Ch. 14 Summary: "Hetero Barbie?"

    Mary Rogers wrote this chapter discussing Barbie and how she represents gender and sexuality. Rogers starts the chapter stating that many heterosexual females as they enter their teenage years begin to put men at the center of their lives. Teenage girls begin basing their value on their attractiveness to boys and their relationship with a boy. It is interesting how Rogers connects this to Barbie and although Barbie's looks are very important, she has an "independence that deviates from the codes of mainstream femininity" (128). I never thought of Barbie as being outside of the mainstream, but more of a stereotypical view of how women are "supposed" to look. Barbie has Ken, but even then he is not the center of her life and throughout her existence she has not had a husband or kids. I was surprised when Rogers said the Barbie may not be heterosexual or not even a woman? It is a different perspective, but I don't know if I agree with that. I don't think it really matter it just is nice that Barbie is her own independent woman and has different jobs and hobbies on her own, despite her overly feminine and made-up look. 

    This chapter also looked at how people of different genders and sexuality viewed Barbie. Lesbians are more likely to reject "some of the central features of Barbie's world" and also bisexuals may find her monosexuality "unappealing" (129). The possibility that Barbie is a drag queen may explain why she is so made-up and I don't believe that it is bad that some people view her as that. Barbie is a doll and if people see different things in her that they can identify with then that is great. I always played with Barbie dolls as a kid and recently it seems like there has been so much negative views on her and how she is a bad representation of a woman for young children.