Re-Inventing Barbie…
As I held the doll in my hands, turning the small plastic figurine over, looking at the intricate details on her arms, legs, head, I wondered what went into imagining the unique concept of this inanimate personality. There was a collection of one-of-a-kind Barbies sprawled out before me on a table in the alley in the heart of Courtenay, now a makeshift exhibition gallery for the First Annual Elevate The Arts Festival. Three young girls no older than 16 sat on the opposite side, proudly running their booth for the Comox Valley Girls Group. Hundreds of people swarmed the tables of artists and performers. The girls stood out in the sea of creative ambiance paired with rabid curiosity of locals and tourists; they were radicals with a message to voice a concern fo their adolescence. Next to me several adults in their late 50’s to early 60’s pushed their way into the display of dolls, to which I had been admiring.
“Why would anyone do this to Barbie? It’s disgusting. I don’t understand why you would encourage young girls to butcher this doll in such a horrible manner.”
The thing about people who try desperately to keep their conversations to a whisper level is they don’t
