This Sunday Blanca Gispert published here a lot of interesting data regarding the great commercial impact of the success of the Barbie movie. Not only are new doll sales up 19%, but the pinkish craze is spreading to old ones. The second-hand Barbie market has boomed so much that a lot of low-salary people must be looking in their closets for the cardboard sarcophagi where they were stored thirty years ago. It is seen that those of the nineties are highly valued. I would not be surprised if evaluation lists appear according to the vintage, as with wines.
But the most interesting of the reports was a piece of news related to the Catalan cooperative Abacus, a reference trade for Catalan teachers. He said that, due to the feminist focus of the film, they are considering starting to sell Barbies. Abacus, founded in the emblematic year of 1968 to market educational materials, has experienced exponential growth in recent decades that has led it to be present in many towns in Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and the Valencian Country without renouncing the founding idea of spreading the language. Catalan together with a series of ethical, solidarity and social values. As far as is known, a Barbie was never sold at Abacus, because they considered that the Mattel doll conveyed values that did not fit their "editorial" line. In the coming months that could change. After decades of chromatic neutrality in children's toys to combat the gender separation symbolized by the colors blue and pink, it may happen that, starting in January, the Abacus will be dyed Pantone PMS 219 C, a color registered by Mattel as Barbie Pink, a hotter shade of pink than the one worn by the ditto Panther.
The Barbie phenomenon could be repeated with other toys that have never been sold in stores like Abacus for being warlike or sexist, but I can't think of any movie capable of whitewashing my beloved colonial Madelman Commando, Safari Porter and Pirate Jim Black, the first and the only black dolls I played with as a child.
