Forever Barbie_ The Unauthorized Biography of a Real Doll - Lord [2]
Near Barbie's forty-fifth birthday in 2004, Mattel made what was supposed to be a dramatic announcement: Barbie had split from Ken. To many, however, this came as no surprise; Barbie's roving eye has for years been an open secret in Toyland. As early as 1972, for example, photographer David Levinthal caught Barbie in compromising positions with G.I. Joe. (Images from the series appear in this book.)
Barbie's behavior is consistent with what I have come to term Beverly Hills Matron Syndrome, which afflicts many women in midlife. The symptoms include ditching one's longtime consort, sporting age-inappropriate clothing (the post-Ken Barbie comes with racy new beachwear), and dating unsuitable younger men—anonymous male dolls that, if not born yesterday, were probably fabricated within the last eighteen months. I suspect, however, that working with a Toyland therapist, Barbie may recover and reconcile with Ken, who, having disappeared for a while, will be ideally positioned for an attention-grabbing comeback.
When asked to comment on the implications of the latest Barbie, I often observe that today's "new" model was issued in a slightly different form twenty or thirty years earlier. In the last decade, while much has indeed happened, it seems precious little has changed. At Mattel as in Ecclesiastes, there is nothing new under the sun.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Like the doll itself, Forever Barbie was not made by a lone extremist. Thanks to Paul Bresnick for coming up with the idea, and Janis Vallely for convincing him that I was the writer to implement it. To Sylvia Plachy, for those amazing photographs, as well as that weekend with Ella King Torrey in Niagara Falls. To Amy Bernstein, Corby Kummer, and Judith Shulevitz, for performing surgery without an anesthetic. To Anna Shapiro, the original Boho Barbie, for editorial and conceptual guidance. To Glenn Horowitz, for keeping me on track, and to the friends who kept my thinking on track: May Castleberry, Anne Freedgood, Ben Gerson, Marianne Goldberger, Caroline Niemczyk, Ellen Handler Spitz, and Abby Tallmer.
Because this book required extensive trips to Los Angeles and a monastic year of writing on Long Island, I must express thanks geographically: to the California contingent—Victoria Dailey, Barbara Ivey, Mike Lord, and Nancy Lord; the Sag Harbor contingent—Laurel Cutler, Dorothy Frankel, and Carol Phillips; and, in cyberspace, the Echo contingent—Marisa Bowe, Jonathan Hayes, Stacy Horn, and NancyKay Shapiro.
On the research front, thanks to Tom Fedorek, Caroline Howard, Jeremy Kroll, Donna Mendell, and Jessy Randall. And to Mary Lamont, my stalwart transcriber.
Nor could I have written this without certain spokespeople for the under-twelve set: Polly Bresnick, Honor McGee, Meredith Niemczyk, Gabriel Nussbaum, Lilly Nussbaum, and Heather O'Brien.
Many people interviewed for this book provided background rather than extensive quotations. For a consumer-watchdog look at the toy industry and at children's television, thanks to Diana Huss Green and Peggy Charren. On the role of stylists in the fashion industry, thanks to Michele Pietre and Debra Liguori. On family dynamics and eating disorders, thanks to Laura Kogel and Lela Zaphiropoulos of the Women's Therapy Center Institute. On goddess iconography in visual art, thanks to Monte Farber and Amy Zerner. For an insider's perspective on collecting, thanks to Joe Blitman, Karen Caviale, Beauregard Houston Montgomery, and Marlene Mura. And to Gene Foote, for permitting Geoff Spear to photograph his "girls."
Then there were the friends who acquainted me with books, artwork, ideas, and people that I needed to know: Charles Altshul, Lauren Amazeen, Vicky Barker, Janet Borden, Russell Brown, Susan Brownmiller, Jill Ciment, Suzanne Curley, Deirdre Evans-Prichard, Eric Fischl, Henry Geldzahler,