A new Barbie doll has - is - a video recorder. Preparing to trigger mutligenerational nightmares, "Barbie Video Doll Girl" has a display screen embedded in her back. Her camera is located, ah, "in her pendant" (says the Times) or "hidden discreetly in her necklace" (Mattel).
This videographer-Barbie-robot summons up two kinds of anxieties. One is the usual set of fearsome doll and little robot woes, a la Little Talking Tina. That's the usual flip side of adorable little humanoid-things, which Kleist nailed so well two centuries ago.
A second anxiety involves fears of surveillance. Note that the Mattel site celebrates that "this Barbie is a hidden camera!" There's a sousveillance delight here, as we imagine little girls videorecording bad authority figures, say. But we can also tremble at the thought of little Barbiebots spying on families, including their dreaming girls.
The combination of these two, the anthropomorphic YouTube feeder, produces a nifty nexus of desires and fears around bodies and technology. For instance, the Times helpfully notes
Because the doll can be posed, she doubles as a pretty good tripod.
Is this collapse of subject (the way kids dream dolls to life) and object (media tool) a nice illustration of Kristeva's theory of the abject? Desiring and the desired re-swap here. Imagine one kid saying to another "I want to shoot with your Barbie", or "Can I look through your Barbie?"
Romantic readers, or Ken Russell fans, or readers of Tim Powers' Stress of her Regard might recall the odd Percey Shelley eyes-in-her-breasts theme. Alternatively, it's a reversal of boys staring at girls' chests.
The best part is where Mattel hid the batteries: One in each of Barbie's thighs. It's almost mythopoeic. *Hours* on the therapists' couch!
Choking hazard? Yeah.
Magnificent! Since Barbie Millicent Roberts was modeled after the soft-porn German Lily, I expect this version could also become "Blue Movie Barbie" in the right (perverse) hands. Although Barbie and I are the same age, we've definitely chosen different career paths.
Posted by: Thomas Burkdall | July 30, 2010 at 15:45
Ha! Nice one, Thomas.
Posted by: Bryan Alexander | July 31, 2010 at 18:06