right?)  Anyway, on 107.5 WBLS Egypt’s show’s topic was about how African-Americans feel about the doll.  To my surprise (but not really) many were, shall we say, outraged and offended.  Why?  The dolls are depicted as brown skinned with fuller lips, curlier hair, broader noses and urban clothing. 

Now Egypt asked some folks to call up and give their opinion on the matter.  So me being the opinionated person that I am – I called    My opinion, in a nutshell is: (and I think  a lot of people would agree with me)  As African-American people we need to stop being ashamed of how we look.  I truly believe anyone offended by the dolls are just ashamed of our unique and distinct features.  But how in the world can you be mad at a doll that looks like you?  It’s about friggin time we got a doll that wasn’t just brown skinned but still looked like the white version of the doll.  I used to wonder what the point of that was.

Additionally, the dolls are called “So In Style.”  Not “This is the Way All Black Woman Look.”  I would deduce from the name that it would be geared toward the more urban African-American image.

Furthermore, it’s not like some non-African-American executive designed the dolls.  They were designed by an African-American woman named Stacy McBride-Irby and I think that we could show a fellow sister some love in being able to accomplish such a feat as a minority herself.

As told by designer Stacey McBride-Irby, the So In Style™ story revolves around Grace™, who was friends with Barbie® in Malibu before moving away to Chicago, where she met Trichelle™ and Kara™, her new BFFs. There, they began to mentor young girls in their community – Courtney®, Janessa™, and Kianna®.

“I want them to be examples to real girls,” says McBride-Irby, “but I wanted to make sure they had an aspirational theme also, that moms will hone in on.” Each pair comes with accessories that reflect their interests – math and music, drill team and science, art and journalism. View the full story here: http://dolldiaries.com/new-barbie-line-so-in-style/

 While I think that, yes, maybe Mattel should come out with an additional side of the African-American community which depicts other aspects of us, this design is definitely a step in the right direction.  We are a very diverse group of people and all of our talents, abilities and uniqueness should be recognized.

So at this time I would like to give a “big-up” to Stacy McBride-Irby on her accomplishment with getting this new line launched.  I think the dolls are very cute and look forward to buying them for my 8 – going on 28 – year old. 

 One last thought though…perhaps it would make people happier if the dolls looked like this racist portrayal of African-Americans:

This actually looks kinda scary!