(And yes, #3, a nine-year-old girl is going to buy into that, every bit of it, as they have done since the product introduction.)

That this version takes it to new extremes is no more startling than an Alfred Hitchcock eye-pecking version.

This one is comical at least.

PUH-LEEEEEZ!

This character has been around since the 1940′s, and they’re just now getting up in arms over a Barbie of it? If any of these uptight parental units ever saw a Japanese model of something like Queen Blade, they have a heart attack and lock their children in a closet until they were 40. :P

Yes, actually, they will be. OK maybe not BDSM specifically, but if you don’t think that 9-year-old girls are aware of the importance of being “hot” then you haven’t been around any 9-year-old girls lately, or seen any shows or listened to any music aimed at them.

(On a side note, I was an acquaintance with a female BD enthusiast some years ago, and she assured me that her predilections for constraint were with her from a very early age.)

I wouldn’t give this to a young girl, but then I think that there are better toys for girls than the “traditional” Stepford Wife Barbie. On the other hand, I wouldn’t run screaming about it from one end of the house to the other with my arms flung up over my head, either.

I wouldn’t buy this doll, but if somebody gave me one, it would make a great companion for my collectible GI Joe Korean War Air Force Pilot, who has the coolest sunglasses in the history of collectible dolls, and stop looking at me like that.

What, they’re doing X-Men Barbies too?

Gotta catch ‘em all!

http://failblog.org/2008/04/13/intelligent-design/

They released a Halle Berry as Catwoman Barbie, a comic-based Catwoman (with a whip!), a Batgirl, a Mary Jane Watson (I own this one — she’s in her wedding dress and it’s totally awesome), a Supergirl, Harley Quinn, the Invisible Woman, Elektra (an assassin! Great role model!) and a Wonder Woman (the original BDSM superheroine, as noted above) a couple of years ago. So probably not with much surprise.

I was really offended by the sensationalist tone of the Sun article. (Not surprised, mind.) Mattel has released many, many adult-oriented Barbies in blatantly sexy outfits before. Maybe I’m just sensitive because Black Canary is one of the oldest and coolest female superheroes?

And really, does the “Christian Voice” qualify as “the public”?

If there was a non-sexed up doll for kids for every otaku wetdream doll, i’d be happy. Otherwise, it seems to be getting harder to keep pre-pubescent girls off the pole.

I’ll grant that that sort of apparel is often associated with people who enjoy a BDSM lifestyle, but that doesn’t make it ‘BDSM clothing’.

Also: Storm in teacup.

As for Black Canary, I’m just waiting to see how the fanboys that buy Batman action figures are going to react….

With a crowbar.

Tart (n):
1. A prostitute.
2. A woman considered to be sexually promiscuous.

Yes that is definitely an improvement, lets get Barbie back to her tarty roots as a demure whore.

As a side note, does anyone else think a Black Canary Barbie doll is fairly random & obscure? I don’t think most little girls have even heard of the character.

The Origin of the Barbie Doll

“Ruth Handler had noted that her daughter Barbara preferred playing with paper dolls that looked like adults rather than like children. During a trip to Europe with her daughter, Handler noticed a German doll named Lilli and bought it for Barbara.

“In fact, the Lilli doll was based on the character of a prostitute in a comic strip drawn by Reinhard Beuthin for die Bild Zeitung. The Lilli doll was first sold in Germany in 1955. The dolls were manufactured in Hamburg, where legal, licensed prostitutes are ubiquitous. The doll was marketed to adult men in bars and tobacco shops, not to children. M. G. Lord, in her Forever Barbie: The Unauthorized Biography of a Real Doll, characterized the original doll as a ‘gag gift for men, a pornographic character.’”

So Barbie is just getting back to her roots.

Check out the entry here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Canary

As for Barbie being a “tart”… I think I would go with “bimbo” (remember, she thinks “math is hard”).

This is a high end collectible aimed at the fan boy dollar. I’d expect Mattel to get on the stick and get the Zatanna doll out soon. People really love those fishnets.

If you want a good clean doll for girls look at Mattel’s American Girl line. A bit pricey but they are designed to be wholesome.
http://www.americangirl.com

It is people like the Christian Voice who made me an agnostic. Given their reaction to the outfit one has to wonder about them.

…As usual, the Bibble Thumpers are speaking in pure ignorance again. The Black Canary is no more BDSM than their parents were towards them, and nowhere near as masochistic as flagellistic monks in the monasteries were/are! Imagine if they’d have released a Hawkgirl Barbie using Hawkman’s costume instead? Then *maybe* they’d have something to bitch about, although I suspect it’ll be the biggest selling special Barbie in the line’s history.

…What the frack do the Bibble Thumpers want, anyway? Are they wanting a doll for girls that’ll exemplify more “Christian” ethics? Do they long for a return to the “June Cleaver meets Jackie Kennedy” look, or are they wanting something more fundamentalist, more representative of women as depicted in the Holy Bible? Can’t do Eve because no young girl in their right-wing mind would ever beg Mom and/or Santa for a clothing set consisting of just a fig leaf, an apple and a snake! How about Barbie as either of the two Marys? Ruth? Esther? Outstanding women, but too boring to sell playsets.

…And that’s the problem – women in the Bible who aren’t boring tend to be women that are either held up as examples of what happens to little girls who grow up to become bad women – Potiphar’s Wife, Jezebel, Bathsheba and especially the “Adulterous Woman” come to mind – or are women even the Bibble Thumpers tend to forget about because they show not the legacy of the Original Sin, but how retarded some of the authors of the Bible and the people they wrote about were towards their own people – the stories of the Daughters of Jephtah and Jairus are a prime example of this!

…No, sorry, dressing up Barbie as one of the women depicted in the two Testaments is either going to be a sales disaster or something that’ll make Dinah Lance look like Mother Teresa. Oh, wait! That’s it! Dress Barbie as a *NUN* Howabout that prime example of purity herself, the Singing Nun! Yeah, that’ll work! And then we can get a dress set for Skipper that’ll turn her into the Flying Nun, and one that’ll turn Ken into Jesus, cross, crown of thorns and all!

[Shakes head in utter dismay at religious stupidity]

Note to Barbie Hackers: We need Barbie nailed to a cross post-haste over this one, kids!