Re-reading some of Ann duCille’s work. If you haven’t read “Dyes and Dolls: Multicultural Barbie and the Merchandising of Difference,” it’s now time to do so.

The proliferation of “multicultural” dolls (from Barbie, to Karito kids, to burka dolls) is worth problematizing for at least the reasons duCille explains below.

Here’s one of my favourite passages from the article, originally published in 1994 in Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies:

“Have we progressed to a point where ‘difference’ makes no difference? Or have we regressed to such a degree that ‘difference’ is only conceivable as similarity - as a mediated text that no matter what its dye job ultimately must be readable as white.” (p. 66).

A classic piece worth (re-)reading.