Ruby has a Barbie. We managed to avoid any and all interest in such things with Cecilia, but Ruby is ... well, Ruby. She changes her clothes multiple times a day, she notices clothes and outfits on others, and she thinks pink is the greatest color on the planet. This year, Santa brought her a new scooter for Christmas, and he might have had a coupon for the Barbie version of the scooter - the kind that comes with a spot for a Barbie doll. I suspect that Santa thought in order for the present to be complete, it should probably have a Barbie in the Barbie spot. And while I won't presume to always understand Santa's motivation, I think it's a fair assessment. Anyway...
One of the cats has done some chewing on Barbie's feet. Ruby discovered this yesterday and was very upset. There were tears and dirty looks shot at both cats, but I managed to calm Rubes down by telling her she should just bandage her up and pretend that Barbie had suffered some injury. Once we had a solution in mind, the whole thing was quickly forgotten and we moved on with our day.
I came home last night from a meeting after the girls were sleeping, but I did find their handiwork and HAD to share it:
Clearly Ruby recruited her older sister for this procedure because the work is just too good. Too bad the cats didn't start by giving Barbie a breast reduction, but this is still super awesome.
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Revenge of the Nerds: How Barbie Got Her Geek On
BY ANN ZIMMERMAN
Serious career aspirations aren't the first thing most people associate with Barbie, the impossibly thin, high-heel-loving fashion doll.
Still, Barbie's maker, Mattel Inc., thought it would be interesting to ask young girls who visited the Barbie.com Web site to vote on what the doll's next career should be. Mattel gave them a choice of architect, anchorwoman, computer engineer, environmentalist and surgeon. All told, more than 600,000 votes were cast during a four-week period this past winter.
Girls the world over overwhelmingly cast their ballot for anchorwoman Barbie—"not a surprise, as girls see Katie Couric and a lot of other female anchors," says Stephanie Cota, senior vice president of marketing for the Barbie brand.
But what happened next, she says, "blew us away."
The voting was open to anyone, and nobody could vote more than once. But by the end of the first week, a growing flood of adult votes for computer engineer Barbie trumped the popular choice. Female computer engineers who learned about the election launched a viral campaign on the Internet to get out the vote and ensure Barbie would join their ranks.
"Please help us in getting Barbie to get her Geek on!" came the appeal from the blog GeekGirlCamp.com.
As Mattel puts it: Computer engineer Barbie "won the popular vote" and anchorwoman won the girls' vote.
Barbie landed her first gig as a teenage fashion model in 1959. Since then she's been an astronaut, a surgeon and a presidential candidate. Her latest career choice? Computer engineer.
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The result is a ponytailed doll in black leggings and a top decorated in binary code that spells Barbie, and lots of pink accessories—geek-chic glasses, Bluetooth headset and shoes.
Why grown women felt so strongly about having themselves represented by a doll—especially one that feminists have always loathed—speaks volumes both about the power of the iconic Barbie doll and the current state of women who work in computer and information sciences. Their ranks have declined in the past two decades. In 2008, women received only 18% of computer science degrees, down from 37% in 1985, according to the National Center for Women & Information Technology.
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