Project Censored's State of the Free Press 2025 by Mickey Huff & Shealeigh Voitl & Andy Lee Roth

Author:Mickey Huff & Shealeigh Voitl & Andy Lee Roth [Mickey Huff & Shealeigh Voitl & Andy Lee Roth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: sociology; political science; propaganda; government; sociology books; political philosophy; geopolitics; political science books; history; history books; political books; politics; media; free speech; world politics; international politics; journalism; philosophy; pop culture; business; law; education; democracy; marketing; language; news; economics; censorship; culture; race; critical thinking; essays; reference; school; resistance; self help; work; writing; technology; linguistics; social; entertainment; statistics; psychology
ISBN: 9781644214305
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
Published: 2025-01-18T18:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 3

Just Barbie Girls in a Corporate Media World

Saying Kenough to Patriarchal Junk Food News

REAGAN HAYNIE, SIERRA KAUL, GAVIN KELLEY, JEN LYONS, MARCELLE SWINBURNE, and MICKEY HUFF

Either you’re brainwashed, or you’re weird.

–barbie (margot robbie), Barbie (2023)

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.

–hunter s. thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1971)

Political trends from liberal to conservative cycle in historical waves, fashion trends reappear every twenty to thirty years (give or take), and even gender roles shift to reflect the norms of a given historical period. For women, there were many transformations in the twentieth century, from the Flappers of the 1920s to Rosie the Riveter in WWII, and from Barbie of the 1950s to, well, Barbie in the twenty-first century! In the marketing industry, the reprise of such patterns and how they are adapted for the public is known as “rebranding.” That is exactly what the Mattel toy company has done with one of its most famous products, Barbie.

As it turns out, the doll who once inspired the song lyric “life in plastic, it’s fantastic” has reemerged in the past year as a feminist icon (and the plastic now resides in our organs and archeological digs, but that’s another matter).1 Of course, there have been classic rebrands over the decades—Doctor Barbie, Astronaut Barbie, and even Stereotypical Barbie. The 2023 Hollywood blockbuster Barbie even showed audiences that it was okay to be “Weird Barbie.” In a surge of performative wokeness, including co-opting the slogans of recent social justice movements, the corporate world was ready to rebrand and exploit Barbie feminism.

In this day and age, anyone can be Barbie. And if we look around at our culture and what’s happening today, we mean anyone. There’s International Superstar Barbie, Taylor Swift. She transformed from the humble daughter of a Merrill Lynch vice president to a global celebrity. Talk about pulling yourself up by your bootstraps (Benjamin Franklin Ken not included)! Then, we have Hip-hop Barbies, Megan Thee Stallion and Nicki Minaj. These two have been trading raps and going toe-to-toe in the music world, proving you really can be (and say) anything. Heck, there’s even a raft of Congressional Barbies and Kens among politicos in the nation’s capital, with talking head pundits in hot pursuit. And we can’t forget Warmonger Barbie, also known as Hillary “We Came, We Saw, He Died” Clinton. She transitioned from Mistress Shaming Barbie, following her stint as First Lady Barbie, and has now re-emerged as Election Cheerleader Barbie, though she has also reverted to Shaming Barbie when it comes to telling young people they know nothing about history.2 Clinton persists in becoming First Female President Barbie, but Mattel refuses to produce this model (they’re just not “with Her”) . . . and word on the street is that she is just not Kenough.

The growth of this Barbie universe would not be possible without the help of the Junk Food News universe. “Junk Food News,” a term originally coined by Project Censored’s founder Carl Jensen in 1983,

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.