<nettime> my design barbie

[wade tillett <super89@bigfoot.com>]

I know that barbie is an easy target, but I think there are larger
implications of how we 'choose' and 'design' as consumers. The way choice
is structured in an obvious way here translates to the way choice is
structured in more subtle ways in other consumer environments. 

The barbie my design site allows users to design their own personalized
doll by selecting various features on their web site. What is interesting
about the barbie my design site is how choice is presented. The initial
choice, of course, is to go to the barbie my design site. 

http://www.barbie.com/mydesign/

Here we see the banner "My Design (tm) Own a special friend of Barbie (r)
doll!" In other words, this doll is not to be confused with the original,
'real,' 'genuine' barbie doll designed in totality by mattel.  This doll
is at best only a 'special friend' of barbie. And we all know what a
'special friend' means in today's politically correct society - not
capable of that which is seen as the standard. 

After clicking on "start now - personalize a doll for yourself or a
friend", we are first presented with the "look" page. Go ahead and try to
choose the personality first by clicking on the banner at the top.  You
can't. It simply routes you back to the look page. The order in which the
choices are made is extremely important; you must choose the main
characteristics in the order of importance as prescribed: 

* 1 Look
* 2 Picture
* 3 Fashion
* 4 Personality
* 5 Your doll
* 6 Order

On the look page we are presented with the following options:

*Look:

(Isn't this redundant - aren't we already on the look page. I guess it
allows them to keep from saying skin color or ethnicity) 

* - Light, Ivory, Tan, or Brown.

(Not white or black, or asian or hispanic, these labels imply too many
things. Also no blue. Notice there is to be no blending of colors, no
choices in between the categories.) 

* Eyes: blue, green, or brown
* Lip Colors: angel rose, cranberry, very cherry red
* Hairstyle: bobbed, stylish, pulled back, long wavy
* Hair Color: golden blond, strawberry blond, fiery red, chestnut brown,
brown, black

The look we chose has no implications for our choices further down - this
is after all, my design. (Mattel was smart not to open that can of worms.)
So why not choose 'brown' 'look' with 'fiery red' 'hair color' or 'black'
'hair color' with 'light' 'look.' Ah, the implications of non
deterministic choice, of a utopic persona based on a conglomeration of the
best.

But more importantly, what is not choosable? First of all, we are limited
to a very few choices of the body. A 'freedom from choice' which allows
the user to keep from being overwhelmed and the manufacturer from having
to produce too many variations. We are limited to certain categories of
certain features. For example, we can not choose a man, 215 lbs., a shade
between ivory and tan, 73 years old, with a walker. We are limited to
utopic choices. The choices presented are based on anticipated demand -
the choices which the consumer is most likely to find important. We get to
choose lip color as opposed to age because a variety of lip colors is
predicted to be more marketable than a variety of ages. It also implies
that there is no need to pick age because mattel has already picked the
perfect age. There is no need to pick body shape because mattel has
already picked the perfect shape. To preserve an economy of choice certain
decisions must be made by the producer, and these choices are made based
on what will sell the most. 

Click on continue and we see what our choices look like assembled. If you
don't like it, no big deal, you can go back and choose again. 

Next is clothing... pretty cool how your designed doll shows up dressed in
all the clothing options. You can choose to see a 'close-up' of the
outfits. This brings up an enlarged window with a description such as: 

* Pretty Party Dress - Short pink and lavender dress
* - Faux fur pink stole
* - White opera gloves
* - White earrings, hand ring
* - Pink pumps and lavender pantyhose

Sort of a meal deal here - conglomerations of choices. Of course, all the
choices are western clothing. 

I wanted to forego the accessories (purse, shoes, etc.), but this is
impossible also. If you want a my design barbie then you must get a set of
accessories with it. You must choose. 

The next page is personality. Which, from what I can tell, has very little
to do with personality. First we get to put in her name and our name. (I
chose "Monster" as her name and "Unsuspecting Child" as my name.) The rest
is presented in a paragraph with pull down boxes.  Here it becomes even
more evident what is not a choice. Why the pull down boxes? It is just a
print-out. It would have been just as easy to allow the child to input
anything into the blank fields like we did with

the names. It could have been a wide open paragraph box. But we need the
economy of choice, the freedom from choice. 

Here are some of the highlights from the pull-down boxes: 

* Her birthday is in (SELECT ONE, January, February, March, April, May,
June, July, August, September, November, December).

(No year? Then she might get old...)

* She lives in (SELECT ONE, a big city, my neighborhood, the mountains,
a beach town, a small town, the suburbs, the country, another country,
her dorm)

(Don't want to get to specific and limit it to a real place, this
absurdity is shown with the option "another country"?! (other than the US
of course) ) 

She's interested in (SELECT ONE, sports, books, politics, fashion, nature,
music, math, art, movies, community work, science, boys, computers,
geology, animals, astronomy, theater, history, business, psychology,
social work, doll design) 

(Politics... how did that make the list? Where is girls?) 

* YOUR DOLL is a special friend of Barbie, personalized by you, YOUR
NAME!

Now you can print it, save it, email it to someone, or order it. The
design is saved on their server for a month and you get a code for your
design so you can look it up. 

The question starts to nag at you... did I really design this doll? I
mean, yes, I did choose among limited specific characteristics from
limited categories, but does this constitute design? I did make the
initial choice to design a my design barbie - I could have chosen not to
design - to abstain. But beyond that initial decision, do I feel any
ownership, authorship, parenthood? I did make the choices among the
options presented to me but i did not get to choose the options presented
to me. Where is the line between tool and creation? Between producer and
designer? At what point can I claim something as my creation? Is this now
"my design"?  The answer is given on the first page of the "my design"
page in the fine print: 

* All proprietary rights in the design selected by the customer are owned
by Mattel, Inc. Purchase of a My Design[tm] product in no way transfers
the ownership of any copyrights, trademarks, or other proprietary rights
owned by Mattel, Inc. or associated with Barbie doll product.

(It is also interesting to note that "My Design" has now been trademarked,
so the next time you make such a claim, be prepared to ante up to mattel.) 




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