Terranisha Nathaniel
October 15 2014
Sherrow Pinder
African American Studies 170

“Dyes and Dolls: Multicultural Barbie and the Merchandizing of Difference” In the article “Dyes and Dolls” by Ann duCille she discusses how many, “manufactures have taken on a global perspective of a nearsightedness that constructs this whole new world as small and cultural difference as consumable (Ann duCille, p267). When Barbie turned the age of thirty Newsweek reported that there were 500 million Barbie dolls sold, on Barbie’s thirty fifth birthday Boston Globe reported that nearly two Barbie dolls are sold every second somewhere in the world; and fifty percent of these dolls are sold in the U.S (Ann duCille, p267). 1990 Mattel Inc discovered a new marketing strategy to make more money by going “ethnic” launching a campaign for Black and Hispanic versions ( A. duCille, p267). According to Deborah Mitchell, say Ann, Deborah ( African American woman) says, “Barbie allows little girls to dream”. “When little girls fantasize themselves into the conspicuous consumption, glamour, perfection, and, and some have argued anorexia of Barbie’s world, it is rarely, if ever, “in their own image that they dream” Regardless of what color dyes the dolls are dipped in or what costumes they are adorned with, the image they present is of the same mythically thin, long-legged, luxurious haired, buxom beauty (A. duCille, p268). But profit still continues to be the driving factor merchandizing of difference (A. duCille, p267).
“As feminist have protested almost from the moment she hit the market, Barbie is not simply a childs toy or just a teenage fashion doll; she is an icon- perhaps the icon- of true white womanhood and femininity, a symbol of the far from innocent ideological stuff of which the (Miss) American dream and other mystiques of race and gender are made (A. duCille, p268).