A visitor takes photos at a special exhibition of Barbie dolls, which runs from May 28 to June 17, 2014, at Grand Gateway Plaza in Shanghai. (Photo: China News Service / Yuan Jing)
芭比变邻家女孩 推多体型多肤色版
At 57, Barbie is getting a major makeover
Poor Barbie. She had plastic surgery to become more socially acceptable. But a lot of her critics still don’t like her.
可怜的芭比，通过整容来满足世俗审美，但批评者们仍然不买账。
Barbie’s manufacturer, Mattel, announced Thursday that the doll has three new body types ? curvy, tall and petite. Barbie will also now come in seven skin tones, 22 eye colors and 24 hairstyles. Mattel spokeswoman Michelle Chidoni said the product is evolving to “offer more choices” to make “the line more reflective of the world girls see around them.”
芭比玩偶生产商“美泰公司”当地时间28日宣布，芭比系列将增加三款新体型：丰满芭比、高个芭比和娇小芭比。芭比也将有7种肤色、22种眼球色以及24款不同发型。美泰女发言人马歇尔·辛多妮称，公司愿为消费者“提供更多选择”，让芭比能“反映出全世界各种类型的女孩”。
Kris Macomber, who teaches sociology at Meredith College in Raleigh, N.C., says she’s “reluctant to celebrate Barbie’s new strategy because it doesn’t change the fact that Barbie dolls and other kinds of fashion dolls still over-emphasize female beauty. Why must we keep sending girls the message that being beautiful is so important?”
克里斯·麦康伯在北卡罗来纳州首府罗利的梅瑞迪斯学院教授社会学课程。她表示，自己“无法认同芭比生产商的新策略，因为它改变不了一个事实，那就是芭比等各种时尚玩偶过分强调了女性外表的重要性。为什么我们总在给女孩们灌输‘美丽最重要’这种观点呢？”
Josh Golin, the executive director of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, said the changes are a testament to activists who for years have challenged Barbie’s “unrealistic and harmful body type.” But body type “was only one of the criticisms,” he said. “The other was the brand’s relentless focus on appearance and fashion.”
