Ann Friedman - This Barbie is a journalist

Surprise Me

July 21, 2023

A white flower with slim spiky purple petals and five yellow fuzzy ovals bursting from the center is nestled against some green leaves and magenta bougainvillea petals

Bloomin'

I'm letting the Barbie discourse wash over me, reading every Gerwig profile and advance review. It's very fun to have a woman of my generation at the helm of a Barbie narrative. Gloria Steinem summed up an older feminist perspective in 2018: "Barbie is everything we didn’t want to be and were told to be."

This could not resonate less! Barbie didn't tell me to be anything. Unlike her primary toy alternative, the baby doll—which came with only one hopelessly boring mommy role to play—Barbies were blank canvases onto which I could project hundreds of narratives about my future. Everything I might possibly be.

My Barbie was a journalist (yes, I was annoying even as a child) and the frontwoman of a pop act who drove a red convertible and bumped plastic with her two boyfriends (sweetie Ken and bad-boy Derek). She lived a life that I never once saw modeled by the real-life adults around me, the opposite of what I was "told to be."

Sure, then and now, Barbie's body and marketing reflect rampant consumerism and toxic whiteness and a midcentury male perspective on ideal womanhood. I'm not sure it's possible to subvert and celebrate that at the same time. But for me, the debate about Barbie has never been about the male gaze vs the female gaze. It's about the adult gaze, with its layered knowledge of culture and politics, vs the curiosity and innocence of the child gaze. Specifically, my youthful gaze on my Barbie.

Yes, I'm gonna see the movie. But it's sort of beside the point. There's no way it can be as good as the narrative I wrote and rewrote with my own dolls in the basement, 30 years ago.

-AF

READ

“It’s not a Democratic Senator from Pennsylvania saying this. No. I’m just a husband and a father, somebody that was suffering from depression and got help—” Molly Ball reports on John Fetterman's attempts to shatter the taboos around depression. And writing fellow Vera Blossom on how diners are a beacon in the darkness of a depressive episode.

Vijeta Kumar explains how to eat an orange.

“They're leaving nurses out to hang." Abigail Higgins on how hard it is to care for reproductive-health patients when no one knows what's legal.

A difficult read from Carrie Arnold about whether anorexia can be considered a terminal illness, and whether psychiatric patients have a right to decide when enough is enough.

Emily Yahr considers the rise of "Fast Car" on the charts, and what it means that it's not Tracy Chapman singing this hit version, but a white male country star.

"I’m not a clean girl or a hot girl," Kate Lindsay writes, "but I’m not a little swamp rat, either."

PIE CHART

MEMBERS ONLY

What is this Barbie? 12% A figment o the male gaze; 13% A feminist Rorschach test; 25% A 7-foot giant with deformed ribs who can't hold her head up; 20% So sad to have plastic beige undies instead of genitals; 5% A generational divide; 13% Naked in a plastic bag in a thrift-store bin; 12% A marketing meme

The Barbie Pie

Fresh pie for all this week, courtesy of my paying members! These charts go back behind the pie-wall next week, so maybe it's a good time to start a membership if you're not one already? It's just $15/year and supports my weekly labor, underwrites the fellowship program for emerging writers, and covers my tech costs.

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LOOK & LISTEN

Am I the only one who's listening to the soothing academia of In Our Time on the beach?

A MOMENT

Text reads "2 years ago learned people left recipes on their gravestones" with an image of a brownie held up in front of a headstone

Epitaph recipes!
via Ngaio, whose newsletter is always full of fascinating things.

THE CLASSIFIEDS

Listen to the podcast Never Told, an 8-episode anthology of original, intimate stories, written and voiced by acclaimed artists, writers and filmmakers that explore and expand our definitions of self, paired with bespoke soundscapes. Featuring Emma Jane Unsworth, Zing Tsjeng and Harry Trevaldwyn.

Because being a mom is hard, choosing birth control should be easy. The Birth Control Test is available for you and/or your pregnancy capable kid.

Expert video therapy. Astute and kind, pro-feminist sensibility. I help people in all seasons of their lives. Let's meet and see if we are a fit.

Free - Take the Perfectionist's Half-Assed Writing Challenge and tell that "it's not good enough" voice in your brain to F off for a minute. After the last round, students sold stories to Insider, HuffPo, and more. Spend 3 days writing with ease & maybe making some cash. Sign up now!

Called “Grey Gardens if they were murdering people,” indie horror film THE SISTERS! is looking for backers. See here for important legal disclosures.

Supportive, personalized therapy and coaching for writers + artists in California from a writer-therapist that won’t break the bank. Let’s talk!

Take 15% off your ad purchase with the code HOTFLASH at checkout, now through the end of August! Click here for rates and info.

ENDORSEMENT

I recently made peace with the fact that I just enjoy a home manicure more than a salon job. And I always knew a good home mani required patience, but this little bit of paint science about how polish dries was revelatory! For those who don't want to watch a tiktok: Wait 24 hours to do the topcoat. If someone reading this is an actual paint scientist or polish formulator or nail tech, I'd love all your DIY tips.

TESTIMONIALS

"Your weekly is one of the things that keeps me ....sane? Thank you." -KC. Lots of question marks these days.

This Barbie is a newsletter.

Forward it to your Ken.