Barbie is for Boys

A very quiet boy in my class has discovered my love of music and so he likes to ask me if I know certain songs that he is uncovering on "Rock Band". Last week he asked if I knew "Come Together" by the Beatles, to which I immediately replied with a showcase of my vocals on the chorus. A few days later, he raised his hand and asked, "Do you know the song "Fire" by Jimi Hendrix?"

"Let me stand next to your fire...let me stand next to your fire...", I bellowed.

Suddenly the joy of song hit the classroom and a spirited young 9-year-old boy bounced out of his seat, flapping his arms and singing, "I'm a Barbie girl, in a Barbie world...". Now, if you haven't ever heard that song, I suggest you check it out here. (The resolution is not so good, but the tune will put it all into perspective.) It is fabulously bizzare!

When this boy busted out with it in the middle of class I just couldn't keep a straight face. This of course, gave the whole class permission to join in and laugh. I love that this boy had the confidence to do this. Right on the heels of his performance, the magnetically cool boy in class jokingly said, "I have the Barbie house".

I asked, "Do you have the Barbie dream machine?"

"Oh yes," he replied with a smirk.

It's incredibly refreshing to feel the gender fluidity of children. Barbie has always been associated with girls, but here were the two most popular boys in the classroom, ready to be playful about Barbie.

I always hated Barbie. I'm pretty sure that I hated her as a rebellious act, simply because, as a female, I was expected to like her. I only had one doll that I loved when I was mini-me, and her name was Vanessa. Well, that's what I named her (which is a story for another time), but her stock name was "Baby Drowsy". This baby had one of those strings on a ring that you pull to make her speak. I still remember some of her lines: "Mommy, I'm sleepy"; "I want another drink of water"; "I go to sleep now, night-night"; and the 'pièce de résistance' was her raspy, high-pitched voice just wailing for 3 seconds. I have no idea why I liked this doll. I'm not a fan of whining, of which she did plenty, and I'm no fan of the pink onesie. Perhaps it was the force with which I had to pull that damn string to make her talk that gave me some sort of satisfaction.

Ahhh, how much longer will the kids in my class be willing to play freely and enjoy the enormous spectrum of humor and gender that they experimented with that day? I hope they can hold on to that feeling and take over the world. But if they can't do it...

Move over rover, and let Jimi take over!