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Barbie’s midlife crisis

Barbie turns 50 this year and instead of going to a spa, a salon or out to a fancy dinner, she is going to a tattoo parlor.

She is not like other 50-year-olds who are “over the hill.” Instead she seems to be rolling back down the hill.

So much for aging gracefully.

Many women and parents of young girls already think that Barbie is a bad role model because she is impossibly thin with a disproportionate bust.

Now Barbie is doing one more thing that is causing controversy: getting tattoos.

Barbie started her career as a teenage fashion model in 1959, she was in the Navy in 1991, she became a presidential candidate in 1992, she has been an astronaut three times and she became a bond girl in 2002 when Ken became James Bond.

After an illustrious career of high fashion and success, Barbie is now into the tattoo scene.

She comes with a tattoo gun, a selection of tattoos for herself and the lucky little girl who gets to play with her.

And do not forget the selection of clothes, which includes tube tops and a miniskirt.

The 2009 tattoo Barbie is not the first. Mattel gave her a butterfly tattoo on her midriff in 1999, but she did not last long. She was pulled from shelves after complaints from angry parents and other critics.

But what makes Mattel think that Tattoo Barbie will not be shunned again?

Maybe its because people have already taken Barbie’s looks into their own hands, including girls who have drawn on her with markers and makeup.

In the late 1990s a store in San Francisco sold Barbies that it redressed and renamed before Mattel’s lawyers got wind of it. There was Trailer Trash Barbie, Hooker Barbie and Drag Queen Barbie, which was actually a Ken doll dressed in drag.

And Sarah Burge did not take Barbie’s looks into her own hands, but put her own looks in the hands of surgeons to make herself into a real life Barbie.

Not everyone is against Barbie keeping up with the times. One comment poster on Amazon.com said that they think Tattoo Barbie is “edgy and cool.”

Whether you love her or loathe her, Barbie is here to stay, and possibly shock her public, for many years to come.

“Now let’s see a Prison Tat Ken and Barbie’s Piercing Parlor Playhouse,” a mother who posted a comment on Amazon.com said.

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Unsigned editorials represent the opinion of the Campus Times Editorial Board.

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