Barbie Fiat 500
If there’s anything that girls of all ages love (yes, even girls over 90), it has got to be Barbie. And this year, she celebrates her entry into the golden years of her life – 50. And she does it with not one, but two European hotties – the all-new Volkswagen Beetle and the Fiat 500. Both cars would really get Barbie fans sweating with excitement.
So-called the ‘Malibu Barbe New Beetle’, the new Beetle has a bright new pink theme, real rhinestones and a motorized vanity kit in her trunk. Her fans gathered at her Malibu dream house to witness her unveiling both rides. Inside the Beetle, there’s white leather seats and panels that reveals under a convertible top. It even has customized floor mats and leather accents embroidered with pink leather to match. If you pop it’s hood, you’d be surprised that even the engine dipstick resembles a fashion accessory – a lipstick. All of this from the joint efforts of custom car builders across America which include ABD Racing Werks, Katzkin Leather and Interiors, and FoamMolders. I’m sure each of them got their fair share of limited edition Barbie Dolls.
It’s again no surprise why Volkswagen became involved in the birthday celebration of perhaps the most famous toy on the planet. There’s are rumors spreading that her creator, Ruth Handler, had based Barbie on her own daughter’s favorite doll. Handler’s daughter, Barbara (see the namesake here?), “was fascinated with a buxom doll that … was based on a female German cartoon character, named Lilli, who used sex to get what she wanter.” Now, I’m not too sure if that fits Barbie’s image, but I’m quite sure it’s not going to do her any good as a role model to billions of girls around the world.
It’s a quite a different case with the pink Fiat 500. The car company’s, Style Center, got into partnership with Barbie’s owner, Mattel, to also give the much celebrated doll another choice of wheels. Looking at the Fiat 500, you’d likely mistake its new, bright pink paint job as nail polish. But unlike her Beetle, the Fiat 500 has silver Alcantara interior seats and panels. To complete the look, Fiat put in a set of silk yarn floormats. Of course, it won’t be a real Barbie car if it doesn’t have make-up to boot, that’s why it has a set of lip glosses in its glove box topped by a LED-lit mirror. And it won’t lose out to the Beetle with its bright crystal interior bezels, hub caps, window frames and roof aerial. It even gets a more personal touch with Barbie’s silhouette grazing its B-pillars.
I’m not sure if I agree with Fiat Style’s director though. Quoting Roberto Giolito, “Barbie is a looker, smart enough to listen to everyone, a universal ambassador opting for a car that never divides, but frees everyone from having to declare their social status.” I think he was just speaking for his company.
For me, Barbie is nothing more than a false icon. Something girls look up to but never understand. Barbie instills in the billions of girls and women around the world with a false sense of beauty. She is the perfect stereotype of what it means to be beautiful – slim, tall, fair-skinned, and blonde. Ever heard of ‘blonde is beautiful’? She exemplifies the belief that for someone to be beautiful, she has to look like Barbie, which is entirely unfair and unjustifiable. Every girl is beautiful in her own right. I just wish people would look past Barbie’s fantasy world and see her in her true, commercialized, colors.
As for the cars, well, I’m sure Barbie would look equally sweet in a Formula One car or Japanese drift machine. See, it’s not about aesthetics. It’s what a girl does that counts. And the societal limits that she overcomes as well that defines her as beautiful. In the male-dominated world of cars, girls have as much right as guys to drive Ferrari’s and Lamborghinis.
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