At 57, Barbie is getting a major makeover
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Poor Barbie. She had plastic surgery to become more socially acceptable. But a lot of her critics still don’t like her.
可怜的芭比，通过整容来满足世俗审美，但批评者们仍然不买账。
Barbie’s manufacturer, Mattel, announced Thursday that the doll has three new body types – curvy, tall and petite. Barbie will also now come in seven skin tones, 22 eye colors and 24 hairstyles. Mattel spokeswoman Michelle Chidoni said the product is evolving to “offer more choices” to make “the line more reflective of the world girls see around them.”
芭比玩偶生产商“美泰公司”当地时间28日宣布，芭比系列将增加三款新体型：丰满芭比、高个芭比和娇小芭比。芭比也将有7种肤色、22种眼球色以及24款不同发型。美泰女发言人马歇尔·辛多妮称，公司愿为消费者“提供更多选择”，让芭比能“反映出全世界各种类型的女孩”。
Kris Macomber, who teaches sociology at Meredith College in Raleigh, N.C., says she’s “reluctant to celebrate Barbie’s new strategy because it doesn’t change the fact that Barbie dolls and other kinds of fashion dolls still over-emphasize female beauty. Why must we keep sending girls the message that being beautiful is so important?”
克里斯·麦康伯在北卡罗来纳州首府罗利的梅瑞迪斯学院教授社会学课程。她表示，自己“无法认同芭比生产商的新策略，因为它改变不了一个事实，那就是芭比等各种时尚玩偶过分强调了女性外表的重要性。为什么我们总在给女孩们灌输‘美丽最重要’这种观点呢？”
Josh Golin, the executive director of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, said the changes are a testament to activists who for years have challenged Barbie’s “unrealistic and harmful body type.” But body type “was only one of the criticisms,” he said. “The other was the brand’s relentless focus on appearance and fashion.”
“让儿童远离商业”活动的执行总裁乔希·戈林表示，多年来，社会活动家们一直在说芭比的样子“不符合现实、体型不健康”，而现在这种改变对这些活动家是个考验。他表示，体型其实只是芭比此前“频遭指责的一个方面”。“遭批的另一方面则是芭比过于强调外表和时尚。”
Kumea Shorter-Gooden, a co-author of Shifting: The Double Lives of Black Women in America, has said in the past that Barbie has a bigger impact on black girls struggling with messages about skin color and hair. She applauded Mattel “for diversifying the size and look of Barbie,” but noted that “European-American hair still prevails,” and that the dolls’ outfits still “convey a traditional and constraining gender norm about how girls and women should look.”
《转变：美国黑人女性的双重生活》一书的联合作者古米·肖特-戈登曾表示，对于介意自己肤色和发型的黑人女孩，芭比对她们的影响更大。她很赞赏美泰公司“将芭比体型和面貌进一步多样化”的做法，不过她也指出，“欧美发式仍然占主流”，芭比的服饰也仍然传达出对女性外貌的性别定位，这种定位过于传统，过于束缚人。
Barbie sales fell 14 percent in the most recently reported quarter, with worldwide sales falling every year since 2012.
自2012年起，芭比玩偶在全世界的销量就年年下降。在最近的季报中，芭比销量下降了14%。
Mattel said it will still sell the original 11.5-inch Barbie. The new versions will begin arriving on U.S. shelves in March.
美泰称，公司还会继续销售11.5英寸的芭比。新款芭比将于今年3月登陆美国市场。
Some saluted the new Barbie. Trina Finton, a Hispanic mom from Simi Valley, Calif., who works in tech and once bought herself an engineer Barbie, was “thrilled” to hear about the new looks, especially the curly hair. In the past, when she’s taken her 3-year-old daughter to Target, “I avoid the Barbie aisle. I just don’t want her to feel bad that she can’t see a doll that looks like her.”
也有人很喜欢新款芭比。加州西米谷市的西班牙裔母亲特里娜·芬顿表示，自己听到这个消息“高兴极了”，尤其喜欢新加入的卷发造型。在科技行业工作的她曾给自己买过一个工程师芭比。她表示，自己过去带3岁的女儿逛塔吉特百货时，“总会绕开芭比货架，因为担心女儿看到芭比都跟自己长得不一样时会伤心。”
英文来源：美联社
编译：杜娟
