UWC2101F: Writing & Critical Thinking: Aesthetic Transformation

Tang Haisheng, Benjamin
UWC2101F, GRP 1
Dr Julia Gardner
Paper 2
22 Sep 2002

'Beep!' goes the microwave. The hinged door swings open, and the sting of acrid smoke pervades your senses. It is, however, not modern new age cooking gone wrong this time. Rather so, it is more like a fantasy come true for every growing boy: his sister's Barbie doll melting in the microwave oven. In reality, this is a short film directed by Tan Pin Pin entitled 'Microwave'; a work that depicts how the symbolic portrayals of the Barbie Doll have been transformed and warped over time.

A tour of Mattel's website would glean interesting information on the Barbie Doll: little known quirks like Barbie being born in the 1950s, that it has more than 600 different models, and is a business that is worth US$1.5 billion annually. However, beyond being impressive figures, these numbers demonstrate that Barbie is indeed a pervasive icon that stood for cuteness. 'Microwave' portrays a different aspect of the Barbie Doll; it is essentially a video installation of Barbie being rotated in a microwave oven on 'high' for almost two and a half minutes. It is quite a macabre experience to watch the physical doll melting down, yet director Tan Pin Pin's work is apt; as I shall argue in this paper that many ideas which Barbie the icon stood for have likewise been eroded or perverted. I will augment my arguments with various concepts construed by Lori Merish in her article 'Cuteness and Commodity Aesthetics: Tom Thumb and Shirley Temple'. These concepts include her definition of cuteness; maternal responses to cuteness; how it is 'an aesthetic marked by race, class and gender, as well as by sexuality' (185), and the thin line demarcating the borders between cute and freakish. They would be the tools with which I shall analyse and evaluate the evolving symbolisms of Barbie in 'Microwave'.

Barbie dolls have been viewed as the embodiment of cuteness, and truly she does deserve that status. In her article, Merish cited the Oxford English Dictionary's (OED) definition of cute as 'pretty, charming and attractive in a mannered way' (187). These attributes fit Barbie like a glove. Within the film, she is placed in an alluring semi-reclined pose, setting off her dazzling blond hair and flawless complexion. While Barbie's designer label bikini is outshone by her well endowed physique, it's is her million-watt smile and the coquettish wave of her arm that bewitches every single viewer. Indeed, Barbie is an avatar of cuteness.

As a symbol of cuteness, one of the attributes conferred upon Barbie is that she invokes a maternal response. According to Merish,

Cuteness is an aesthetic that mobilizes propriety desire, a peculiarly "feminine" propriety desire that equates to a moral sentiment: the desire to care for, cherish and protect. (188)

There is a sense of racial tension in 'Microwave'. Merish's described cuteness as 'an aesthetic marked by race, class, gender as well as by sexuality' (185); she cited Toni Morrison's book The Bluest Eye, in which depicts of an African-American girl Claudia being unable to identify emotionally with a 'big, blue-eyed Baby Doll' (185). Similarly, Tan Pin Pin's choice of subject matter is an object not every viewer can identify with. For Barbie, with her fair complexion, blondness and fine clothing is a symbol of white dominance. Her creation in the 1950s was a time where the colour segregation in the United States of America was still very evident; in contrast, voting rights for the African-Americans were only made constitutional with the Voting Rights Act in 1965. Yet the racism that Barbie subconsciously represented is now an outmoded ideology. The world is moving towards globalisation and meritocracy, while ethnic tolerance is being preached. A more relevant issue nowadays would be the question of gender equality.

Mattel appears to present Barbie as a proponent for feminism. We see Barbie packaged as a veterinarian, astronaut, even a hell-rider; the subtext conveyed is clear: gender is no hindrance to aspirations. Yet, although feminism is an ideology that is vibrant and contemporary; Barbie shares no part in it. Like a ditzy little girl, Barbie is a dabbler in many trades and a master of none; she does not represent the new-age self-sufficient woman advocates of feminism. In 'Microwave', the Barbie that director Tan Pin Pin presents to us is one that is dressed provocatively in a bikini, not a power suit. Barbie's role in the film appears to be that of an 'air-head' capable of merely smiling and waving at the camera. Even under the intense radiation of the oven, Barbie is apparently imperviousness to the danger that she is in. Being immobile and unable to react in anyway to save herself, Barbie does nothing more than just act pretty, lying with a frozen smile fixed in place. Feminism is simply not her cup of tea.

The concepts of cuteness have evolved such that Barbie herself today does not totally fit that bill. In contrast to the cited OED definition of cute, Lori Merish included a more elaborated and contemporary meaning for cuteness within her work:

Cuteness is usually designated by roundness of form and thickness of limbs; roundness and flatness of face; largeness of eyes; and especially by largeness of head in proportion to the body- all attributes of the human infant. (187)

Arguments raised thus far demonstrated that not only have the lesser ideologies that Barbie stood for has been eroded, but even her primary role as a symbol for cuteness has been dissolved. In 'Microwave', time lapse in an oven reduced Barbie physically to a green gooey substance. Visible changes would be slower when not subjected to heat radiation in a microwave oven. Yet over the decades, Barbie has likewise discarded her old roles to take on newer identities.

There is a thin line drawn across the boundaries of cute and freak; it would seem that Barbie in disrobing from cuteness has crossed over into that realm of the freak. Morish stated that "cuteness is thus intimately bound up with the history of the "freak."'(189). In her article, she followed up by explaining that while Shirley Temple, with her adult mental capacity and child-like physique, may be able to act out the role of a cute child splendidly, she is nevertheless thought of more often as a freak than as a cute being. Likewise, Barbie, who possesses the antiquated aspects of cuteness, is now more like a freak than cute. In comparing Barbie to a real female being, we would note alarming discrepancies for a doll figurine designed to look life-like. According to the Journal of American Medical Association, America that has an obesity rate close to 18%; thus Barbie has a waif-like thinness unnatural in her homeland. Even if we take her slimness to be an exception from the general rule, her unending long legs, rotund hips and well-endowed bosom is a physical accomplishment unmatchable even by among the super-models of today. We would not expect to see in real life anyone with Barbie's figure, for it is a body too perfect in all aspects. Even if we do, there would be no hesitation to label that person a freak.

'Microwave' can thus be viewed as a physical depiction of Barbie's metaphorical transformation into a symbol related to freakiness. Just as the concept of 'cuteness' that Barbie had represented been perverted into 'freakiness', so has the Barbie Doll in 'Microwave' been transformed from beautiful doll into a gooey mass of melted plastic. With the ravages of decades being replaced and accelerated by the intense heat of the oven. It must be noted however that at the end of her ordeal in the microwave, Barbie retains her facial features, smiling serenely into the camera. While the dominant sensation of grotesque is not lost by this last portrayal, it is a spectacle worthy of comment. Sales of Barbie Dolls remained strong to this very day. Surely, that is something to smile about; at least for the shareholders and producers of Barbie Dolls. More importantly, Barbie ends in a smile because while changes have not necessarily been kind to her, she has persevered and remained a dominant icon in present time. She stands in many shelves at home as a valued collector's item by people reminiscent of their past, while even today her unnatural beauty and sculptured body uphold her to be the symbol for bodily perfection unattainable. Be it as a proponent of cuteness or freakiness, Barbie has attained something few mortals ever do achieve: immortality and transcendence over time. That truly is something worthy of a lingering smile.

Mattel Inc. Website: http://www.mattel.com

Merish, Lori. "Cuteness and Commodity Aesthetics: Tom Thumb and Shirley Temple." In Freakery: Cultural Spectacles of the Extraordinary Body ed. Rosemarie Thomson New York: NYU Press 1996. Pages 185-203

Mokdad AH, Serdula MK, Dietz WH, Bowman BA, Marks JS, Koplan JP. "The spread of the obesity epidemic in the United States, 1991-1998." JAMA. 1999;282:1519-1522

Tan Pin Pin. "Microwave." (2000)