Barbie Culture / Edition 1

by Mary F. Rogers

Overview

This book uses one of the most popular accessories of childhood, the Barbie doll, to explain key aspects of cultural meaning.

Some readings would see Barbie as reproducing ethnicity and gender in a particularly coarse and damaging way - a cultural icon of racism and sexism. Rogers develops a broader, more challenging picture. She shows how the cultural meaning of Barbie is more ambiguous than the narrow, appearance-dominated model that is attributed to the doll. For a start, Barbie's sexual identity is not clear-cut. Similarly her class situation is ambiguous. But all interpretations agree that, with her enormous range of lifestyle ‘accessories', Barbie exists to consume. Her body is the perfect metaphor of modern times: plastic, st

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761958888
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	02/02/1999
Series:	Cultural Icons series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	5.08(w) x 7.80(h) x (d)

About the Author

Mary Rogers is Professor of Sociology at the University of West Florida

Table of Contents

Introduction
Emphatic Femininity
(Hetero)Sexuality and Race in Barbie's World
Challenged Childhood and Youthful Consumption
The Making of an Icon
Plastic Bodies
Plastic Selves