Tuesday, June 02, 2015

The feminine ideal
                    In the children’s bookstore at the Jinan Art Museum, I saw a book obviously intended for little Chinese girls. Even in China, one cannot escape from Barbie,  with her infinitesmal waist and gargantuan chest.  No Western woman I know is actually shaped this way, and Chinese women have way smaller breasts than we.  Besides, the Chinese have very dark hair.  Shouldn’t a doll look more like the child who plays with it?

1 comment:

Renee' C. Lyons said...

Most definitely! As in books, toys should reflect (mirror) the culture and allow a child to see other "real" cultures (windows). (It all goes back to Rosenblatt)! Without such depictions, alas, we have social issues based in individual dysfunction.

What does tomorrow mean? It is 5:30 pm here, but at home it’s 5:00 in the morning. I leave Weihai tomorrow and make a stop in Beijing. ...