Plastic’s Republic

In 2019 Barbie turns 60. Never only a toy, she defines the stellar. In ‘Plastics Republic’, Giovanna Riccio delves into Barbies impact on female beauty highlighting how plasticity in body and persona have allowed the doll to remain top-diva. Other poems bring to life, Mattels movers-n-shakers who created Barbie to be their in-house money maker. Riccios Plastications lyrics illustrate how Barbies mouldable nature lets Mattel position their high achiever as ever-relevant, arguably, by exploiting social trends, political movements and historical events. In the Human Barbies section, Barbie becomes plastic surgerys prophet, spawning plastic-positive people who see their bodies as raw material suitable for actual and virtual surgical ‘doctoring.’ Riccios witty, inimitable poems portray Barbie as a complex, contradictory global celebrity, but also explore the philosophical, feminist and body-image issues that this plastic goddess engenders.