Barbie Girls

	I was reminded of this display when we were watching The Stepford Wives during our Critical Theory class. The movie is about the horrors of losing female identity and being turned into mere fem-bots for the convenience and pleasure of the men. The wives that have been turned into plastic dolls have no feelings, expressions or desire, they are merely objects that attend to their husbands every whim. The wives are presumed to be killed by the female robots. The horror within the movie is that there is no happy ending. The final eerie shot is of the automaton shopping within the supermarket, cold, artificial and practised.

That said, the MAC product seems to aestheticize and commodify artificiality. The expression on the models faces are impassive, mimicking the dead-look that Barbie wears. Their eyes are never directed at the camera lens but rather glance down coyly or upwards in reverence. Their lips are positioned in pouts, slightly open in a suggestive manner. Yes, this is pretty much the standard feature of women in advertisements, and more disturbingly in Facebook pictures. But the frightening aspect of this particular MAC advertisement is the actual reproduction and glorification of the artificial look. It urges women to take on the plastic beauty of Barbie. The product advertisement is counter to what is considered the horror within Stepford Wives. The main character, Joanna, fights for the natural or maternal representation of women. Her physical appearance throughout the movie before her death, is unpolished, open and honest. She wears clothes that are loose and her hair is mostly unbound. Her job as a photographer also places her behind the lens of the camera, therefore she has control and power over her subjects. She also chooses to take pictures of her children at play, and she fiercely defends it as her best work. However the natural look of the women's body is slowly destroyed as the women in the movie are recreated as mere images of the commodity culture. It also brings into consideration the mass amount of Barbie dolls that are produced for the consumption of young girls. It is the recreation of the similar image in huge amounts, of women as fake, artificial and unreal. There is nothing unique or different about these millions of dolls that little girls are told to idealize. This shot is of the final scene of the movie, where the transformation is complete for all the robots. The women are dressed in similar outfits with white gloves and hats. They appear dainty, demure and photographed within the grocery store, a pre-dominantly female space. The Barbie look and the automaton women in Stepford wives are symbols of the natural aging of women being freezed. Even observing all make-up or body products that are available for female consumption most of them contain anti-aging or skin tightening chemicals. Women are continuously told to arrest the natural cycle of aging and to preserve their youthfulness and appeal. The growing fear of aging is marketed and sold by capitalism. Women are continuously told that it is important to maintain one's youthful appearance. The commodity culture renders age as something horrific. Plastic however, never fades or grows older, it is a matter that stays on forever. It leaches and is non-degradable and here we can think of Barthes article on "Plastic", and the shifting of its identity and value. Plastic was a matter that was celebrated however, it now cultivates fears because of its persistency. There is a paradox with this fear in both Stepford Wives and MAC models. The persistency and spread of plasticity within Stepford Wives is filmed as a horrifying occurrence. It is a problem or betrayal that is silently taking over the area without anyones knowledge. I digress a little, but the creation of these auto-matron are never really shown, they appear suddenly without any warning. The gaps within the process are a reflection of a problem that cannot be named therefore understood. This can be interpreted as a fear of the technological mediated society that was fast being reproduced. It was the unknown fear that envelopes the two main female characters Joanna and Bobbie, who become more desperate and paranoid that there is a threat to their female identities. What is it about Barbie dolls that fascinates the female consumer? She is supposedly appealing because she is created to fit into what is considered an "ideal" body type. Her features are very striking and attention grabbing. She is created to look perfect and polished. This is a toy that younger female children desire, and at that young age they are being visually subjected to what is considered beautiful or pleasing. This creates an internalized ideal concept of the fake beauty that Barbie represents. The MAC product then pushes at the nostalgic feeling that women have for their Barbies. Commodity sets the standard idea of ideal beauty. Barbie has also inspired a spin-off doll termed Bratz. These dolls are targeted at children between the ages of 8-12, but who honestly follows those age guidelines? These dolls, are dressed in fishnet stockings, skirts that leave little to the imagination and feather boas. These dolls are highly sexualized and created to talk about boys, clothes and fashion. I digress again, but it all draws back to young girls being subjected to a certain type of physical and that she must strive for. To have the MAC product create a make-up brand that enlivens the dead beauty of Barbies contrast greatly what the women in Stepford Wives are fighting for. Does their loss in the end still permeate the current age? Have we actually moved away from the horrors of the Stepford incidents, or are we still victims of this conspiracy? Has capitalism twisted women's desire that they are still made to believe that this is the ideal type of beauty?