Waay OT...Open season on Barbie

Whistle
1

For those members of this board who have Barbie Dolls cluttering their closets, this story from San Francisco is very interesting.

The full story here:

Court Rules Nude Barbie Photos Are Free Speech
Mon Dec 29, 6:10 PM ET Add Entertainment - Reuters to My Yahoo!

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A federal appeals court on Monday upheld a Utah artist’s right to make nude photos of Barbie dolls being menaced by kitchen appliances.

Noting the image of Barbie dolls is “ripe for social comment,” a three judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected toymaker Mattel Inc.'s appeal of a lower court ruling in favor of lampooning the popular doll.

The San Francisco-based appeals court ruled that naked photos of Barbie made by Kanab, Utah, artist Thomas Forsythe were meant to be a parody and could not affect demand for Mattel products.

Holding that social criticism was protected by the First Amendment, the court affirmed a 2001 federal court ruling for Forsythe, who had produced photos of nude Barbies in danger of being attacked by vintage household appliances.

Mattel had argued the photos infringed on their copyrights and trademarks. Forsythe had used Barbie dolls in absurd and often sexualized positions for his “Food Chain Barbie” photos.

The artist had argued that the photo series, which also included a photo of Barbie dolls wrapped in tortillas and covered in salsa in a casserole dish in a lit oven, was meant to critique the “objectification of women” and “beauty myth” associated with the popular doll.

“Barbie is the most enduring of those products that feed on the insecurities of our beauty and perfection-obsessed consumer culture,” Forsythe has said in defending his work. Neither the artist nor a spokesman for Mattel were immediately available for comment on Monday’s decision.

Mattel sued the artist in 1999, alleging he had infringed on its copyrights, trademark and trade dress. The court in August 2001 held that Forsythe’s use of Barbie was protected by fair use doctrine.

In his opinion, Ninth Circuit Court Judge Harry Pregerson held there is abundant evidence to support that advertising for Barbie uses associations of beauty, wealth and glamour.

“Forsythe turns this image on its head, so to speak, by displaying carefully positioned, nude and sometimes frazzled looking Barbies in often ridiculous and apparently dangerous situations” presenting a different set of associations for the dolls, whose smiles show they are “disturbingly oblivious” to their predicaments, Pregerson wrote.

Picture added from NZ source (not as graphic as other works by artist):

http://www.nbr.co.nz/print/print.asp?id=7893&cid=1&cname=Media


End of item: Edited Dec 30/2:38 PM

What will be next nude photographs of whistles, flutes and pipes.

MarkB

2

GOD - I LOVE MY STATE!!! Up Utah Artists!!! ROTFLOL :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

3

But it was MY state that upheld the ruling! If Mattel had been smart they would have sued him in Utah, THEY may have found for Mattel!

And if Mattel knew what the brother’s of the girls that play with these dolls were doing with them (or thinking about them) they would have a collective heart attack!

4

Too right Steve,

If Barbie had been put on trial here she would of course have won - due in large part to the fact that the average Utah family consists of something like 26 1/3 children (we can only assume many of these are girls who like barbies). Although, then the doll would probably become even more iconic here than the little tramp is already! I can see it now:

Seagull Barbie - with genuine flying rat feather suit and she poops when you squeeze her.

LDS Barbie - with endless scrapbooking supplies and arms permantly folded in a reverent pose.

Great Salt Lake Barbie - smells like dead fish. 'nuff said.

5

I gotta ask – what does a clothed whistle, flute or pipe look like? :slight_smile:

– Dan M.

6

Beats me Dan. It would be interesting to see if anybody on this board can use their warped imagination :smiley:

MarkB

7

Isn’t this a bit of an old story after that movie, where Intel-inside Microsofted MaxiHard GI-Joe puppets used Barbie dolls as irregular troops (read: cannonmeat) to storm some kids?

I remember watching the movie with my son Sacha: most all girls in the theater went “Yikes!” when ALL the guys including mine cheered “Yahooo!” :laughing:

Anyway, good news: an artist can beat Mattel!

Next in line: Nestlé, AT&T, GE, GM, AOL… you name the next

8

When I was in art school a sessional instructor used a barbie doll as a model for a full scale human size sculpture, anatomically correct. The figure was on hands and knees with her back supporting the class table top.

MarkB

9

Not only a Utah artist - but actually from the almost-microscopic town of Kanab - MY hometown! :slight_smile: And they said none of us would ever amount to anything…hrmph.

Susan

10

Oh no…you mean my brother used to be having inappropriate thoughts about my Barbies? The best thing, though, that my kids ever did with their Barbies, was remove one’s head and substitute a Howdy Doody head. That looked pretty cool.

11

Oh, and let’s not forget Toy Story and what the kid-next-door did to the doll! Did THEY get sued?

NOOOOOOOOOO! :roll:

12

Wow…a Barbie Doody Frankendoll…my head’s gonna explode. :boggle:

13

I’m in trouble now!

http://www27.brinkster.com/bumtown/star.html

14

:laughing: :laughing: A barbie with a howdy doody head might be a good politically correct doll by todays standards!!

15

Not really Lark, that site was funny :astonished: :laughing:

MarkB

16

My daugther likes to mummify her Barbies.

Redwolf

17

I’m so disappointed we didn’t think of that when my kids still played Barbies.

18

I wonder if anybody has ever microwaved a Barbie, or thrown a Barbie on the Barbie :smiley:

MarkB

19

My best friend and I used to use his sister’s barbies as “stunt pilots”. We would routinely send them a couple hundred feet up in the air at least by running them up a kite line with a parachute. Sometimes the parachute was connected to the barbie and other times…dirt nap! The only reason we didn’t use GI Joe was he was too heavy.

Another favorite was strapping them onto scrap wood airplanes that we would run on a zip line from a huge cottonwood tree to the ground a good distance away. Those planes were usually “powered” by fireworks.

Mummification, I like that one!

Mark V.

20

Well, I threw a Barbie at a friend’s little brother once, I guess that would qualify as throwing a Barbie on the Shrimp :laughing: