So sayeth Mattel, apparently. According to the Jornal de Sao Paulo newspaper (unfortunately, no link — like I can read Portugese, anyhow), a Brazilian artist, Karin Schwarz, is being threatened with suit by Mattel for artwork that portrays Barbie as a lesbian.
Mattel has given the artist 24 hours to close down the exhibiton or they say they will take legal action.
But Ms Schwarz says she will not back down: “Barbie is exploited by Mattel. She wears a bikini, she shows off her belly, has big breasts, and even has a boyfriend,” she said.
The exhibition, entitled Amazing Girls, is on show at a bar in the city of Curitiba.
A Mattel spokesperson said: “Barbie is a very proper lady and she is not happy about being portraited as something that she isn’t.
“We are going to sue and we hope that this teaches people a lesson. Also, Barbie is 46 years old, she should be respected!”
Psst… Barbie’s made of plastic. She doesn’t really have emotions.
It’s not terribly surprising that Mattel would sue — probably more for the copyright/trademark infringement than for the lesbian content — given that they’ve made a whole lot of money from the Barbie name and image.
But the lesbian stuff has got to be making some eyes twitch at Mattel. They certainly didn’t like it when Todd Haynes created Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story using Barbies as actors to tell the story of Karen Carpenter’s slide into anorexia. Haynes did a wonderful job of making the film sympathetic and complex yet subversive, and the device he chose to illustrate the effects of anorexia — scraping away at the Karen doll’s face and arms — was slightly terrifying. In the end, it wasn’t Mattel who stopped the release of the film, it was Richard Carpenter (click here to download the film and see why), but Mattel couldn’t have been happy to have their product — which has been so associated with eating disorders in young girls because of the unattainable ideal the doll represents — used to demonstrate the ravages of anorexia.
Thanks to Itanshi for the tip.