little girls and their dreams – a post about barbies
Thursday, 27 May 2010
Marcus Goodyear wrote a book of poetry. He wrote a book of poetry about Barbies. About Barbies at Communion. Barbies don’t go to communion.
Or do they?
All week, I’ve been thinking about Barbies, thanks in part to a Tweetspeak Party this week, and in part to an email from L.L. Barkat asking me to write about them.
So I BOUGHT Barbies this week. (Thank you, Marcus, and L.L. and Claire, for the excuse to spend that money on my daughter.)
I didn’t exactly buy them for Piper, though. I bought them to take pictures. Because you know me. I don’t post without pictures.
This photo is what Barbies look like to me.
They weren’t slutty, they weren’t too thin or too pretty or too something I couldn’t be. They were wishes and dreams and anything I wanted to be. Damsels in distress, girls in long, flowing dresses, wonderful singers, friends, sisters, mothers, daughters, wives, girlfriends, babysitters. They were my childhood picture of what I was as a girl.
Beautiful.
It didn’t matter to me that Barbies are blonde. Or that they are thin. Or that they have lots of things. They said something I needed to know; they were intensely, incredibly feminine. They were girls. I was too. And they lived all of my dreams.
All of my brides are Barbies to me, girlhood dreams dressed up in their gorgeous white dresses, with their perfect hair and happy, happy smiles. On the day their “beautiful” comes true, I get to be there, and I capture their dream, and I tell them with my pictures what dreams I see for them on their wedding day.
I giggled as I shot this photo this morning, mentally justifying the care I put into it as practice for my wedding shoot on Monday. But it felt a little like a self-portrait, to take her picture in the light and let the camera do its work with her so I could show you what I was when I was little.
Piper loves them already. She has played with nothing else since we pulled them from the packaging last night. I have an entire Barbie photo album because she wanted me to take pictures of them. (And because I overshoot when I find something pretty. Digital cameras are baaad.) I think she sees what I see. They are her “friends” already. Right up there with Mickey and Minnie.
I’m really looking forward to reading Marcus’s book. Because I like poetry, and I like Marcus’s perspective on life. But I have to get the book first. So I’m entering a giveaway at Tweetspeak Poetry.
You should too. Even if you don’t like Barbies. I think Marcus has some pretty good stuff to say. About how Barbies aren’t really what people think they are. About how they go to communion with the people who played with them. About how maybe our lives aren’t really what they seem.
…
From Barbies to tea bags and credit cards, from broken pipes to communion wafers and mowing dead grass, Marcus Goodyear moves us through our world. His juxtapositions of the conventionally sacred and profane reveal to us the falsness of our conventions. Where the vision is large, all is sacred.
— John Leax, author Tabloid News
No. 1 — May 27th, 2010 at 1:43 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Hadassah Fey, Kelly Langner Sauer. Kelly Langner Sauer said: "little girls and their dreams" a post about – you guessed it – barbies http://bit.ly/cGfBzO #tsptry [...]
No. 2 — May 27th, 2010 at 4:03 pm
I loved Barbies (and paper dolls!) when I was little. I tried to encourage my daughter to love them too, but she did not understand their purpose, found them boring, and put all their clothes on her toy dinosaurs instead!
.-= sarah´s last blog .. =-.
No. 3 — May 27th, 2010 at 6:15 pm
“She did write. She did pray. She did love. When we were young we heard it all” Marcus Goodyear.
No. 4 — May 27th, 2010 at 6:49 pm
yes. I so got that…
No. 5 — May 27th, 2010 at 7:22 pm
I appreciate the part about how you think about “your” brides before and while you’re photographing them, that you see with eyes of love that are dreaming possibilities.
.-= Maureen´s last blog ..See Me Let Me Be Me Barbies (Poem) =-.
No. 6 — May 27th, 2010 at 7:23 pm
Kelly, that is an incredible picture of the doll. And I think you explained Barbies in a way that men can finally understand:
“They said something I needed to know; they were intensely, incredibly feminine. They were girls. I was too. And they lived all of my dreams.”
That’s something I can get behind for my daughter (who loves Barbies by the way).
.-= Marcus Goodyear´s last blog ..Born Again…and Again…and Again… =-.
No. 7 — May 27th, 2010 at 7:51 pm
Sarah, on the dinosaurs! Oh that’s great.
I admit I never was a Barbie fan. And when people gave them to my girls, they often “got lost.” Some made it through the mom-filter though and I talked with my daughter about them the other night. She says they were “too flimsy” and their legs and arms came off but “we loved to switch their heads.”
That made me laugh.
As much as your photo makes me smile. It is truly lovely.
Kathleen, you pulled my favorite line from the whole night. It is true Marcus material too.
.-= L.L. Barkat´s last blog ..God in Your Yards =-.
No. 8 — May 27th, 2010 at 10:07 pm
Wow Kelly, the lighting is exquisite!
.-= Cheryl Smith´s last blog ..They’re Meeting Without Me aka How to Turn Disappointment Into Something Positive =-.
No. 9 — May 28th, 2010 at 7:54 am
Oh I loved Barbies so much as a kid. It was strange — I was half-tomboy, climbing trees and getting filthy, and half girly-girl, playing with the Barbie Airplane with my best friend. Sort of wish I had girls now so I could buy Barbies, even though I know it’s not very feminist and all that.
.-= Michelle at Graceful´s last blog ..Owl Eyes =-.
No. 10 — May 28th, 2010 at 9:34 am
What Barbies were for me was another way to tell stories. They were my characters to play out whatever my imagination created that day. I love how you describe them as sisters…friends. Yes, I guess they were that for me as well.
A lovely way to see, Kelly.
.-= laura´s last blog ..For the Toy Box… =-.
No. 11 — May 28th, 2010 at 4:35 pm
This is a beautiful post and a breathtaking picture. Thank you.
No. 12 — May 28th, 2010 at 10:27 pm
She’s got some look going on there. Really.
All the Barbie thing keeps making me chuckle. When my sisters and her friends would play, I’d get dragged into it. Usually took my assigned doll with me to the woods, propped her in a tree and went off to do what I wanted until they yelled at me to get back in the game. Doll and I returned, made our appearance, and departed again for the woods.
Was rather not my thing… I had the weird looking doll with chopped off bangs.
.-= Lyla Lindquist´s last blog ..Becoming Men =-.
No. 13 — June 4th, 2010 at 10:43 am
[...] Song Has Not Been Heard Bradley’s The Bad Business of Being Barbie Kelly’s Little Girls and Their Dreams: a Post About Barbies Cassandra’s Pink Heather’s Dear Barbie Laura’s For the Toy Box and Whole [...]