Aqua, Aug 20, 2010 #29 global top music video
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Edited by Azizi Powell
This is Part IV of a six part pancocojams series on Black Barbie dolls and/or some songs that refer to Barbie.
This post showcases two YouTube videos of the song "Barbie World"; the 1997 song by Aqua and the 2023 song by Nicki Minaj featuring Ice Spice (Aqua). This post also includes an excerpt about Barbie dolls and Black girls.
WARNING: The 2023 song "Barbie World" by Nicki Minaj & Ice Spice (with Aqua) contains profanity.
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Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2023/09/black-representation-in-barbie-doll.html for Part I of this pancocojams series. That post showcases three videos of Black representation in the Barbie doll line and presents excerpts from two online articles about Black Barbie dolls.
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Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2023/09/lil-jackies-2008-black-barbie-song.html for Part II of this pancocojams series. That post focuses on the 2008 song "Black Barbie" by Lil Jackie.
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Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2023/09/nicki-minajs-2018-song-black-barbies.html for Part III of this pancocojams series. That post showcases the 2018 song "Black Barbies" by Nicki Minaj and focuses on the controversary about non-Black people singing the lyrics to that song on the Tik Tok social media site.
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Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2023/09/lil-kims-black-barbie-aesthetic.html for Part V of this pancocojams series. That post presents information about Lil Kim and selected comments about the Barbie aesthetics of Lil Kim.
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Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2023/09/nicki-minajs-black-barbie-aesthetic.html for Part VI of this pancocojams series. That post focuses on the Barbie aesthetics of Nicki Minaj.
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The content of this post is presented for historical and socio-cultural purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to Aqua, Nicki Minaj, and Ice Spice for their music and thanks to Whitney Roberts for her 2023 article entitled "Barbie And Black Girls: It's Complicated".
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Because pancocojams is a family friendly blog, no Nicki Minaj videos (excerpt for "Barbie World") and no Lil Kim videos are included in this series.
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SHOWCASE VIDEO #2-Nicki Minaj & Ice Spice – Barbie World (with Aqua) [Official Music Video]
Nicki Minaj, June 23, 2023
WARNING: The 2023 song "Barbie World" by Nicki Minaj & Ice Spice (with Aqua) contains profanity.
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ARTICLE EXCERPT: BARBIE AND BLACK GIRLS: IT'S COMPLICATED
https://www.parents.com/barbie-and-black-girls-it-s-complicated-7568240
From fighting a history of exclusion to hosting viral
all-pink 'Barbie' watch parties, Black women and girls have carved out their
own space in Barbieland.
By Whitney Roberts Published on August 1, 2023
"There are few toys as iconic as Barbie. When Barbie was
released in 1959, the doll ushered in a new era of play for children. Barbie
came to represent a woman who could have it all: any career she wanted, any
outfit she wanted, a convertible pink car, a fancy "Dreamhouse." The
new blockbuster Barbie film plays on that—at least initially—framing Barbie as
a feminist icon who can have what she wants, earn what she wants, work where
she wants, and do what she wants. She owns her own home, her own car, and is her
own person.
Yet for Black girls, the relationship with Barbie—at least initially—was complicated.
The truth was there was only one Barbie and Barbie did not look like anyone. She was an amalgamation of everything popular culture of the time told women to be: tall, thin with a tiny waist, looking through bright blue eyes, and body proportions that were so wildly unrealistic, she would not be able to stand—let alone function—in the world in which she’s become an icon. This unrealistic, unattainable symbol of female perfection has had negative impacts on the very girls playing with her. Researchers found that girls between 6 and 8 years old who played with older versions of the doll expressed negative feelings about their own bodies.
Barbie did not look like anyone, yet it seemed like everyone wanted to look like her. But going beyond her body shape, Barbie simply did not represent Black girls. Her body type was not only physically unattainable but, even more insidious, Barbie, the epitome of femininity, could not even be found in Black girls' skin colors. The message for Black girls was that they couldn't be feminine or feminist By simply being unavailable, the statement Barbie, a symbol of beauty and access, said to little Black girls of the time that they were locked out of both.
[…]
Barbie for Black girls shifted from the unattainable ideals
of society personified to a powerful statement of inclusion. Black women call
themselves Barbie as the ultimate beauty brag.
[…]
Barbie became a symbol of upward mobility, of independence,
but also of softness—a softness not often afforded to Black women. Being a
"Black Barbie" means Black women can unhook the cape of the “strong
Black woman” stereotype and embrace their “soft-life” era without losing their
power. They can be anything that they want while being exactly who they are.
So it makes perfect sense that at the release of the new Barbie movie, Black women would dress up in pink, hold Barbie-inspired parties, and rap and sing along to the new music for the movie. They, too, are feminine, feminist, and iconic.
The journey from the exclusivity of not a single Black Barbie present to watching Issa Rae play President Barbie is not one that should be overlooked. Barbie has evolved beyond the singular shape, shade, and size to now include a rainbow of hues and vitiligo, various hair textures and lengths, and even braids and cornrows. The doll also honors historic figures with Barbies of their own like Ida B. Wells, Bessie Coleman, and Madam C.J. Walker.
Black children (and adults) are finding themselves in these
toys, seeing their aspirations as tangible, their features as beautiful.
Finally, Barbieland is big enough for anyone of any hue and culture to belong."
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This concludes Part IV of this pancocojams series.
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