After protest from architectural professor / historical scholar Despina Stratigakos through her Architect Barbie Sanders Fellowship exhibit while teaching at the University of Michigan during 2006-2007, Mattel has finally brought Architect Barbie into fruition. Architect Barbie was up against the competition of Librarian Barbie and Police Officer Barbie (I think) and young girls all across the country cast in their vote for Architect Barbie who in fact won, but Mattel decided that she was too complicated of a field for young girls to understand and nixed her reality. Long story short, after many years she's finally here.
What does this mean for the architectural profession? Although 60% of students studying architecture in the US are female, only 14% go on to receive their license to practice. Out of that 14% less than 1% are women of color. Food for thought and definitely enough food for thought to move our editor in chief to create MASH to introduce design into the lives of women of color.
Below: Pic 1 Mattel's version of Architect Barbie which comes with a construction hat, a portion of a house, and carrying case for blue prints. The next three photos below is a variation of Architect Barbie from our editor in chief. There were many more Architect Barbies designed by students at Taubman College for the exhibition and we wish that we photos of them all, but how do you compare the two?
If there are any other Architect Barbies in the world that feel like they need not to sacrifice their loves of beauty, fashion, and design please reach out to us at info@mashmag.com - we want to hear from you!
Pic 1: Mattel's Architect Barbie
Pic: 2
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Pic: 4
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This is adorable, esp. as there is a dark skinned coloured Barbie like me :D
ReplyDeleteI guess it's like if you're gonna do a female architect doll, might as well go the whole way and make her chocolate too LOL!!