As Barbie has evolved with the times over the years, she’s been put into the harsh perspective of what it once meant to dole out the patriarchal ideal for mass consumption, ramming it down little girls’ throats whether they wanted to be Barbie’s version of “pretty” or not. That said, as the years have flown by to evolve society toward the other spectrum of cartoonishness, we’ve seen all manner of “politically correct” Barbies, including Black Barbie (popularized by Nicki Minaj in 2016, the same year Mattel rolled out a line of dolls of various new shapes, sizes and ethnicities) and Plus Size Barbie. These names, of course, are not official.
Her latest iteration, however, is perhaps the most surprising of all. Mainly because it probably should have happened sooner, that is to say, at the peak of the “hipster” oversaturation of culture that occurred somewhere around 2015 before dipping out in favor of being an outright consumerist with no attempts at pretending to be “artsy.” Yet Mattel is somewhat late to the party on that former front in bringing us “Keith Haring Barbie”: a regular Barbie dressed head-to-toe in attire marked by his signature “Radiant Baby” design. She’s also got coordinating white boots and a silver tote bag posing as a boombox. It’s all very on the nose 80s. Because when Barbie adopts a trend, she’s going to be nothing if not meticulous about it.
The thing is, Barbie was once upon a time, believe it or not, her own trendsetter, at the same time as being reflective of whatever decade’s most iconic sartorial style she was wearing. Had she opted to don this “special edition” garb in the actual 80s, it might have been more prescient as opposed to merely desperate in its capitalization on an artist already overblown at the moment.
Yet one should never be surprised by the extent to which a dead artist’s work can be whored out for profit. After all, there’s already been Keith Haring x Lacoste, Keith Haring x Coach and Keith Haring x UNIQLO collaborations. And now, Keith Haring x Barbie.
Yes, Keith Haring was “queer,” as people now like to say, but that doesn’t mean he would’ve wanted a doll wearing his shit just because people think the stereotype of a gay man is appreciating women solely for their looks (so they can apparently sometimes emulate them in drag). If anything, Barbie goes against the very demographic his art was once intended for: those too fucking broke to buy or be given a Barbie. But those man of the people days are over. He’s now a man of Barbie’s plastic tits. This particular one retailing for fifty dollars. Which would’ve bought a lot of cocaine in the 80s.
