Dauntless Barbie, you're a real doll!

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Barbie's Beach Bus. What else would a girl of my age in New York possibly want for her birthday? My mother was not inclined to indulge me, given that I had half a dozen Barbies and many of her accessories already. Indian parents, at least of that era, had a deathly fear of spoiling their children.

Luckily, a generous older cousin had no such notions. So in October 1973, a huge package arrived with the 'bus', basically a camper van that had to have its wheels screwed on. It came with beach furniture, a surfboard, and picnic vessels.

Even half a century later I can remember all the details of the bus, including the fact that pink was not the predominant colour but blue. And no one thought that the blonde bombshell in the bus was an incongruous toy for a skinny, dark-haired, brown-eyed Indian girl. In fact, with Barbie on the comeback trail in 2023 amid beach parties all over the world and a profusion of pink, it's time she gets an apology from all those who derided her for decades.

It was plain sexist to judge Barbie only by and for her looks and it has taken a blockbuster movie to finally call it out. Now that she has found a voice, it seems she was never an airhead. She was labelled so by people who needed a high-profile scapegoat.

Barbie has been the perfect target all these decades as she did not have much to say for herself; she was only a doll after all. And all she did was dress up but, arguably, a doll can do little else even now. Even if she had wanted to put on weight, become a brunette or get tattoos she had no say.