Barbara Millicent Roberts is dying
She's almost 50. She's losing money. Will Mattel kill her off?
I vote for breast cancer, myself. Issue a "Mastectomy Barbie" with detachable prostheses, with 5% of the sales price going to breast cancer research. If collectors snap it up, she beats the cancer and stays in business. If it's a bust, so to speak, then they close up shop.
She's not a toy; she's an American icon. People complained about her unnatural breast and hip measurements; now she's being beat by dolls with unnatural head measurements. What does that say about us as a culture?
About 20 years ago, I wrote a long poem in blank verse called "Barbie's Baby", about the perils of throwing her and Ken into a shoebox under the bed, and the marketing problems that ensued. (No abortion; it would kill sales in the Christian market. And she couldn't DIY because those plastic coathangers don't bend. And her clothes wouldn't fit.) With her career in shambles, she contemplated suicide.
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