Photo Essay:"Chuck Another Steak on the Barbie, Would'ja Doll?"

Abstract

Barbecue: [Spanish: Barbacoa possibly from Arawak barbacoa: a raised wooden framework of sticks] 1. A sleeping platform; a bed. 2. An outdoor entertainment where meat is cooked over an open fire. Barbie: [colloquial, chiefly in Australia] Abbreviation of barbecue. Barbie Doll: [diminutive of female personal name, Barbara + Doll] Proprietary name for a doll representing a slim, conventionally attractive young woman. Consumption: 1. The action or fact of consuming by using, eating or wasting. 2. The purchase and use of goods, or the amount of this. The ubiquitous Barbie Doll is most famous -- and most often criticised -- for those markers of Western conventional female sexuality: blonde hair, long legs and large breasts. It is the ambiguity of this object -- explicit sexuality in a toy marketed to pre-adolescent girls -- that accounts for some of the discomfort which it sometimes evokes. Despite this however, it is one of the most successful consumer items on the planet. The aggressive marketing of the Barbie Doll is similar to that of another cultural icon, Coca-Cola. Where Barbie's sexuality is demure and implicit, Coke, with its reliance on bikini-clad models whose bodies come as close to Barbie's as is physically possible, is quite explicit in its portrayal of sexuality. The famous shape of the Coke bottle, intentionally designed to suggest the female body, but also phallic in shape, links the themes of food, sex and consumerism in a profound way. This jump from the Barbie Doll, that icon of consumerism, to food, arguably the ultimate consumer good, and that topic which relates them -- sex -- is mirrored by the convoluted etymology of the words. Barbecue evokes themes of food, but also of sex, through the image of the bed. The Australian colloquialism barbie introduces a nexus of themes: food and sex are marketed as aggressively and seductively as the advertisements that insist we purchase toys for our children; dolls and food are imbued with a sexual connotation that is as obvious as it is coyly ignored; and we are urged that shopping and sex are as necessary to enjoyment of the modern world, as food is to survival. Issues of gender enter the nexus in different ways. Hierarchies of value and meaning attach to our bodies as men and women in often unacknowledged ways. In Australia at least, cooking at barbecues is traditionally done by men: often dressed in "novelty" aprons with highly sexualised themes. Perhaps it is the barbecue's connection with meat, especially red meat, that makes it acceptable for men to undertake the undervalued, "feminised" role of cooking (the women, of course, are inside preparing the salads). The signifier of virility in barbecued meat is obvious in its stereotyped form -- "charcoal on the outside, and still bloody in the middle". In many societies, including our own, the assumption that red meat, especially rare red meat, equals virility is unspoken, but persuasive. In the following suite of photographs by Judith Villamayor, an Argentinian artist and photographer, these themes, and others, are raised. We urge you to reflect on these issues as you "read" this photo-essay. The possible meanings evoked by the photos, however, are not limited to these themes, and they may speak to you in entirely different ways. Enjoy! Check out more of Judith's digital art at <http://members.xoom.com/cyberguias>, <http://members.xoom.com/rattlesnake3>, <http://come.to/villamayor> and <http://www.cyberguias.com/villamayor.htm>. Citation reference for this article MLA style: Judith Villamayor, John Gunders, Vikki Fraser. ""Chuck Another Steak on the Barbie, Would'ja Doll?"." M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2.7 (1999). [your date of access] <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9910/barbie.php>. Chicago style: Judith Villamayor, John Gunders, Vikki Fraser, ""Chuck Another Steak on the Barbie, Would'ja Doll?"," M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2, no. 7 (1999), <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9910/barbie.php> ([your date of access]). APA style: Judith Villamayor, John Gunders, Vikki Fraser. (1999) "Chuck Another Steak on the Barbie, Would'ja Doll?". M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2(7). <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9910/barbie.php> ([your date of access]).