http://www.alternet.org/reproductivejustice/98608/sarah_palin_can_be_your_own_personal_barbieSarah Palin Can Be Your Own Personal BarbieBy Suzi Parker, AlterNet. Posted September 13, 2008.
It's not about sexism, stupid. It's about Barbie.
That's why a lot of women are gaga for Sarah Palin.
Women closing in on the big four-O -- the McCain-Palin target demographic for voters -- grew up role-playing endlessly with Barbie. They spent hours dressing dolls in sexy lingerie, stewardess uniforms, business suits and evening attire while pretending their Barbie was a CEO, a pilot or even -- gasp -- president.
Sarah, as she's called by her female fans, is a 21st century walking, talking, breathing brunette Barbie. Women long to be her friend and have her as a confidante -- the very role Barbie played during childhood. Naturally, women won't admit that Sarah is like Barbie because to do so seems unsupportively shallow and well, sexist, toward the first woman on a Republican presidential ticket.
But Sarah has lived a life very similar to Barbie's.
What girl didn't want to live in the enchanting, ever-changing world of Barbie? Sorry, Hillary, but Barbie was the first to crash the glass ceiling. After all, Barbie was an astronaut in 1965, five years before Neil Armstrong and crew landed on the moon and long before Sally Ride's space adventure. Barbie even ran for president in 1992 -- 15 years before Hillary, the first serious female contender in modern presidential politics, announced.
According to Mattel, Barbie has enjoyed more than 100 careers. In fact, the doll was designed by Ruth Handler in 1959 to assume many roles in life other than fashion model. Sarah followed Barbie's path and has repeatedly reincarnated herself in adventurous arenas that mirror those of the celebrated doll.
Sarah was a high school basketball star, and so hard-core on the court that she was nicknamed Sarah Barracuda. Imagine Barracuda Barbie with her knee-high jock socks and sexy short shorts showing the girls -- and boys -- how to score the winning jump shot. Props to Palin. She beat Barbie onto the court: Mattel didn't premiere a Basketball Barbie until the 1990s.
Mattel premiered a Miss America Barbie in 1974 when Sarah was still a child, and for three years, the doll, complete with her crown, sash, corsage and scepter, sashayed across toy chests in suburbia.
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Life hasn't always been rosy in Barbie's universe. In 1992, Mattel released Teen Talking Barbie. She got in trouble when she said, "Math is hard." Considering her interview this week with Charles Gibson, Sarah may be thinking the same thing about foreign policy.
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