Opinion Who is your Barbie: Kat or Ash?
Harneet Singh | Fully Filmi<br> With its fair skin and blue eyes,a Barbie has come to be regarded as a personification of all things pretty that being a girl is made out to be.
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Its a well-established fact that girls love dolls and boys love toy trucks. In the urban context,before a girl grows up to make friends with diamonds,the Barbie is her best friend.
With its fair skin and blue eyes,a Barbie has come to be regarded as a personification of all things pretty that being a girl is made out to be. The Barbie quotient is so strong in our collective consciousness that celebs like Paris Hilton actually want to look like a real life version of the plastic sensation.
Clearly Barbie is a big deal. Its been for 50 years and going by the number of pink boxes in childrens departmental stores,Barbie doesnt need to worry its pretty head with thoughts of slowdown or meltdown.
The splash that it made at the recently concluded Lakme Fashion Week is a testament to the equity and endurance of brand Barbie. As a kid,little girls are known to have doll fights over their Barbies. But it was funny to see two top actresses almost have a public slug over one!
First,it was reported that Aishwarya Rai Bachchan would be the first Indian actress to have her face on a Barbie. A day later,Katrina Kaifs publicity machinery went into overdrive to make the correction: it is not Ash but Kat who is going to be the face of Barbie. Sure enough,Katrina walked the ramp and that was public validation. She even looked like a Barbie in a frilly pink thing.
A day later,Aishwaryas publicist sent out a statement claiming that though she was the first choice of the Leo Mattel company,because she could not spare the dates required for the ramp show,she didnt take it up. Hmmm!
The same day,Katrina gave an interview to a Mumbai tabloid where she reportedly said,As far as I know,Aishwarya was never under consideration. It was me. So I don’t know where these stories came from We’ve been in negotiations for nearly six months. It finally came together for the 50th year celebration of Barbie. Ouch!
All this for a plastic doll! Yeah,well,when the doll represents 45 nationalities and is sold in more than 150 countries throughout the world,it must be a big deal. Interestingly,one of the most common criticisms of Barbie is that she promotes an unrealistic body image for a young woman,leading to the risk of girls becoming anorexic chasing Barbie dreams.
A wikipedia entry says a standard Barbie doll is 11.5 inches tall,giving a height of 5 feet 9 inches at a 1/6 scale. Her vital statistics have been estimated at 36-18-33. But these considerations come to a naught when international recognition or mega bucks are at stake.
Back to the Katrina Barbie,undoubtedly its a matter of great pride that an Indian actress will have her own line of Barbie dolls. But since Katrina is half Brit and quite fair,her Indian Barbie would hardly look like an average Indian. For that reason alone,it would have been interesting to see the reception to the Ash Barbie.
But well,that aint happening since Kat is our Barbie for now.
Ah,the games girls play!
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