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Subject: [FOLKLORE FAMILY] Why Barbie Can't Be a Mom
Date: Sun, 3 Mar 2002 20:15:07 EST

Why Barbie Can't Be a Mom
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Recently, my husband Jeff and I spent an afternoon at Disneyland with our
five-year-old son and two-and-a-half-year-old daughter.

While perusing one of the theme park's many gift shops, we came across a
Barbie collection. A lovely family of four, complete with Barbie, Ken, and
two children, all dressed in full Disney memorabilia. They each had the
infamous "Mouse Ears" hats, Mickey Mouse jackets, and various other
theme-parkish little goodies to complete the set.

My husband let out a low whistle as he glanced at the price tag. "Wow. That's
more than the price of a ticket," he noted out loud.

I laughed. "Not to mention the farce. As if Barbie could ever have a FAMILY."
I shook my head.

Jeff looked at me with a sideways glance that spoke a thousand words, but the
most obvious was his bewilderment that I seemed to have forgotten Barbie was
a fictional character.

Nevertheless, he humored me. "Why couldn't she have a family? She's married
to Ken, isn't she?"

"Ha!" I snorted. "Only about fifty times over, each time wearing a different
gown." I picked up the box that held Barbie and her "family" in their Disney
gear. "This is her stage family."

Jeff ultimately spoke his thoughts: "She's a doll, Suzie."

"Yeah... I know... " My voice trailed off as I watched my husband take a
fragile Goofy mug out of the hands of my daughter, who was then content to
hike up her dress, plop down on the floor, and breastfeed her stuffed Mickey
doll.

While Jeff and my son went through the collection of Tarzan memorabilia, I
set the Barbie box back on the shelf, realizing that, in her plastic and
Spandex lifetime, Barbie had surely been around a time or two.

But she has never been a Mom.

Barbie has been a nurse, a teacher, a stewardess and a tour guide. She has
spent her summers at the beach and her winters on the slopes. She drives a
pink convertible to the gym where she works out in Spandex with plastic
weights. She has a bicycle. She has been to Hawaii, Japan, London and China,
just to mention a few places, because she has her own airplane. She sang at
the Grand Ol' Opry. She premiers a new Christmas gown every year. She dances,
roller skates and skateboards with her friends and plays with her little
sister at the park. She has a beach house. She is forty years old, but
doesn't look a day over eighteen. She loves Elvis and Frank Sinatra. She's a
sports fanatic, having modeled outfits for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago
Cubs and NASCAR. She offers her fans a Barbie line of clothing, makeup,
jewelry and computer software. For forty years, she has been a representative
of the "ideal" woman.

But she has never been a mother.

There is an "Autumn Glory" Barbie, but there is no "First Trimester" Barbie.
"First Trimester" Barbie would be the first Barbie who didn't sport the
plastic Mona Lisa smile that is characteristic of every Barbie ever created.
Rather, her pink cheeks would be a little green, her mouth curved in a
downward slope. Her wardrobe would be limited to a terry cloth bathrobe. Her
jeweled accessories nonexistent, she would instead complete the ensemble with
a pair of nausea-combatting wrist bands, a pink plastic bucket (in case she
couldn't make it to the bathroom in time), a teeny box of saltine crackers
and a small bottle of ginger ale.

There is a "Millennium Princess" Barbie, but there is not an eight months
pregnant "I Can't Fit Into My Evening Gowns Anymore" Barbie, complete with
stretchy maternity pants, shoes that don't fit her swollen feet and a scale
with its dial forever set to 180 pounds. In one hand, she would hold a pint
of Ben and Jerry's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream, in the other hand a
spoon.

Instead of another "Evening Sophistication" Barbie, it might be interesting
to see a "Stages of Labor" Barbie. Of course, this would be a collector's
edition, due to it being a once-in-a-lifetime event (Barbie probably wouldn't
go through pregnancy, labor and delivery again), and due to the volume of the
collection's contents. Ken would be included in this set. Inside the
collection box (which doubles as the hospital room), you would find "Doctor"
Ken (not to be confused with "Husband" Ken), a hospital bed and a fetal
monitor, "Nurse" Barbie (not to be confused with "Pregnant" Barbie), and an
unpacked overnight bag (pending a "Postpartum" Barbie wardrobe). Additional
accessories would be available to purchase separately, such as
"Anesthesiologist" Skipper, complete with epidural cart.

"Postpartum" Barbie would leave the hospital with her new baby boy or girl.
The baby would be purchased as an accessory and come in either sex, with a
variety of different hair colors. Each baby would have a different name and
each one would eventually become a collector's item. "Postpartum" Barbie
would be dressed in "I Can't Fit Into My Evening Gowns Anymore" clothing and
not appear to be very happy about it. She would still resemble "Stages of
Labor" Barbie, with the exception of her midsection, where hard plastic would
be replaced with soft cloth, stuffed with Beanie Baby insides that sag when
she is upright, then flatten when she is on her back.

"I'm a Dad Now" Ken would be purchased separately. He'd come dressed in the
same clothing as "Stages of Labor" Ken. He'd carry a baby bag in one hand and
hospital discharge papers in the other. He'd also come with an empty wallet.
Available for separate purchase would be a mini-van equipped with a carseat,
a bit more practical than Barbie's former pink convertible.

Appearing simultaneously with the premiere of "Postpartum" Barbie would be
the "Breastfeeding" Barbie. "Breastfeeding" Barbie would have a slimmer
stomach, but conveniently retain the same engorged-appearing breasts that all
Barbies preceding her have had throughout the past four decades, except now
they serve a purpose. She would come complete with a new wardrobe of designer
breastfeeding shirts, itty-bitty nursing pads and burp cloths. Additional
accessories which could be purchased separately would be breast pumps,
nursing shawls (in a variety of hip and attractive patterns that would
correspond with Barbie's wardrobe), tiny tubes of nipple cream and a
miniature glider rocker. Available for a limited time only would be "Oh, No!
-- Coping with Mastitis" Barbie, "Oh My Gosh, I've Got Sore Nipples" Barbie,
"Mother of a Colicky Baby" Barbie, and "Ouch! Biting hurts Mommy" Barbie.

"Sleepless Nights" Barbie and "Date Night with Daddy Ken" Barbie might
follow. However, while "Sleepless Nights" Barbie (equipped with a rocking
chair and nonstop recording of your lullaby of choice) might be a huge
seller, "Date Night with Daddy Ken" Barbie (including "Babysitting" Skipper
doll) might see a drop in sales. I think that "Date Night with Daddy Ken"
Barbie would be purchased with good intentions, but would inevitably be lost
in a corner somewhere, collecting dust, possibly pending a new wardrobe that
fits Barbie's waistline, while "Breastfeeding" Barbie, "Mother of a Colicky
Baby" Barbie and "Sleepless Nights" Barbie would be more active.

The entire future of Barbie could be changed by motherhood. "Mother of a
Toddler" Barbie would be equipped with running shoes and
peanut-butter-and-jelly-stained clothing. Perhaps her figure might even take
on a more realistic appearance -- stretch marks, sagging breasts, and dark
circles under her eyes.

"Time to Potty Train" Barbie might come with accessories such as a pull-up
diaper and a teeny version of "Every Barbie Poops."

Interesting proposition, isn't it? After all, how many more evening gowns can
Barbie premier annually? How many new Christmas wardrobes? How many career
moves? Worldwide trips? Appearances with Ken at the Grand Ol' Opry? Isn't it
time for Barbie to grow up? To take on some responsibility? To be a "real"
Mom?

My daughter's soft grunting beside me brought me back to reality. I turned to
focus my attention on her, discovering my little blonde beauty was squatting,
her face red, her grunts turning into a very audible "Mommy... I pooping."

"Daddy, did you FART?" piped up my son, his nose wrinkled, his hand waving
back and forth in front of his face. My husband dropped a plastic Tarzan
figure, shocked by my son's question, embarrassed by those around us who
heard it. His face was red, but he was laughing.

A few passers-by glanced at us and chuckled.

My daughter reached under her dress, about to put her hand into her diaper,
but I was a step ahead of her every move.

"Oh, no you don't," I cheerfully mused, taking her hand in my own before she
was able to wedge it into the back of her diaper to examine what she had
done. "Mommy learned her lesson after the last time you did that at church."

"Diaper change," I said to my husband as I headed out the door of the gift
shop.

He nodded and smiled, watching me grab at my daughter's free hand, as she
attempted to sabotage my efforts of keeping her from surveying the "new"
contents of her soiled diaper.

I think Mattel knew what they were doing all along. Barbie couldn't handle
motherhood. Not even on her best day








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"A friend is the one who comes in when the

whole world has gone out."

Richiele 'Marie YAHOO KISSY_FISHY

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