(s)kim

I ... am sort of at a loss for words on reflecting on this graphic novel.

I'm not really a huge fan of graphic novels in the first place... They've never really been my style. Not to say I hate comics by any means (I regularly read FoxTrot and Zits, and Calvin & Hobbes were wonderful while growing up. I also know entirely too much about DC and Marvel comics, courtesy of an older brother.)

I felt that Skim was kind of Zits meets The Bell Jar. Teenage angst and suicide.

The art was great, and very deliberately done. A lot of it is very dark, which parallels Skim's attitudes and thoughts. It's very unique that it's a graphic novel in a diary format, especially since Skim is so into art. It sort of acts as a way to not only read what she experiences, but also to show what she experiences through drawings.

I think... It ended appropriately. I didn't really care for it, but it worked with the way the novel had read.

Images are worth more than words...

So key terms from this course, as depicted by images:

Woman























I loved this image. It's a freeing image (actually called "free woman"). I feel like women have the capacity to fly away with their emotions and thoughts in the most elegant and spontaneous ways.

Personal




















I thought this was a good representation of what is personal. It really highlights the blurry line between what is personal and what is private.

Emotional























I picked this image because I think it just brings up the negative aspects of emotion. When googling "emotional" you just get a substantial amount of images that have sad girls crying. What about joy? Laughter? Jealousy? Anger? Preconceived and stereotyped ideas leave a lot out.

Life in plastic... it's ... fantastic?

Barbie is easily one of the most recognizable toys on the planet. Bravo, Mattel. You are a marketing genius.

I owned easily 50 Barbies, 3 houses (one beach house, one suburbia-style house, and the Barbie mansion, complete with a working elevator), two cars (convertible and Jeep Wrangler... strangely similar to the white Jeep Wrangler I currently drive...), a horse stable with three horses and an odd assortment of clothing (including heels of all sorts of colors that were never on the Barbies themselves).

Barbies I recall with the most clarity: (AKA - my favorites)

• Posh Spice Barbie
• Baby Spice Barbie
• California Surfer Chick Barbie
• Hawaiian Hula Barbie with hair like the sun (it faded from orange to pink)
• Indian Barbie (like... from India. Her dress was THE most annoying thing to put on her)
• Baywatch Barbie

Baywatch was easily one of my favorites. The interesting part - I owned two of them, both I received as birthday presents: one from a friend and one from my parents. I SWEAR the one I got from my parents was prettier than the other one. They did NOT look the same. It was weird.

Denise Duhamel has a really interesting look at Barbies. I think Antichrist Barbie has a line that completely sums it up: girls would do ANYTHING for their Barbies, including worshipping them and wanting to be exactly like them. (A My-Size Barbie is a TERRIBLE idea for any self-respecting kid.)

I love the Hippie Barbie poem. It sounds sort of like Barbie doesn't want to feel the way she does, but can't do anything about it. The line, "She felt a little like Sandra Dee at a Janis Joplin concert," is fantastic.

Also, how Duhamel goes into the descriptions of Barbie versus African American Barbie, Native American Barbie and Oriental Barbie... these are all completely legitimate. Each Barbie just looks like a dyed version of white Barbie. The only different characteristic of my Indian Barbie was that she had one of those dots in the middle of her forehead. Thick waxy black hair was tied back into a tight bun and she had traditional dress on. Her eyes, breast size, waist size and such were all identical to many of my other Barbies.