In case you missed it, Mattel released the first Jewish Barbie. As you may remember if you subscribed to me a year ago, I had a prediction for what might happen in such a case, after witnessing the reaction to the first autistic Barbie, which, as a person of half Ashkenazi Jewish extraction, I’m allowed to make:
How exactly would they denote “Jewish?” Would she come with bagels? Would she have a bigger than average nose? If she had a small Barbie nose, would that be “whitewashing” her heritage, while a bigger nose would be relying on antisemitic tropes? Would she have curly hair, or would that also be a stereotype? Would she come with some kind of evidence of lactose intolerance? It terrifies me to think about the Discourse that would surround the first Jewish Barbie, and I’m not even touching whether or not she would support Israel.
Well, turns out my prediction was completely accurate! The new Hanukkah Barbie has been under fire for having a nose that’s “too big,” which, all I can say is…I do not look forward to the reaction to the first CHH Barbie, should she exist, if they think this qualifies as a honker so large it verges on antisemitic caricature:
Anyway, in the spirit of my “unlocked article Wednesday” tradition, I’ve decided to release my previous article on the autistic Barbie controversy, since it’s basically the same thing and explains why a singular doll meant to represent any group of people will literally always offend.
This will be free-walled, so the rest of that article will appear below after you subscribe, either free or paid.
