Sunday, April 15, 2007

Kinky - a criticism of conformity

Ideals and values always seem to be very dangerous, very discussable issues probably because noone really knows which are good and bad, which are positive and which are negative. The reason is as simple as it is frightening: our sense of good and bad is also only derived from indoctrinated values, morals and ideals. That makes it hard for us to control the ideals with which we influence our younger generation. With all the new media children today are influenced by society in many different ways. Among others, movie and music stars tell our children the perfect way to look, to think, to live for example.
In her book "Kinky" Denise Duhamel shows how strongly even the toy industry takes part in the indoctrination of our young ones with certain ideals by taking a close look at the number one traditional famous toy for girls, the Barbie. With many poems written from the perspective of the barbie, Duhamel criticises how Barbie only represents a certain class, a certain too conservative ideal that should be overcome and changed in these times. Barbie is this white, blond, blue-eyed girl with a waist about the size of her neck and only concerned with her looks. Through Barbie little girls are indirectly told at a very young age that these are the ideals they have to follow in life. This is what a woman has to look like.
Duhamel criticises in a sarcastic, half sad, half ironic voice how race is evidently still an issue, how there is no Puerto Rican, no Chinese, no Native American Barbie and if there is, it is not even half as popular as the original one. Girls are indirectly told they have to have long hair, even long blond hair. Sure we do want our children to know that eating healthy and not being overweight is important to enhance the quality of their life but Barbie's ridiculously skinny waist is unachievable for most normal girls thus indirectly contributing to the increase in anorexic girls. What is worse, instead of fighting these implications, the industry picks up on this trend by producing jeans for anorexic stars like Nicole Richie and advertising an disease as fashionable.
Instead of making a point that we live in a multi-cultural community today and that diversity should be desired, Barbie is a symbol for a conservative unchanging view on life, in which your race determines your status, in which women are merely men's accessories and in which we embrace ultimate conformity.
Barbie is just a symbol but so many of us can relate to it, so many girls have played with one, so many boys have either done the same or at least have broken one in half to annoy their sister. It is a toy everyone of us can describe, everyone could draw. Everyone has that same picture of a Barbie in mind. That is what makes it such a strong symbol, such a great tool for Duhamel's criticism and that also shows us as readers how much we ourselves have already been indoctrinated with the wrong or at least with a very selective view on life.

I understand that apart from the question of conformity there are other issues displayed, criticised or brought to attention in Duhamel's poems, for example the treatment of the Native Americans in "Native American Barbie" or gender roles and the differences between the sexes but I chose to discuss the question of conformity as it appeared to me to be the predominant issue in the book and because it struck me the most. On a personal note, Denise Duhamel has in one night become one of my favorite poets. I thought her poems very open, very easy to relate to but at the same time deep in meaning, sad, sarcastic, ironic, witty and honest.

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