In Buenos Aires, a Barbie playhouse big enough for fans
The Barbie store in Argentina is the only one of its kind, though not for long. Feminists may groan, but little girls still can't get enough of the impossibly proportioned doll.
Reporting from Buenos Aires — The glittering storefront in this capital's trendy Palermo district once housed an art gallery and then a Chinese restaurant. Now it's a haze of pink: all Barbie, all the time.
Inside, girls face a dazzling constellation of Barbie-labeled outfits and trinkets, watch Barbie DVDs on a flat-screen TV or choose their preferred Barbie hairdo ("Butterfly," "Princess," "Fashion Fever"). A rear door leads to the high point: the Casa de Barbie, complete with life-size Barbie bedroom, Barbie costumes and makeup counters, even a catwalk for showcasing Barbie couture or staging a Barbie disco.
And, everywhere, of course, are dolls. Lots of dolls.
"This place is fantastic," said Michelle Blanchard, 37, accompanying her wide-eyed daughter, Francisca, 4. "For little girls, it's a place of dreams."
Welcome to the world's only stand-alone Barbie store, an "experiential marketing" experiment deemed such a runaway hit that the mercantile temple to Barbiedom may be replicated on a global scale. Coming soon: a five-story Barbie emporium in Shanghai.
Feminists may cringe at the busty, narrow-hipped figure, and intellectuals may bemoan her portrayal of womanhood, but as she approaches her 50th birthday next year, Barbie remains, like Coca-Cola and Levis, a made-in-the-USA original with seemingly irresistible appeal the world over.
"She's an emblem of consumer capitalism and a global brand," said M.G. Lord, a writing teacher at USC and author of "Forever Barbie: The Unauthorized Biography of a Real Doll." "She both reflects the marketplace and has changed it."
Barbie has long been a bestseller in Argentina and much of Latin America. This summer, "Barbie Live," a Broadway-style musical revue showcasing a blond Barbie look-alike, was a sensation on the Buenos Aires stage and later toured Latin America.
"Every Argentine woman wants to be Barbie," Ramiro Mayol, the producer of the show, told the newspaper Critica.
Not quite. Here, as in the United States, many have questioned the message Barbie conveys to young girls. Eating-disorder activists worry about the doll's impossible figure.
"I've heard people criticize Barbie because she's supposedly anorexic, gives off a negative image," said Clara Aynie, 13, who was spending time at the store recently with two teenage friends. "But I always liked playing with Barbie and wanted to be like her."
