BY
Carol Schaye
Senator Chris Murphy
While cleaning my daughter’s bedroom, I peeked under her bed, finding a Barbie doll with clothes and other paraphernalia. Now that she is 56, she can have all the Barbies she wants. I refused to allow her to have a Barbie Doll as a kid. Upon being confronted about possessing a Barbie, she explained she exchanged some of her other possessions with a friend.
That child who possessed the hidden Barbie Doll had been carried to several protest marches in a Gerry pack on my back from infant-hood until she could march on her own. A combination plate of issues was addressed on several of the marches, sometimes, women’s equality was one of them.
I never burned a bra or called men names. Maybe because the Vietnam War was raging, and it seemed somewhat more critical at the time. Several of my friends found the Women’s Movement front and center stage though. The women I hung around with were educated, successful, and unafraid. My closest friend at the time was a comedy writer for Lily Tomlin. An acquaintance worked on a new magazine named, ” Ms. Magazine.”
Regardless of how many marches she had attended, my daughter, who graduated with the highest grades in her eighth-grade class, which led her boyfriend (who placed second behind her) to break up with her, was so desperate to play with Barbie that she traded and then deceived me. I am certain she anticipated the god-awful endless political discussion that would follow if found out, probably wishing ID just spank her instead.
Forty-six years later, a woman younger than my daughter, Greta Gerwig, aged forty, directed a movie about that doll. She had grown up playing with Barbie, whom I didn’t know was still being manufactured.
I resisted seeing that movie based on the doll’s anti-woman status in years past.
I grew up playing with baby-dolls, which in their way programmed women much as Barbie did. Be a mother, be skinny, be beautiful be perfect, be quiet, don’t be funny, and let the guy be the smart one.
Studies have revealed that in the 1950s a woman with a bachelor’s degree was far less likely to ever find a husband than a woman who played with Barbie and baby dolls and all they taught women.
As for me, there is no creature more appealing, more sensual, and more capable of breaking my heart than the right man. That’s settled if you have doubts. The smarter the guy the higher my endorphin levels go. The exception is that guy, that super smart guy has to be willing to duke it out verbally with me, listen to my point of view, and enjoy the exchange of ideas between us. If that is accomplished, I’m in his bed in a flash (well that’s an abbreviated analysis for brevity’s sake).
As the Oscars approach, I am reflecting on “Barbie” that amazing advertising sales increasing, boring Mattel piece of junk, which includes amongst other things two decent (but not brilliant) movie stars dancing and pretending to be dolls who are lost in the 1950s and are just now (forty years later becoming aware that women compromise 40 percent of Mattel’s board of directors, not the 100 percent men shown in the film ).
Recently “Vanity Fair” a magazine known for its on-point political articles as well as its ability to showcase contemporary culture, chose Greta Gerwig as their cover story (Director of Barbie) while not only leaving Senator Chris Murphy off the front cover list but buried him in a back story. Senator Murphy was addressing the national epidemic of loneliness in the USA and what he hopes to do about it. As our country slowly slithers into a murky morass of nihilistic nonsense, “Vanity Fair” showcased plastic dolls with identity problems.
I think I read too much and should see more junky movies about space heroes. I keep thinking that doing something rather than sitting staring at made-up world rescuers in movies is a good idea.
“Oppenheimer” a brilliant masterpiece that makes mathematical equations on a blackboard fascinating gets no mention at all. Being brilliant and patriotic just aren’t good for magazine sales.
I believe that women are in style right now (whether a real woman or a man who feels like he should have been born a woman) and I for one don’t like anything being in style. I prefer we all get equal time, attention, and judgment. You know I’m talking about that old-fashioned concept, of “Equal rights”.
Carol Schaye has had several short stories published by McFadden’s Women’s Group, Sierra Nevada Ally and other publications. Carol has written for two west coast newspapers and has worked extensively in television. A fan of Flannery O’Connor, Carol studied acting with Lee Strasberg and Austin Pendleton and writing with Salem Ludwig. She attended Marymount College majoring in theater.
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