An ad and order form for the Racy Stripper doll, 1998.
 
Though it seems like a toy better suited for the 1980s, you know when strippers were as synonymous with heavy metal as a sweet Gibson Flying V, the Racy Stripper doll became a thing in 1998 thanks to a company called Racy Enterprises (or R.C. Inc.)

Billed as Racy Stripper (or Racy: The Naughty Doll), Racy had similar unrealistic proportions as Barbie, and, as I understand it, a carved out hoohah and pink nipples, something her kiddie-toy counterpart was without. As you might expect the 11.5-inch doll came with a few useful accessories, such as thigh-high stockings with a back seam, long black satin gloves, a stripper pole with a heart-shaped platform, a package of mini-100-dollar bills (because I guess this is one classy joint Racy works at), and a cassette labeled “Racy Strip Party” which I presume contains a rendition of Def Leppard’s 1987 stripper anthem, “Pour Some Sugar on Me.” Racy Enterprises produced two different stripper dolls—one with long platinum blonde hair and the other with long brunette hair which can be pretty easily procured out there on various Internet auction sites such as eBay for less than 20 bucks, depending on its condition.

I’ve posted images of the Racy doll below which are NSFW-ish.
 

 

The platinum blonde and brunette version of the Racy Stripper doll.
 

 
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Like most boys of a certain generation, I had an Action Man. Action Man was the British equivalent of America’s G.I. Joe. A twelve-inch doll with movable parts, “gripping hands,” short-cropped hair, and sometimes a stubbly beard. It sounds like a sex toy. Maybe it was. Most likely not as Action Man didn’t have a dick.

I never thought of him as some kind of ideal man. Action Man may have had a ripped body, a macho scar on his cheek, and a military wardrobe the envy of every tin-pot dictator but he had no dick. Action Man was just a piece of plastic that I gave meaning by inventing various games by which to play with him. This was mainly fighting Nazi zombies, escaping Frankenstein’s laboratory, and the occasional scientific experiment like testing the law of gravity by throwing Action Man out of a bedroom window with a homemade handkerchief parachute. Action Man was just a toy that lived through my imagination until books, records and girls came along.

Annelies Hofmeyr uses her imagination to cast Barbie in various satiric images that challenge gender identity. Hofmeyr is a South African conceptual artist who operates under the name WIT MYT. This is pronounced as “vit mate” and according to Hofemyr:

WIT stems from the Afrikaans word for WHITE and MYT, a derogatory term for a domestic worker, a job usually reserved for coloured (mixed race) and black people. The same phonetic word in Dutch (the colonisers of South Africa), means girl.

Hofmeyr was born in South Africa sometime in the 1980s, the daughter of a gunsmith father and a British mother. She studied Fine Art and Graphic Design in Cape Town before beginning her peripatetic life traveling around the world due to a “combination of study debt” and South Africa’s “strained political situation.” Living in various countries, Hofmeyr studied a Contemporary Jewelry course in Melbourne, Australia. This started her career creating “Contemporary Adornment” and conceptual art.

Hofmeyr started her Trophy Wife Barbie pictures on the day of her divorce. Her first photograph featured Barbie clutching Ken’s decapitated head with the caption “Yay! My divorce went through today!” underneath. She posts her pictures on her Instagram page. Hofmeyr uses Barbie to make satirical and politically-charged comment about gender and everyday sexism. As Hofmeyr has said:

She has been judged by her appearance and now that her situation has changed (and she’s no longer a wife) she needs to find her identity outside of her label.

Prints of Trophy Wife Barbie are available at $18 a pop. See more of Hofemyr’s work here.
 

 

 
More Trophy Wife Barbies, after the jump…

‘Baphomet Barbie’ by Argentinian artists Marianela Perelli and Pool Paolini.
 
In 2014 Argentina-based artists Marianela Perelli and Pool Paolini “redesigned” 33 Barbie, Ken and Skipper dolls into various historical religious figures such as Judas, Jesus, the Virgin Mary, Buddha and Baphomet among others. The figures were a part of a show called “Barbie, the Plastic Religion” and as you might imagine there was a contentious backlash to Perelli and Paolini modified Barbie’s. Though it’s important to note that the talented pair presented one of their Barbies to Pope Francis which he accepted. So there’s that.

Though fans of organized religion will likely hurl the word “blasphemous” around when it comes to Perelli and Paolini’s plastic “gods” the artists have been very clear about their intentions, which believe it or not came from a positive place. Here’s more on that:

Provocation is part of our life and what we do, but it’s harmless, constructive and without bad intentions. Barbie and the Plastic religion came from a place of peace and love, and mutual respect for all spiritual, religious beliefs.

The exhibit is now on display at the La Luz de Jesus Gallery on Hollywood Boulevard through the end of December. In other good news the figures in the show as well as paintings, Ken as Santa (or “San Nicholas”) a Barbie and Ken nativity scene and the holy trinity of Ken as Krishna, Buddha and Jesus rolling around in a Barbie Porsche 911 can be yours if you’re flush enough. I’ve included loads of images from the show below as well as an amusing video featuring a fake “Barbie” commercial that must be seen to be believed.
 

‘Christo.’
 

‘Santa Veronica.’
 
More after the jump…

 
Introduced in the space age, gee-whiz year of 1959, the staggeringly popular Barbie and Ken have inevitably become symbols of America’s plastic essence. Both lack genetalia of course, and Barbie, were she to be transformed into a life-sized woman, would have an impossible 39-18-33 figure and a size 3 shoe. The Barbie spell is so powerful that the term “Barbie Syndrome” has been used to describe a phenomenon wherein a woman “attempts to emulate the doll’s physical appearance, even though the doll has unattainable body proportions.”

Anyway, it’s the insidious influence of Barbie that makes these platform shoes with Barbie and Ken heads in the sole so obscurely satisfying, if a little creepy. They’ve been spotted in the fashionable Harajuku district in Tokyo—the “Icy Wedge,” as it is called, comes from footwear designer Jeffrey Campbell’s summer 2013 collection. “Creative cosplayers in Harajuku have embraced the shoes wholeheartedly,” according to RocketNews24. The listed price (visible in one of the pics) is 28,080 yen, or about $240 in U.S. dollars.

Decapitating poor defenseless little Barbie dolls might be taken as stemming from a misogynistic impulse, so it’s good to see that there are Ken shoes as well. Actually, Ken kind of resembles Bob Dobbs, don’t you think?
 

 

 
More after the jump…

 
This Barbie© Anatomy Model by Jason Freeny is all kinds of great and horrifying at the same time.

Too bad this model isn’t available for purchase. However prints are, and you can check ‘em out at Freeny’s site.
 

 
Via Laughing Squid

 
Somewhat disturbing to see in real life, but pretty much what you would expect with Barbie’s unattainable body proportions.

Via BuzzFeed via So Bad So Good

 
Photographer and miniature-sculptor Carrie M. Becker re-imagines what Barbie’s Dream House might look like following a painful divorce from Ken. I can’t get over the teeny tiny Wired and Nylon magazines thrown about the rooms. It’s a Dream Home nightmare!

You can view Carrie’s work here.
 

 
More after the jump…

 
Adorable Goldie Hawn Barbie doll designed by Mattel in 2009. She’s absolutely as cute as a button, just like Ms. Hawn was back in her Laugh-In days.

Barbie® doll as Goldie Hawn pays tribute to a beloved star from the classic and controversial variety show, Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In. This doll wears a checkered bikini inspired by one famously worn by Goldie the go-go dancer in “The Mod, Mod World” segment. The wacky body paintings, also part of Goldie’s costume, are re-created in great detail. Barbie® doll as Goldie Hawn joins the Blonde Ambition™ Collection, a series celebrating the blondes we love and admire!

 
Barbie® doll as Goldie Hawn