So here's today's installment:
The new Barbie Movie:
What's Barbie's whole deal? It's that she's versatile and independent, strong, and capable of doing or being whatever she wants. Great role model for girls. She can be a doctor, a lawyer, she has her own house, car, all that.
So how does Mattel decide to cast Barbie in her own movie debut?
Oh, she's a PRINCESS who has to be RESCUED by a handsome prince, who takes her to HIS kingdom (all the Disney-style animal side-kicks are there in all their half-hearted predictability; she even sings EXACTLY like every other Disney princess, it's sickening!) and she then has to COMPETE for the prince with ANOTHER WOMAN; another woman, mind you, who is EVIL! (Never mind that the evil woman is a red-head named Arianna; I'll wait to find out that the religious right is behind this effluvium to be pissed off about that subtle dig against populist pundit Arianna Huffington.) I mean, COME ON! As I watched this trailer, I couldn't be any more sickened or uninspired. Where's the Barbie message: "You can be anything you want, girls? Strive for independence and self-discovery?" The message this movie sends is simple: If you're born a princess, or lucky enough to be swept away by a prince, and you're beautiful (I mean, that's a given, you have to be beautiful; the whole paradigm breaks down if you're not beautiful, kiddies -- did you not watch the Opening Ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics?) you have a chance to be surrounded by mechanistic, effeminate, animated animals and take on the liberal left and defeat it's evil scheme to (forgive us, Lord) empower women such that they do not define themselves according to how rich, handsome and woven into the aristocratic tapestry are their male rescuers! Can this crap, Mattel. "Oh, it's harmless," you say? "It's just entertainment," you say? "Little girls like princesses," you say? I say it's sh*t.
And I hate it.
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