Re: "Harmony" doll

drieux H. (drieux@WETWARE.COM)
Wed, 22 Jan 1997 12:48:24 -0800 (PST)

] There's more, but at the risk of wearing your collective patiences thin,
] allow me to just ask the primary question I have about this particular
] style of commemoration: Isn't it fascinating that this cherubic blond
] thing flashing a peace sign and gripping a nosegay is so white and so
] female and so innocently angelic? It seems so sanitized to me, and I
] wonder if others have seen the ad or encountered this construction.
] Knowledge of literature on the Sunshine Family, hippie Barbie, etc. is
] invited, but anecdotes seem the more likely response. I find the contrast
] between the pure white female iconized here and the real grubbiness of life
] on the street in Hashberry rather dissonant. How about you?
]
] Rachel B Martin

Or put the other way around,
how many folks recall when the
'hippie trail' cut over from
long hair on men to the local
custom of shorn tight and close
as it was easier to maintain with
limited water. It was a bit of a
contrast coming out of Europe with
it's 'modern civilization' and the
traditional 'long hair'.....

But try to remember that what is being
HAWKED is not a memorial to the actual
history, but the Cultural Iconography.
Hippie Chics were SUPPOSE to be lilly pure,
never had pimples, never had a hair out of place,
never get pregnant, never get social diseases,
never get strung out..... And of course they
NEVER drove the Big Bus.

In many respects this is no worse than having
Olivia Newton John cast as the Iconic Cherub
of Grease for the 50's Iconography.

Things of course may be a bit more difficult down
the road here as I would be hard pressed to see anyone
out there Shucking Memorobilia of say the Punk Movement
to mainstream middle america on late night TV shopping channels.

And it will be extremely difficult to manage say the
Reagan Era without confusing it for the seventies revival
of the fifties, or the self parody that the fifties were themselves.

You should feel grateful that at least the sixties
does have certain elements that stand out and make
one say,

Like So Sixties....

ciao
drieux