My name is tiny talking Barbie

Barbie will now offer a new way to be disturbing.  An upcoming version, Hello Barbie, will record words spoken to it by owners (or anyone nearby, really), then talk back after some data-crunching.

This presents all kinds of creepy possibilities:

• Privacy: what happens to a little girl's most private whispers, ingested by Mattel?
• What does Barbie's voice sound like?
• Will the Mattel backend process only allow for a few statements, turning Barbies into Sybils, issuing the rare, oracular pronouncement?
• When will the first Hello Barbie warble "I'm Talky Tina!"

 

• The hacking possibilities.
• Explanation: "Because Barbie told me to."
• Will the doll pick up any sound nearby?  The results could be strange/entertaining.

(thanks to Elena, Todd Bryant, and all other friends of Infocult)

Comments

[iamTalkyTina]

Oh! That Bubbie Barbie, what a poser she is, with those long blonde hairs and those ridiculous proportions. I mean, if she were made to scale, she would be walking her body out in front of her feet every time because her hindbrain was so tiny it kept forgetting to get the long legs to keep up.

Plus, what self-respecting doll sits around all day waiting on dork like that Ken? What a plastic idiot-smile that guy has on his mug 24/7! Goofball city! Give me a Man of Action GI Joe or Major Matt Mason any day!

The whole package is just a cheap, mass-produced marketing gimmick to sell chunks of convertible- and RV-shaped hunks of pink plastic to unsuspecting and impressionable young girls.

What the world needs more of is the self-empowered, female-of-action kind of ones, Like me!

Leave that Bubbie Blondie to degrade into bits of micro plastic molecules in the Pink Ghetto aisles of the neighborhood Toys R Us.

This fine lady has had her fill of the Bubbie Barbie media assault and is looking forward to getting good night's rest once Bubbie comes to rest after the final bounce off the bottom stairs.

iamTalkyTina

[Bryan Alexander]

Good point, T.T. We do need more of you.