Mondo Barbie

Essays on Exile and Memory

By Ebersole, Lucinda

Paperback

Refer to all images for measurements and condition

Great preloved condition

Raw edges

Excellent coffee table book

Perfect size for the top of a small stack

Conversation starter

Full of short stories

Super easy read

Cleaning out our closets!

Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

Publication date: 03/15/1993

Edition description: 1st ed

Pages: 185

Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.47(d)

🙏🏼Many Thanks!✌🏼

Overview

“Barbie is an American icon.

But Barbie becomes a problem when the adult fantasy collides with the child's fantasy.

All that misplaced Barbie angst of our youth, all the childhood conditioning, and the adult results are revealed at last in Mondo Barbie.

"Barbie is in the air, all right!

"Since we began this anthology, we’ve seen articles on Barbie in magazines as wide-ranging as Parenting, People, and the Utne Reader. . . .

We’re not the only ones.

Friends, acquaintances, and contributors (real and imagined) have flooded our mailboxes with clippings about Barbie look-alike contests, cable TV shows, photography exhibits, sculptures, you name it.

"Everyone had an anecdote. . . .

"[Barbie] is an American icon.

The product of an adult fantasy of a girl-child’s toy.

Or is Barbie the adult’s toy and the child’s fantasy? What happens when the adult fantasy collides with the child’s fantasy? . . .

"In the end the book divided into two definite strategies for dealing with the Barbie phenomenon—poems and stories from Barbie’s point of view, or writings about Barbie’s impact (as either doll or flesh and blood) on specific characters.

These works are just a sampling of the vast arra

y of material inspired by Barbie. Perhaps, as one writer suggested, we should start a Barbie hotline.

A way to reach all those warped by Barbie. . . .”

Editorial Reviews

“Members of the Barbie Generation have come of age, and they are taking no prisoners.

This terrific collection of short stories, poems and memoirs explores what the Barbie doll, now in her 30s, means and has meant to young women (and some young men).

In most pieces, little girls obsess about accumulating clothes for Barbie, getting Barbie together with Ken or how their Barbie collections compare to those of their friends.

Barbie becomes a real person who must deal with her perfect figure, ideal boyfriend and fabulously decorated Dream House.

Throughout, Barbie's detachable limbs and hollow head make her an easy target for violent dismemberment.

In the more way-out contributions, Ken undergoes a sex-change operation to become Kendra, and Barbie becomes a speed freak.

Barbie's steady upholding of the American ideal of femininity through three decades of feminist upheaval provides rich material for these smart and brash authors, who include Sandra Cisneros and Alice McDermott.

The contributors' often religious childhood relationships with ``playing Barbies'' will gives this volume an energy that will make it must reading for parents whose children learn lessons of womanhood from the doll.”

(Mar.)Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly