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PINION
ooby-trapped
J ew Barbie doll makeover bridges gap to modern women, young girls
fter 38 years of resem
bling a Playboy Play
mate, Barbie is getting
|iakeover. That’s right, the
com plastic beauty is
ring up for a new destina-
b: modern America.
[Barbie is easily one of the
st popular toys in history,
e have Put fording to The Wall Street
Irna *' since her debut in
is. 7oo-um: 59, more than one billion
i Corral) S'
Flexible howl
le of Unix Con
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nmercial oik
Itment 823-50!
and evanrg
Ixible scheduv
Mandy
Cater
assistant
opinion editor
Imtenance Otei
people am)
Pickup
for Sales ta'
[T rips and an
rbies have been snatched
by children, collectors and
istalgia buffs.
In the almost four decades of Barbie’s impres-
erun, the doll has undergone only three previ-
:s makeovers.
The premiere Barbie was a pouty-lipped siren.
M.G. Lord’s Forever Barbie: An Unauthorized
)graphy of a Real Doll, the author notes the
mf siiginal had an "averted submissive gaze that
aracterized female nudes ... from the Renais-
»' erS futoTJ nce unt ^ t ^ ie 19th century.”
Tlhe sexual revolution of the late 1960s saw
Irbie emerge with a bright-eyed forward stare
Icompanied by doe-like lashes.
[The current model made its first appearance
Il977. This familiar version was that of a super
jauty: shock-blond locks, a gleaming smile and
light eyes. According to Mattel execs, this look
l“conquering, friendly, approachable — the ‘we
In do anything’ look.”
[Despite sporting new coiffures and keeping up
pog» m ith evolving mascara trends, Barbie has kept
y 755 lething constant: her gravity-defying curves.
l sho,sJ200 f * For decades, Barbie has been a plastic repre-
: ntation of an American ideal: unattainability,
irbie’s frightening hourglass figure pushes the
ids DupMiifiundaries of reality. Her voluptuous bosom,
mcil-thin waist and curvy hips have long been a
mbol of impossible beauty.
In fact, calculations indicate that, if translated
lan actual woman, Barbie’s dimensions would
eequivalent to approximately 38-18-34.
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$250 Pieis-
After years of complaints from many camps,
Mattel has decided it is time for Barbie to go under
the knife. The new Barbie will have a smaller chest
and hips and a fuller, more normal waist.
Mattel claims this decision is independent of
any negative comments directed toward the
doll, but instead says it is attempting to accom
modate "children’s desire for greater realism.” In
addition to the new figure, the new Barbie line is
planned to also include various ethnicities and
hair colors.
Although the decision is probably driven more
by revenues than some higher social desire to
raise the self-esteem of young girls, the corpora
tion is to be commended for the decision.
The accolades should be directed at new Mattel
chief executive Jill Barad, whom The Wall Street
Journal calls “the most prominent CEO in corporate
America." Under Barad, a great deal of growth, both
financially and in product diversity, came about.
Barad helped introduce the line of career Barbies,
and even the sometimes-heckled wheelchair Becky
has been a positive addition to the Barbie family.
Many grumble Barbie is an American icon and
should remain in her current centerfold-like
form. They warn that kids will not want Barbie if
she is like them.
If Barbie is the icon they claim, her popularity
will endure the downsizing on the horizon. In
fact, if girls see a Barbie that better reflects some
one to whom they can relate, it is difficult to be
lieve they will not embrace the toy.
Today’s America is a diverse population, in
cluding people from all walks of life.
Instead of complaining about defacing an
American symbol, people should look to what
Barbie could symbolize with the new additions.
Young girls and women are blasted with
enough unattainable images every day without
having toys reinforce the same idea. Barbie’s
metamorphosis should be viewed as a change for
the positive, sending the message women really
do get better with age.
Mandy Cater is a senior psychology major.
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1’ Army Days help
Irive Tom Short
ut of Aggieland
.M.
Chris
Huffines
columnist
hat’s
right,
boys
and girls.
Once again,
Tom Short,
everyone’s
favorite
conduit of
the
Mmighty,
has come
and gone.
The An-
_ tonic Banderas of evangelists
ea ^! was here, doing his best to
1 Ro spread the faith through the
^gun-toting mariachi rhetoric
Aggieland has come to know
and love. And as usual, the angry
mob was right at Short’s heels,
|ha,f Egging his every word. It was
such a beautiful sight it brought
a tear to my eye, a song to my
heart and a smile to my face.
Yes, it just swells my heart
with pride to see Aggies help-
ng Aggies run a preacher out
of town. Not since the good Of
Army days of
Salem and
McCarthy
has such de
votion to a
cause and
such won-
|h ^| derful blind
hatred
spewed forth
from anyone,
anywhere.
Oddly
enough, peo
ple who have
seen and heard Short occa
sionally hate him, but those
who have only heard about
him third- and fourth-hand
hate him even more. This is
In something special.
Short’s sermons, however,
are still missing something.
No, it is not a calm, rational
crowd, not a series of informed
innocent questions, not the
calm respect a man of God is
due, and no, it is not an after
noon free of interruption and
hypocritical religious posturing
hy others. What Short’s sermons
need is the Inquisition.
In a matter of minutes, Short
could be strapped to the rack,
teceiving an interactive lesson
°n the consequences of heresy.
I
Sadly, religious persecu^
tion has, for the most
part, faded away in the
United States. It is a
good thing A&M is doing
everything it can to keep
the tradition alive.
The spectacle should keep
the people happy. They do not
want the truth; they want
entertainment. Just to make
things perfect, throw in a cir
cus, a bakery and some lions.
Aggieland can get back to
the classics, the way religion is
supposed to be.
Sully would smile with pride
to see how far Texas A&M has
come from the days when seg
regation was the worst Aggies
could use to oppress someone.
Who needs to listen to Short
anyway? He is just one man
who stands alone in public and
talks about religion. He volun
teers his time to do something
he thinks is the will of God.
He unflinchingly takes the
hours of abuse hurled at him by
the hostile crowds. Selfless be
lievers such as Short should be
dragged out into the cold, shot
and left to die. Stalinesque jus
tice is always the best justice.
Sadly, religious persecution
has, for the most part, faded
away in the
United States.
It is a good
thing A&M is
doing every
thing it can to
keep the tradi
tion alive.
Young men
and women are
standing up for
what they be
lieve by goose
stepping across
everyone who
believes differently, and are not
afraid to say so.
This is exactly what A&M
needs: more hate, more preju
dice and more fear among the
classes. Nothing else will keep
the dissidents in line.
To those who have been
abusing and ruining Short’s
sermons, I say, “Good job ...
keep up the fine work,” and of
course, “Keep those jack
boots polished.”
To those who have support
ed Short and his lonely cru
sade to rescue us from our
selves, I say, “Good luck.”
Chris Huffines
is a sophomore speech
communications major.
Bio-environmental groups pollute America
John
Burton
columnist
H undreds of groups
exist with eco-
friendly names like
“Citizens for the Environ
ment” and “America the
Beautiful.” These names,
however, are only fronts
for mining, logging and
packaging industries.
Most of these organiza
tions are part of the Wise
Use Movement, which de
veloped in response to the
timber conflicts on the
northeast United States. The Wise Use Move
ment was founded in 1988 during a conference
in Nevada. Among the attendees were the
Exxon “oil improves wildlife viscosity” Corpora
tion and “Citizens for Equal Rights Alliance,” a
national alliance of anti-Indian groups.
The phrase “Wise Use” is great — who would
be against wise use? When you pull off the false
face, however, you find a powerful organization
of resource exploiting industries benefitting
from the weakening of environmental laws.
Ron Arnold, leader of the Wise Use Move
ment, said, “Our goal is to destroy environ
mentalism once and for all.”
Four hundred delegates — most of them
Republicans — attended the Wise Use confer
ence to “share ideas.” One idea was the Wise
Use agenda: opening public lands to more
grazing, mining, logging and oil exploration.
At stake were environmental laws designed to
protect air, water and land.
Of course, one would think Republicans
would attack every scrap of government waste
and abuse they found, but they have not.
In fact, in the issue of cattle grazing in the
west, they encourage government waste at
the expense of Americans.
Most western ranchers do not like “big
gov’mint” coming into their lives and telling
them not to pollute the environment. Howev
er, “big gov’mint” looks lovely when it subsi
dizes their operations. The federal govern
ment only charges them about a quarter of
what private landowners charge for grazing
rights, and the Republicans refuse to change
this policy. So much for the “free market.”
This is government welfare for cattle. Pro
viding environmentally destructive opera
tions access to ruin federal land — our land
— at a subsidized price is ridiculous in the
age of cutting wasteful spending.
The Heartland Institute, a right-wing political
organization, has its own newsletter called Envi
ronmental News. It sounds great. What could be
so bad about an organization whose newsletter
is called “Environmental News?” Plenty.
For instance, its “scientists” say ground-
level ozone pollution is actually good for us,
because it screens out ultraviolet radiation.
The problem with this rationalization is the
fundamental differences between ozone pol
lution and the naturally occurring ozone layer
in the stratosphere. Confusing ozone pollu
tion with the ozone layer is like confusing
Jesse Helms with Jesse Jackson.
Another issue of Environmental News
touts the “land reclamation efforts” of coal
mining companies. It basically portrays these
companies in a happy, trustworthy-enough-
to-date-your-sister kind of way. They want to
“protect the environment for future genera
tions to enjoy,” according to the newsletter.
Yet it fails to mention how the mining in
dustry exploits resources due to the outdated
1872 mining law— a law they fight to keep in
place. This law allows corporations to pay
only $5 per acre of land mined. Under this
program, over $272 billion of the public’s re
sources have been extracted while the Ameri
can public only received $5 per acre.
Further, there are no environmental provi
sions in the 1872 law. As a result, over 12,000
miles of streams are polluted with acids and
toxic chemicals. Another problem is 56 aban
doned mine sites are now listed among the
nation’s worst hazardous-waste sites.
It is estimated taxpayers will have to pay
up to $72 billion to clean up these areas. Of
tentimes, mining companies will mine a site,
abandon it and declare bankruptcy, thus leav
ing the public with the cleanup bill.
This behavior does not sound like protect
ing the environment “for future generations
to enjoy” — yet this is what groups in the
Wise Use Movement want us to believe.
One of the strongest Wise Use groups is
“People for the West!” a Colorado-based orga
nization. Members describe it as a “grass
roots” group, yet in 1992, 12 of the 13 mem
bers of their board of directors were mining
industry executives.
People for the West! was created by financial
support of mining interests — such as Chevron
and Hecla — which donated over $1.7 million.
If this is “grassroots,” then McDonalds is a
mom-and-pop cafe'.
People for the West! also claims support for
“science-based” environmental legislation
and policy. By explicitly stating it supports
“science-based” policy, it implies other envi
ronmental groups do not. Thus, the truth is
twisted even more.
These wise-use groups portray themselves
as seeking balance in the environment debate.
They attempt to establish enemies to di
vert people’s attention from the real issues.
They label environmentalists as radical ex
tremists who are hurting the economy and
costing taxpayers millions of dollars, even
though their own industry costs taxpayers bil
lions of dollars in cleanup costs.
But money and the environment is not the
only problem here. As Ron Arnold, founder of
the Wise Use Movement said, “Facts don’t real
ly matter — in politics, perception is reality.”
John Burton is a junior bioenvironmental
science major.
. m
Mail Call
Campus preacher
provides good show
For all those who didn’t catch
Tom Short’s preaching perfor
mances last week, you missed
out on one of the most enter
taining shows of the semester.
Short was hilarious, a regular
“Seinfeld,” if you will. He should
seriously consider a career in
stand-up comedy.
For four days he did his car
nival span, the main attraction
being himself. His preachings
made some sense, but they
also contained many inconsis
tent and erroneous statements.
This is what I found to be so
humorous about him.
I am sure he is overqualified
when it comes to talking about
Christianity, but it seemed he
did not have a clue when it
came to debating other topics,
such as science and other forms
of religions.
Of course the supporting acts
were just as good as the head
lining one, in the comedic sense
that is. There were the serious
debaters, whose solid argu
ments made Short squirm.
The ever relentless hecklers
were at hand.
Their witty interjections
made it all worthwhile. Guest
appearances also were made by
the C.A.T.S. (Christians Against
Tom Short), and by a group who
offered to mediate the sale of
souls to Satan.
In short, no pun intended, I
hope Short comes back at least
once a semester.
You may find him to be a re
spectable man of God, or an of
fensive hypocrite. To me it is all
just sinfully good fun.
Majed Azouqah
Class of’00
Tradition of Bonfire
overlooks the trees
As November 27 draws near,
I feel compelled to make some
rational comments regarding
the Bonfire tradition.
I cannot help but feel opposed
to any activity that exemplifies
waste and degradation of the
natural environment to the ex
tent that Bonfire does.
As our world’s air quality
gets more polluted, how can
people stand behind an event
that not only dumps unneeded
pollution into the environ
ment, but also destroys thou
sands of trees?
Trees that are the planet’s
only defense against ever in
creasing concentrations of car
bon dioxide gas.
“But all those trees are re
placed,” is the refrain I have
grown used to hearing.
It would clearly be more eco
logically responsible if Texas
A&M would supplant Bonfire
with two massive tree plantings
every year, in an effort to make
our world more livable.
I would suggest the thou
sands of hours devoted to
building Bonfire would be bet
ter spent helping the commu
nity through service projects.
How many houses could be
built for the homeless in that
same time? How many young
children tutored? How many
thousands of pounds of litter
cleaned of the street?
Instead of continuing the
decadent and selfish ritual of
Bonfire, I encourage everyone
wishing to show Aggie pride to
participate in selfless and giv
ing acts that truly show the
breadth of our spirit and love
of our community.
Erik Stock
Min Park
graduate students