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Amandeep Kaur

TRANSNATIONAL BARBIIE: A POSTCOLONIAL PERSPECTIVE

The diverse subject matter of post colonialism is intimately connected to the structure and process of world system the transnational flows of people, gender, race, sexuality, cultural differences, and impact of one culture on the other. With the insinuation of new world order after second world war, vast changes in all spheres of life were waiting to happen. This new world order included globalization process, increasing power of America, and changing roles of other countries. In this whole scenario, Barbie doll also made its impact. My paper Transnational Barbie: A postcolonial perspective analyses this transnationality by placing Barbie in the centre as a cultural artifact, and see this as a process in which colonial tendencies continued in the form of cultural imperialism. However, Barbie is not associated with one theme, or one meaning rather it clearly defines a powerful field of meanings as Miriam Forman- Brunell remarks in What Barbie dolls have to Say about Post war American Culture: Reading Barbie dolls as a historical text sheds light on the continuities and changes in teen culture, gender roles, sexuality, and consumer culture. As an artifact of postwar cultural ambiguity, Brunell thinks, Barbie characterized not only conservatism and conformity but also contradiction, conflict, and contestation. My paper also explores how products like Barbie need not only be taken as merely vehicles for meanings invested in them by western producers but may be transformed into representations of indigenous or local identities. Local values and cultures mix up with these products to create a difference of meaning. Based on a German doll Lilli, Barbie was introduced in 1959 in America (fig. 1). Gradually, it got fame throughout the world spreading in 140 countries . Mattel is the company behind the production and evolution of Barbie dolls in the market. It was through the efforts of Ruth Handler that Barbie came to be reality. Since its launch, there are larger sociopolitical and cultural issues which have been associated with Barbie. One issue which has been discussed continuously is the analysis of Barbie as a symbol of cultural imperialism. James Petras in his article Cultural Imperialism In the Late Twentieth Century defined cultural imperialism as a: Systematic penetration and domination of the cultural life of the ruling classes of the west in order to reorder the values, behavior, institutions and identities of oppressed peoples to the interests of the imperial classes (qtd. In Terrebonne 3).

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Fig. 1. Lilli, rpt. in M.G. Lord, Forever Barbie: The Unauthorized Biography of A Real Doll. ( New York: Walker & Company, 2004.) This conformity or consent to participate in the culture having a western influence gave the idea of desires of capitalist market to increase its hold over non- westerners. This conformity can also be taken in Gramscian sense of hegemony by making agree people to participate in this capitalist process. This kind of cultural imperialism was through products like Barbie. Barbie entered in the global market in the name of freedom of market, and thus established western control because it not only signified fashion and beauty but also American values, cultural behavior, and traditions. So this transnationality transformed American popular culture as a way of life in countries around the world. ( Ritzer 190). In expanding Barbie to mean more than just a doll, she has successfully infiltrated almost every aspect of a young girls life. This intrusion into cultures through global products made its impact in India also, where the whole trajectory of dolls and its success can be analyzed with interplay of two major issues: Indias own cultural traditions and secondly, globalization and period of free economic trade. This trajectory explains the complex phenomenon which had wide ramifications. In India, economic liberalization and free trade was introduced in 1980s. This brought a huge amount of global products in Indian market including coca-cola, Pepsi, and other brands. Barbie came in 1986-87. Initially, it was launched in same western style and attire

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representing American values. Here arises the complex question- on one side, there were Indias own traditions and values but on the other side, new values were penetrating. Wide ramifications were in this sense that the whole way of life was changed. Before discussing what impact Barbie had on Indian market, I will discuss the debate of homo/heterogenization of culture. This has been presumed that as transnational commodities penetrate new areas, recipient cultures will transform to imitate those standards (Macdaugall 259). Same happened in India, but the question arises as to whether the different countries are able to retain those specificities, which are mark of their own culture? If so, what is the role of consumerism and consumption in this process? Barbies reception was seen heading towards cultural homogenization and blurring of boundaries of nation-state. Her arrival was also thought to be seen as homogenization of appearances because all girls wanted to be like Barbie. Homogenization was in this sense because the world was becoming alike possessing the same things a soulless consumer capitalism that is operating to transform the diverse markets of universe into one uniform market. But the reality is that cultural specificities are not eroded, rather they remain to promote difference as Roland Robertson remarks: Global cultural flows often reinvigorate local cultural niches, hence, rather than being totally obliterated by the western consumerist forces of sameness, local difference and particularity still play an important role in creating unique cultural constellations (qtd. in Stagger 75). Francis Fukuyama also argues that prosperity brought about by globalization permits cultures to really assert their own uniqueness. In Fukuyamas view, culture consists of deeper moral norms rather than merely surfacial aspects, and these deeper norms affect how people link together. No doubt, Barbie has become transnational but she cannot be permanently located in any single cultural space. Diversity of local culture cannot be negated. Barbie in sari, in lehnga, and in hijab bear the impact of local culture. Not only in India, but in Syria and Mexico also, these transnational dolls were transformed to represent them as local cultural icons. Fulla (fig.2) in Syria was represented as symbol of Syrian Islamic revivalism. Slackman also analyses this point of view: The appearance of Fulla in Syria marks the spread of Islamic revivalism not only among a group of college educated people, but (also among) all socioeconomic classes (qtd. in Terrebonne 2). Fulla was presented with a veil. Europeans conflated veil with womens oppression because veil, for them, was a sign of colonial narration of women in which veil and the treatment of women epitomized Islamic inferiority. However, for Syrian people it was affirmation of Islamic identity, morality, and a rejection of western materialism and consumerism.

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Fig. 2. Fulla, the veiled Barbie <http: //www.middle-east-online.com|English> Barbie wore costumes from Rajasthan, Punjab and other states exhibiting values which we associate with Indian people, culture, and traditions. Mexican doll Meridda was transformed carrying all the local sense of Mexico. The application of local cosmetic principles to Barbie is a mechanism used to recontextualize her image in Mexican terms (Macdougall 261). But where do we place consumerism in this process? Inderpal Grewal taking up the issue explains that the cultural work required to create consumer desires for a product contributes and participates in wider cultural changes within which products like Barbie are introduced to create new meaning in local context (86). After economic liberlization, global products were initially resisted. Barbies initial failure in india is part of that resistance, but then the market strategies were changed to create consumer desires, and people began to receive these products as barbie was introduced in sari, with black hair, and a bindi : These attempts in larger cultural changes allowed Barbie to become a part of the lives of middle class indian girls and to become meaningful to emergent consumer subjects (Grewal 87). Barbies arrival and these market strategies had wider ramifications as transnational barbie made its forays into fashion industry also. This industry along with Bollywood looked for those global strandards which could attract more consumers. It provided an opportunity to Indian girls to idenyify themselves with those fashion icons who themselves emulated the global fashion trends. Suddenely, the concept of what is

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beautiful, or what is excellent, or what is perfect underwent a radical change because every girl wanted to be like barbie with anything else being unacceptable. In this way, western consumerism became a global phenomenon. Barbie also became a basis to set standard scripts of beauty that transcends culture and ethnicity. The current standard of beauty feeds fashion, diet, entertainment, and luxury having become the part of consumer culture. Though dolls are available in different clothes and hairstyles but these also continued colonial mentality of fairness.

Fig.3. Barbie Vintage Booklet How to Lose Wikipedia.org|wiki|File : how_to_lose_weight JPG>

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Another aspect was related to fitness and health giving rise to anorexia as books were published (fig. 3) inspired from barbie. The ultra thin images of girls and women have become the measuring sticks of femininity in present culture. This anthropometry of barbie showed how individuals understand their bodies and themselves . It is this cultural imperative to remain ageless and lean that leads women to undergo painful surgeries and punish themselves with outrageous diets. Charles Baudrillard remarks, consumption is the axis of culture (5). He argues that in an increasingly globalised consumer society, consumption has been extended to all of culture. Themes of sexuality, gender, beauty were associated with barbie but in the process to follow consumerist tendencies, these very themes have been commidified. Body also has become captal and consumer object (131) because: In the capitalist period, body (is explored) like a deposit to be mined in order to extract from it visible signs of happiness, health, beauty, and the animality that triumphs in the marketplace of fashion (131).

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So consumer culture here does not mean plain and simple consumption. Capitalism transforms people into consumers by altering their self images and their structures of wants so that they merely serve capitalist accumulation. In 2009, Katrina Kaif bacame first (fig. 4) Indian barbie girl. This showed Bollywood stars participating as consumers in the transnational garment industry. Mattel has decided to launch Katrina look barbie as further market strategy.

Fig.4. Katrina views.html>

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However, this also presents local traditions and values. Inderpal Grewal sees in localized gendering practices and economic liberalization an opportunity to promote fashion design and modelling (110). The participation of Bollywood stars and promotion of fashion industry has generated interest among women to make garment and fashion industry as career options. Indian designers are also trying to get global standards. When we place barbie in African context, another aspect of race and color is quite striking. Ann Ducille in Toy Theory and Deep Play of Difference analyses this complex issue:

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Ethnic barbies are made of the same mold as real barbies. This reifies white standard of beauty as THE standard of beauty. All the dolls remain stereotypical (fig. 5) in whom there is only dash of color and change of clothes. Ducille posits that ultimately it is Barbies ability to be widely marketed that determines what kind of racial representations of Barbie Mattel will produce (25). The dolls are having same features, same figure except in change of color. So it is an effort to get one uniform standard for everybody whether Asian Barbie, Oriental Barbie, or Jamaican Barbie. Difference is, literally, manufactured through the production of ethnic Barbies. This is all for money. Exotic and essentialized images

Fig.5. White and Black Barbie <http://thesocietypages.org/socioimages|2008|10|2007|annducille-on-ethnic-barbies//> have been created through Oriental and Jamaican Barbies. Ducille argues that capitalism has appropriated what it sees as signifiers of blackness and made them marketable (26). So, this paper hints towards larger sociopolitical and cultural areas in which Barbies meaning becomes pervasive. Barbie, being a global product, also hints towards what has come to be known as glocalization. Barbie, having mutifarious identities, defines fluidity of identity in postmodern society. The debate is not to set what is good or bad, but to show how these products like Barbie can carry powerful meanings.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Banihali, Farah. Its Barbies World. 28 Dec. 2010. Web. < http: //www.altmuslimah.com/a/b/a /3213/>. Baudrillard, Charles. The Consumer Society: Myths and Structures. London: Sage, 1998. Print. Brettle, Caroline, and Caroline Sargent, ed. Gender in Cross Cultural Perspective. Barbie: Ideals of the Feminine Body in Popular Culture. by Jacqueline Urla and Alen Swedlund. 4th ed. USA: Princeton Hall, 2004. Google Book Search. Web. 8 Feb. 2011. Brunell, Miriam Forman. What Barbie Dolls have to say about Postwar American Culture. 28 Dec. 2010. Web. < http://www.smithsonianedcation.org/idea/abs/ap/essays|Barbie>. Ducille, Ann. Skin Trade. London: Harward UP, 1996. Google Book Search. Web. 2 Jan. 2011. Fleming, Dan. Powerplay: Toys as Popular Culture. New York: Manchester UP, 1996. Google Book Search. Web. 22 Dec. 2010. Fukuyama, Francis. Interview by the Miriam Lynch Forumm. Economic Globalization and Culture : A Discussion with Dr. Francis Fukuyama. Web. 7 Jan. 2011. Gay, Paul du, eds. Production of Culture/ Culture of Production. What in the World is Going on by Kevin Robins. London: Sage, 1997. Print. Grewal, Inderpal. Transnational America : Feminisms, Diasporas, and Neoliberalisms. America : Duke UP, 2005. Google Book Search. Web. 5 Jan. 2011. Lord, M.G. Forever Barbie: The Unauthorised Biography of A Real Doll. New York: Walker & Company, 2004. Google Book Search. Web. 25 Dec.2010. Macdougall, J. Paige. Transnational Commodities as Local Cultural Icons : Barbie Dolls in Mexico. Journal of Popular Culture. 37.2 (2003) : 257-277. Print. Ritzer, George. The Globalization of Nothing. London: Sage, 2004. Print. Rodgers, Mary F. Barbie Culture. London : Saze, 1999. Google Book Search. Web. 20 Dec. 2010.

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Spade, Jaan Z., and Catherine G. Valentine. The Kaleidoscope of Gender: Prisims, Patterns and Possibilities. Sec. ed. America: Sage, 2008. Google Book Search. Web. 12 Jan. 2011. Steger, Manford B. Globalization: A very Short Introduction. New Delhi: Oxford UP, 2006. Print. Terrebonne, Rene. Fulla the Veiled Barbie: An Analysis of Cultural Imperialism and agency. MAI Review, 2008. 2 Jan. 2011.1-7. Web. < http://www.review.mai.ac.nz >. Weissman, Kristin Noelle. Barbie: The Icon The Image The Ideal: An Analytical Interpretation of Barbie Doll in Popular Culture. USA: Universal P, 1999. Google Book Search. Web. 28 Dec. 2010.