Mondo Barbie: An Anthology of Fiction and Poetry

Mondo Barbie: An Anthology of Fiction and Poetry

Barbie is an American icon. But Barbie becomes a problem when the adult fantasy collides with the child's fantasy. All that misplaced Barbie angst of our youth, all the childhood conditioning, and the adult results are revealed at last in Mondo Barbie . "Barbie is in the air, all right! "Since we began this anthology, we’ve seen articles on Barbie in magazines as wide-ranging as Parenting , People , and the Utne Reader . . . . We’re not the only ones. Friends, acquaintances, and contributors (real and imagined) have flooded our mailboxes with clippings about Barbie look-alike contests, cable TV shows, photography exhibits, sculptures, you name it. "Everyone had an anecdote. . . . "[Barbie] is an American icon. The product of an adult fantasy of a girl-child’s toy. Or is Barbie the adult’s toy and the child’s fantasy? What happens when the adult fantasy collides with the child’s fantasy? . . . "In the end the book divided into two definite strategies for dealing with the Barbie phenomenon―poems and stories from Barbie’s point of view, or writings about Barbie’s impact (as either doll or flesh and blood) on specific characters. These works are just a sampling of the vast array of material inspired by Barbie. Perhaps, as one writer suggested, we should start a Barbie hotline. A way to reach all those warped by Barbie. . . . After all, everyone loves Barbie, don’t they?" -- From the introduction by Richard Peabody and Lucinda Ebersole Poems, stories, and fantasies featuring the queen of American dolls that, all together, pack more of a punch than one might expect--a funny, irreverent, and sometimes shocking look at Barbie's function as national icon. She was stripped, decapitated, and buried alive. She was thrown against the wall in temper-tantrum sessions, mashed and twisted during bouts of masturbation, fearfully studied for long, angst-filled moments of teenaged sexual confusion. In this wide- ranging group of meditations on America's favorite plastic blond, the difference between real people and the super-artificial ideal stands out in stark, funny relief, and Barbie's serenely smiling silence plays effectively against the authors' hurried, confessional prose. In ``A Real Doll,'' A.M. Homes tells of a young boy who ``dated'' his sister's Barbie, stealing her from her place beside dorky Ken on his sister's dresser, muttering erotic phrases in her ear, then abruptly dumping her when she grew unattractively lusty. An excerpt from Kathryn Harrison's novel Thicker Than Water describes a young girl's tour of a Mattel toy factory, where enormous black women jam and twist thousands of Barbie heads onto plastic necks before tossing them onto a conveyor belt. ``Twelve- Step Barbie,'' by Richard Grayson, evokes a middle-aged, post- success Barbie trying to make it through a spirit-deadening day. In Denise Duhamel's poem ``Kinky,'' Barbie and Ken play at switching sex roles and clothes. And in Julia Alvarez's ``Floor Show,'' one of the more memorable stories here, the young daughter of political refugees slyly expresses her rage and resentment through a lovely, newly purchased doll. Remarkable for its emphasis on sexual experimentation, homosexuality, dysfunctional family situations, and other so-called ``deviant'' environments, the collection cleverly plays up, via selection as well as substance, Barbie's bizarre, surreally ``perfect'' presence in a wildly nonconforming world. More intriguing than it might have been--an unusually entertaining collection. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. Mondo Barbie , edited by Richard Peabody and Lucinda Ebersole, features contributions from Sandra Cisneros, Alice McDermott, Julia Alvarez, Marge Piercy, A.M. Homes, Denise Duhamel, Jeanne Beaumont, Gary Soto, Lynne McMahon, Kathryn Harrison, Patricia Storace, Richard Grayson, Leslie Shiel, Laura Costas, Sharon Henry, Cookie Lupton, David Trinidad, Lisa B. Herskovits, Belinda Subraman, John Varley, Ellie Schoenfeld, Sparrow, Lyn Lifshin, Gregg Shapiro, Cathryn Hankla, Wayne E. Kline, Philip Levine, Rebecca Brown, Jose Padua, Jeff Weddle, Roberta Allen, Lynne Barrett, and Hilary Tham.