Yona Zeldis McDonough

A Feminist Defense of Barbie as She Turns 60

No Comments

Voices- Barbie

Even at six, when wielding my very first Barbie, I knew that she was a doll and that neither I nor any other woman was supposed to look like her. There were and are many pernicious images in the culture that sow discontent, envy and shame in girls—but please, let’s not mistake Barbie for one of them.

YONA ZELDIS MCDONOUGH, “A Feminist Defense of Barbie as She Turns 60,”

The Lilith Blog, 2019.

Tags: Barbie, body positivity, body shaming

Fall 2020

Did Alzheimers Turn My Husband into an Anti-Semite? • Parenting in the Pandemic • Objects and Their Hidden Lives • Forgiveness: When is it Possible?

Summer 2020

Informed predictions for the uncertain future • Farewell to shopping • Growing up Persian • Vivian Gornick & Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz revisited • 1930s feminist fiction — in Yiddish! • Unetaneh Tokef for Black Lives

Spring 2020

Hair and all its complications • Raising feminist boys today • Tipping, service work and our changing world • A hot new Yiddish star • Taking off my wedding ring

Winter 2019-2020

DNA secrets, hidden identities • Breast cancer and Jewish women • Tillie Olsen: feminist foremother • At her ritual haircut, she knew she was a girl • The first lady of lox