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.