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English
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Part 1 of Queering Barbie: Feminist and Queer Theories Manifeste
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Published:
2023-12-11
Words:
815
Chapters:
1/1
Kudos:
5
Hits:
60

Queering Barbie: Manifeste - Feminist & Queer Theories

Notes:

Hey all! This is an intro to this series, please give it a read to see what's up, or just go ahead and jump into the first work in the series.

Every work in this series can act as a standalone story and should not need the context of the prior works. I do *heavily recommend* reading the introductory work for some context as to why this series is being written in the way that it is.

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

Hello my lovely readers! I want to give you an idea of what you have coming your way when delving into this fanfiction. Yes, Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse is usually not a show that would be up my alley. I know. However, this isn’t just any fanfiction!

This fanfiction collection is my manifeste (final project) for my Feminist and Queer Theories class. Our manifeste is intended to be an exploration of our takeaways from the feminist and queer theories that we have examined in class, a response to them, and our development of an accessible theory & concept.

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You'll notice that I will be using the term "manifeste" rather than manifesta (the term my professor uses) or manifesto. The term "manifesta" was used to move away from the masculinization of language. Similarly, I choose to use the word "manifeste" and use the ending "e" to make the term gender-neutral.

This decision is a direct reference to Judith Butler's assertion (in Gender Trouble) and Michel Foucault's assertion (in Discipline and Punish) that people cannot escape the discourses (1) we are surrounded by. Even by using the term "manifeste" as a way to escape gender, the term still visibly and vocally references the discussions that surround the topics of gender and gendered language. I will source any concepts, works, or authors that I reference in the tags (2) of each work (3).

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(Queer theory terms and common fanfiction terms/tropes will be marked with a footnote to the end author’s notes of each chapter to make sure this is accessible to both academics who may not be familiar with fanfiction and to fanfiction readers who may not have access to academic terms.)

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This project will be a disidentification (4) of the concept of Barbie through the lens of the cartoon Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse.

Something important to note about the Barbie Universe canon (5) is that Barbie is considered to be an actor who plays each of the roles we see her in throughout different Barbie movies and shows. I will be exploring this concept of a cast full of queerness and vibrance having to shape themselves for an audience, a reflection of the everyday comp-het (6) that we might see in modern "western" culture.

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Another goal of this project is to help make theory more accessible to the general, non-academic public. In the spirit of this goal, I will purposefully do three specific things. I will be publishing on this free, community-funded, accessible site: Archive of Our Own (AO3). I will use language and a topic that is accessible to the larger public. Lastly, I welcome and encourage comments, suggestions, or questions in the comments section. A large inaccessibility I have noticed in the academic realm is the inability to interact directly with an author or article, and I hope to be able to circumvent that.

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In Audre Lorde's "The Masters Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House", Lorde argues that you cannot use the prescribed and traditional tools to create change. In working outside of the academic system, the act of publishing these works on a public forum in an accessible manner bypasses some of the master’s tools. My work is then indirectly adhering to Lorde’s argument.

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The article "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" by Laura Mulvey is tied to my manifeste largely through the relation to the original canon that I am creating fanfiction from. Mulvey argues that even when women are represented, that representation is largely shaped by the patriarchy. We can see that even though Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse stars a woman as a frontrunner, it is still steeped in patriarchy.

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Fanfiction is inherently queer. For all of the above and defined reasons, yes, but also through the eyes of Jasbir K. Puar's views (in Queer Times Queer Assemblage(7)) of what an assemblage is, fanfiction as both a community and a culture is a queer assemblage. Particularly, I argue that members of the public who interact with fanfiction and its culture culture are, of themselves, part of a queer assemblage. The queerness of fanfiction has caused the creation of nigh a whole language that is recognizable only to those familiar with fanfiction culture, whether directly or tangentially.

Fanfiction pushes the boundaries of what is societally acceptable, especially the further you dig. For example, fanfiction often pushes past the ‘walls’ (societal standards) that Gayle Rubin describes in the work: Thinking Sex. Fanfiction rarely subscribes to the expectations of a sex hierarchy and often consists of works that break into taboos, even into those of pedophilia.

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At the beginning of every work, I will reference a related line from the Riot Grrrl Manifesto, a punk feminist manifesto created in the 1990s to combat sexism in a male-dominated space. 

Every work will be a ficlet (8) to keep the length accessible.

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Happy reading, I hope you enjoy it!

Notes:

Time for some definitions!

1.) Discourse: In this context, discourse is an ongoing societal or cultural discussion around something that might be considered a hot topic. Specifically referenced in this work is the discourse surrounding gender, its effects, and its meanings.

2.) Tags: The tag system in Archive of Our Own (AO3) is used for two main things: 1. Giving the reader an idea of what they're getting into and 2. The filtered search system which allows readers to exclude particular topics, characters, relationships, etc.

3.) Work & Series: The term "work" refers to a single work posted to AO3. These works can be a single piece (oneshot) or a chaptered work. A series is a collection of works. I debated for a long time about whether or not my manifeste should be a chaptered work or a series of works. I ended up deciding that my tag references would be more accessible in a series format.

4.) Disidentification: A theory explored and given its name by José Esteban Muñoz. This is a separation of a concept, idea, or piece of media from its original source to reflect the experiences, values, or identities of the person consuming or doing the work of “disidentifying” the content from its original source. In this way, fanfiction is almost always a form of disidentification, including this series.

5.) Canon: In theory, a canon is a collection of works that serve as the base or source for other works in the same vein of research. Similarly, in fanfiction, the term "canon" refers to the source material that the fanon is transforming or changing. When discussing what is considered canon and what is not, we can look back to bell hooks' work: Theory as Liberatory Practice. hooks argues that the feminist canon excludes identities and that it is often left up to those who are excluded to create theories that include themselves. My work will mirror that, in changing and adapting the original content to include those who are initially excluded.

6.) Comp-Het: The shortened form of the term compulsory heterosexuality. Comp-het is the theory that heterosexuality is assumed and enforced onto people by patriarchy and the idea of heteronormativity (that heterosexuality is the norm). This was popularized by Adrienne Rich in her 1980 essay titled "Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence"

7.) Queer Times Queer Assemblages: In this work, Puar explores the concept Queer Assemblage as a community or group that pushes the boundaries of what is deemed socially acceptable or reasonable, rather than as something connected by one, limited identity group.

8.) Ficlet: A ficlet is a term often used to describe a short fanfiction, generally not a fully fleshed out story.