| Abstrakt: |
As Mattel celebrated the 65th anniversary of Barbie in 2024, to address the issues raised by by this plastic object and its influence in our culture and collective imaginary carries profound implications. Barbie, the iconic doll created by Ruth Handler in 1954, has a long cultural history as a globally relevant phenomenon which has been explained from two conflicting perspectives: either as a feminist revolutionary model, or as a hegemonic representation. Using the conceptualization of schizophrenia and capitalism, or the “body without organs” (BwO), proposed by Deleuze and Guattari in Anti-Oedipus, this article presents Barbie as a manifestation of contemporary depletion of criticism. Discussed with the tools of ideological and ludological analysis, the movie Barbie (2023), directed by Greta Gerwig, provides the main case study for the debate about the transformations of our ludic experiences, with references to the adaptation of this popular toy to various other media. This tendency, considered to be relevant for contemporary social and economic dynamics, is related to the concept of puerilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
