Forever Barbie (37 page)
Authors: M. G. Lord
210 Eve's "golden tresses" and their meaning: John Milton,
Paradise Lost,
Book IV, vs. 305-306.
211 Erotization of female behind: See "The Bottom Line,"
W,
December 7-14, 1992.
212 'The figure was almost like road kill . . ." and other facts about the new erotization of the female derriere, including
the angles of primate bottoms in heat: Martha Barnette, "Perfect Endings,"
Allure,
November 1993, pp. 160-163.
212 "taking the basic Ken and Barbie poses . . .": Walter Kirn, "tJbersex: Has Hollywood Lost Sight of the Difference Between
Erotic and Aerobic?,"
Mirabella,
September 1992, p. 46.
212 Antics of Mattel engineers: Interview with Derek Gable, Palos Verdes, May I, 1993. (All Gable quotations are from this
interview.)
213 "Cults of beauty have been persistently homosexual . . .": Paglia, op. cit., p. 117.
214 "I loved the shiny hair . . .": Interview with the Lady Bunny, New York City, October 22, 1992. (All Lady Bunny quotations
are from this interview.)
214 Drag queens on the runway: Patricia Jacobs, "He Is a She!,"
New
York Post,
December 21, 1992.
215 "Growing up in the inner-city . . .": Interview with Vaginal Davis, New York City, October 6, 1992.
215 Core gender identity: See Robert Stoller, "Primary Femininity,"
Journal
of the American Psychoanalytic
Association,
Vol. 24, Supplement on Female Psychology, 1976, pp. 59-76.
216 "Drag constitutes the mundane way in which genders are appropriated . . .": Butler, op. cit., p. 21.
217 "the secret habits that seem normal enough to us . . .": A. M. Homes, "A Real Doll," in Richard Peabody and Lucinda Ebersole,
eds.,
Mondo
Barbie
(New York: St. Martin's Press, 1993), p. 8.
217 "what it means to be a 'good girl' . . .": Interview with A. M. Homes, New York City, December 1, 1992. (All Homes quotations
are from this interview.)
218 The Barbi twins as "truck drivers in drag": Stasi, Vaughan, and Scaduto, op. cit.
218
Playboy
cover story on the Barbi Twins: "Seeing Double: The Barbi Twins Are a Couple of Dolls You'll Never Outgrow,"
Playboy,
September 1991, pp. 137-145.
219 "Is this what you call erotic?": "Letters from Our Readers,"
On Our
Backs,
May/June 1989, p. 5. (The original "Gals and Dolls" pictorial,
On
Our Backs,
March/April 1989, pp. 32-34. The credit reads: "Photos and Models: Evans, Brill, Smith.")
CHAPTER ELEVEN: OUR BARBIES, OUR SELVES
222 "doll" as woman, "dolled up" as dressed up. Beauvoir, op. cit., p. 279.
224 "the whole Barbie phenomenon": Interview with "Jan," New York City, October 6, 1992.
226 Barbie at Sierra Tucson: See Alethea Savile, "Safe Haven Among the Sex Addicts,"
Daily Mail,
October 8, 1992.
226 Barbie weight study at University Central Hospital in Helsinki, Finland: "Barbie's Missing Accessory: Food,"
Tufts University Diet and Nutrition
Letter,
Vol. 11, No. 11, January 1994, p. 1.
226 'The body of the Ceres . . .": Hollander, op. cit., p. 3.
227 Meredig's eating disorder statistics: See "She's No Barbie, Nor Does She Care to Be,"
The New York Times
August 15, 1991.
227 "Wow! A doll with hips and a waist":
People
September 2, 1991.
227 "Stranglehold on distribution . . .": Meredig quoted by Lynn Smith in "Not Only Fun, but P.C. Too,"
Los Angeles
Times,
October 30, 1992.
227 Compromising material in Meredig's press kit, "Her Doll Is Built Like Real Women," Minneapolis St. Paul
Star Tribune,
August 19, 1991, p. 7E.
228 The
Venus de Milo
"legless by design": Hollander, op. cit., p. 214.
229 Plastic playthings lack "the pleasure, the sweetness, the humanity of touch": Barthes, op. cit., p. 54.
229 Parents' "prejudice" against plastic playthings: Brian Sutton-Smith,
Toys as Culture
(New York: Gardner Press, 1986), p. 11.
230 "Behind the anorexic's caricature . . .": Kaplan, op. cit., p. 457.
231 "While it may be hard to imagine the subtle transactions . . .": Susie Ohrbach,
Hunger Strike: The
Anorectics Struggle as a Metaphor for
Our Age
(New York: W. W. Norton &Company, 1986), p. 81.
232 "The anxious mother was the agent of will . . .": Susan Brownmiller,
Femininity
(New York: Ballantine Books, 1985), p. 34.
232 "Women are traditionally the primary feeders": Interview with Laura Kogel, New York City, June 21, 1993. (All Kogel quotations
are from this interview.) See also Women's Therapy Center Institute,
Eating Problems: A
Feminist Psychoanalytic Treatment
Model
(New York: Basic Books, 1994).
234
The Beauty Myth
as "the language of a science fiction writer describing the Blob": Elizabeth Kaye, "What Women Think of Other Women,"
Esquire,
August 1992, p. 100.
235 Ann Landers's statistics on eating disorders:
New' York Newsday,
April 29, 1992.
235 Columbia Pictures's shrinking logo: Jill Andresky Fraser, "What's in a Symbol? Not the Statue of Liberty,"
The New York Times,
January 17, 1992.
235 "In
Superstar,
Haynes vindicates Karen . . .": Joel Siegel, "Barbies,"
City Paper,
January 27-February 2, 1989.
236 "It is this small film's triumph . . .": Barbara Kruger,
Art
Forum,
December 1987, p. 108.
237 ' This work is part of a tradition of . . . antimainstream . . . filmmaking": Interview with John G. Hanhardt, New York
City, February 14, 1993. (All Hanhardt quotations are from this interview.)
239 "When the film came out, we had many rentals to clinics.": Telephone interview with Christine Vachon, March 2, 1994.
239 "And they said no. . . . That really disappointed me": Haynes quoted by John Anderson in "The Final Cut,"
New York Newsday,
April 4, 1991.
240 "When Karen Carpenter died of anorexia . . .": Christine Alt quoted by Marjorie Rosen in "Eating Disorders: A Hollywood
History,"
People,
February 17, 1992, pp. 96-99.
241 "When I first started modeling . . .": Telephone interview with Lauren Hutton, August 26, 1993. (All Hutton quotations
are from this interview.)
241 "I thought it would be cool . . .": Interview with Glenn O'Brien, September 4, 1992.
241 "I ate nothing. I mean nothing": Beverly Johnson quoted by Rosen, op. cit.
CHAPTER TWELVE: THE WOMAN WHO WOULD BE BARBIE
244 "I'm registered with the British Internal Revenue Service . . .": Telephone interview with Cindy Jackson, April 13, 1993;
in New York City, May 12, 1993. (All Jackson quotations are from these interviews.)
247 "ROSANNE'S HUBBY IN PLOT TO ROB BANK," etc.
National Enquirer
headlines, January 12, 1993, p. 1.
247 "Well, we're not in a perfect feminist world": Liz Logan, "Roseanne's Biggest Change,"
The Ladies' Home
Journal,
November 1993, p. 276.
249 "Although Cindy has always talked about this Barbie doll image . . .": Telephone interview with Dr. Edward Latimer-Sayer,
April 19, 1993. (All Latimer-Sayer quotations are from this interview.)
251 Researchers at Dow Corning knew silicone harmed immune systems in mice: Sandra Blakeslee, "Dow Found Silicone Danger in
1975 Study, Lawyers Sav,"
The New York Times,
April 7, 1994, p. A18.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: BARBIE OUT OF CONTROL
252 Telephone interview with the performance artist who masterminded the BLO, January 18, 1993. (All of this artist's quotations
are from this interview.)
257 "I don't think the College of Cardinals used terms . . .": Telephone interview with Robert Sobieszek, February 25, 1994.
(All Sobieszek quotations are from this interview.)
259 "If a company . . .": Interview with Deirdre Evans-Prichard, Los Angeles, May 18, 1994.
259 "the polyethelene essence . . .": Telephone interview with Barbara Bell, March 24, 1993.
259 "Wrhen I was a little girl . . .": Telephone interview with Grace Hartigan, April 28, 1994. (All Hartigan quotations are
from this interview.)
261 "The portrait looks so bad . . .": Pat Hackett, ed.,
The Andy Warhol
Diaries
(New York: Warner Books, 1989), p. 713.
261 "I want to capture the soul of plastic": Telephone interview with Beauregard Houston Montgomery and Mel Odom, April 7,
1993. (All Odom quotations are from this interview.)
262 "The arid scimitar . . .": Virginia Woolf,
To the Lighthouse
(New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1981) p. 38.
262 "It's about being angry about everybody wanting to look like a Barbie": Interview with Maggie Robbins, Brooklyn, New York,
January 17, 1993. (All Robbins quotations are from this interview.)
263 "It was definitely cathartic for me . . .": Interview with Susan Evans Grove, New York City, June 23, 1992. (All Grove
quotations are from this interview.)
264 "Do you have any female friends who look like me . . . ?": Interview with Julia Mandle, New York City, July 8, 1993. (All
Mandle quotations are from this interview.)
265 "I wanted the doll to symbolize this kind of glamorous but secondary position": Interview with Ellen Brooks, New York
City, November 6, 1992. (All Brooks quotations are from this interview.)
265 "the outstanding fashion doll . . .": A. Glenn Mandeville,
Fashion Doll
Anthology and Price Guide
(Cumberland, Md.: Hobby House Press, 1987), p. 166.
266 "The early Barbie had an attitude . . .": Interview with Ken Botto, New York City, May 12, 1993.
266 "Barbie Noir": Alice Kahn, "A Onetime Bimbo Becomes a Muse,"
The
New York Times,
September 29, 1991.
266 "five hundred years of tourism in this country": Interview with Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, New York City, November 28,
1992. (All Smith quotations are from this interview.)
267 "glossy decapitated portrait of a hunky male": Interview with Roger Braimon, New York City, June 22, 1993.
268 "the greatest Romantic expositor . . .": Hollander, op. cit., p. 199.
268 "a man's big white handkerchief: Telephone interview with Dean Brown, February 24, 1993. (All Brown quotations are from
this interview.)
270 'To me, Barbie dies when she puts on her wedding dress": Telephone interview with Felicia Rosshandler, April 25, 1994.
270 "In the era of AIDS, I'm overwhelmed . . .": Interview with Charles Bell, New York City, January 27, 1993.
270 Details of
The Barbie Project-
Interview
with Lauren Versel, Sag Harbor, New York, August, 16, 1993.
270 Mattel's authorized Berlin show:
Barbie: Kiinstler und Designer
Gestalten fiir und um Barbie
(Reinbek bei Hamburg, Germany: Rowohlt Ver-lag GmbH, 1994). (Elke Martensen, pp. 212-213; Holger Scheibe, pp. 154-155; Peter
Engelhart, pp. 168-169; Frank Lindow, pp. 202-203.)
271 "I wanted people to look at these images . . .": Interview with David Levinthal, New York City, March, 24, 1994. (All
Levinthal quotations are from this interview.)
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: SLAVES OF BARBIE
276 "I stayed at the Beverly Hilton . . ."; Interview with Fiona Auld, Niagara Falls, July 24, 1992.
280 "The bicycle is the most common transportation means . . .": Carol Spencer speech at the Barbie Collectors' Convention,
Niagara Falls, New York, July 24, 1992.
281 "our Barbie Dean": Ruth Cronk, ed.,
The Noname Newsletter,
June 1980, p. 8.
281 "got us started on the right foot . . .":
The Noname Newsletter,
September 1979, p. 2.
281 "in the process of struggling to hold her still . . .":
The Noname
Newsletter,
January 1980, p. 2.
281 "The following day . . .":
The
Noname Newsletter,
June 1980, p. 2.
281 "The thing that really rings . . ."
The Noname Newsletter,
February 1980, p. 3.
282 "in the objects that are always there . . .": Werner Muensterberger,
Collecting: An Unruly Passion
(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1994), p. 16.
283 "What else are collectibles . . .": Ibid., p. 31.
283 "It's an addiction": Interview with Jan Fennick, Rockville Center, New York, October 17, 1992. (All Fennick quotations
are from this interview.)
283 "Ownership is the most intimate relationship that one can have to objects": Benjamin, op. cit., p. 67.
283 "People today are taking Barbie . . .": Interview with A. Glenn Mandeville, Rockville Center, New York, October 17, 1992.
(Unless otherwise indicated, all Mandeville quotations from this interview.)
285 "seems to swish off the page": R. L. Pela, "Malibu White House,"
The
Advocate,
January 26, 1993, p. 48.
285 "We're not totally object-oriented . . .": Interview with Karen Caviale and Marlene Mura, New York City, February 12,
1993. (All Mura and Caviale quotations are from this interview.)
287 "I belonged to . . .": Interview with Corazon Yellen, Los Angeles, October 30, 1992.
287 "Even though public collections . . .": Benjamin, op. cit., p. 67.
288 "She came out and said . . .": Interviews with Evelyn Burkhalter, Palo Alto, California, July 18, 1992 and April 30, 1993.
(All Burkhalter quotations are from these interviews.)
289 "an insulting image of women":
Boobs in Toyland.