This topic contains 9 replies, has 8 voices, and was last updated by 
cpr 2 months, 2 weeks ago.
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But…er…but…the thing is…er…
I’m tired.
Yeah. Exactly..
<can’t wait to find out what you have to do to be the Gate Keeper>
I don’t have a problem with the doll itself. The hair is fine and the skin color is beautiful. The styling is problematic, not the doll. They could have made better choices in presenting the doll. I’m unsure if the doll is meant to be a collectable or marketed to children. There is a growing crowd of people who style Black dolls but precious few of them are ever styled as poorly as that doll.
At first glance, it appears the designer did a google image search of “trending black women” or something and decided that was the most accurate representation.
I agree with Chaun. The styling is the problem to me. If the shirt wasn’t cut so low I don’t know that this would be an issue. If she had 2 babies instead of 2 bags and a lacefront……I’d be upset.
In addition to the styling I find the straight, blonde hair problematic for a toy targeted to young Black girls. I grew up in a family that stressed the beauty of my naturalness. Real hair (including the natural kink and color) and real nails were valued. I grew up thinking that racism and slavery started when white people got jealous of how beautiful our skin was. Another question, why are all black barbies light-skinned? I myself am of a lighter variety, but is it too much to ask for some variety in the shade of barbies?
At first glance, the blond hair and chains were off-putting, but I am not in the demographic to purchase this. But women in generally have many styles, so maybe there is a reasonable demographic for this doll. Outside of being an outlier in black representation, I don’t know if I have a problem with it. Like Trojan said, if the highest acclaimed black women in the public eye now resemble the image of the doll, then I don’t know, I almost expect it. Hopefully they make a more diverse collection.
it’s no more problematic than this little gem that nabisco put out a while back without realizing the connotation behind it.
I think that when there is no diversity in upper management, things like this are bound to happen.
Geez…
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