The Winner and Still Champion
By Jeannette Ferrary
Women can be lawyers.
How do we know? Mattel tells us so.
Tangible proof is in stores and on-line,
website wonderlands of cooptation.
Click “Career Dolls” for
Barbie Marine biologist, Hockey Player Barbie,
Soccer Doll, Blonde, with Cleats and Socks.
The Barbie Scientist doll,
her hair blue just like real scientist dolls,
goes nowhere without her microscope.
Or click Barbie-the-Movie-Merch,
product lines of liberation with
feminism galore at a range of prices
any girl or boy can afford
no matter how audibly their mothers
may be gnashing their teeth.
Real women can be Barbies too.
They thrive in the “Inspiring Women (Trademark) Series”
Women with real lives and accomplishments,
heroines even, brought to you by Mattel
fully clothed, with accessories and a
Certificate of Authenticity right in the box.
As one woman gets sole directing credit for
the billion-dollar movie,
somewhere in Malaysia
another woman is raking in two dollars an hour
churning out President Barbies by the dozen.
You’ll have to wait for yours, however.
The President (she’s African-American by the way)
Is SOLD OUT.
Writer/photographer Jeannette Ferrary’s most recent book is The Future is Leaving: Photographs from Once-Upon-a-Time. http://www.jeannetteferrary.photoshelter.com
