You know how mothers constantly nag their daughters? My mom kept nagging me to do something productive at home and forced me to clean my room just now. While attempting to clean up, I found this pink dusty trolley bag with the brand name Barbie on it under my bed. It looked familiar to me and I remembered that I used to keep my favorite Barbie dolls in there when I was a kid. I immediately unzipped the trolley bag and found ten Barbie dolls inside. Nine of them were Western-inspired. Nine of them hand long blond hair, blue eyes and white skin color. Nine of them wore either micro mini skirts, skimpy tank tops and high heels or hanging tops and fitted pants and ankle-high heeled boots. Only one of the ten dolls were Asian-inspired. It had black hair, black eyes, medium skin color or what I refer to as sand 14 when buying foundations(make-up). It was wearing a very elegant baro't saya. I stared at that Asian doll for a while and thought that I recognized who that Asian doll was patterned from. It looked like a Filipina. I took notice of the shoulder pads of the baro of the Asian doll. The shoulder pads were too high and that style was the trademark of the former first lady, Imelda Marcos. I had a limited edition Imelda Marcos doll!
The ratio of the Western dolls to the Asian dolls that I have is 9:1. I asked myself, "Why?" Do I really have a stronger preference for Western dolls than Asian dolls? I don't even have African dolls. Okay, I admit to myself that I am fond of platinum blond Barbie dolls and I do think they're beautiful. What could have shaped my perception of beauty? What could have influenced me to purchase more Western dolls than Asian or African dolls? Am I exercising a form of discrimination? Questions continue to boggle my mind. I googled the name "Barbie" online and came across the term, Barbie syndrome. It happens when women want to become like Barbie and they want to be in their best appearance to attract men. I read that when children play with Barbies, they associate themselves with the doll and try to identify with it. Now that scares me because Barbie has proportions that are not realistic. I also see people wearing blue contact lenses and dying their hair blonde. I hope that my younger sisters and the younger generations will not be diagnosed with the Barbie syndrome. I want them to embrace their race. <3>
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