Well, perhaps not really completely different, but this seems to be the time of year when there is a dearth of beauty pageants to cover, which is why the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition comes out around now. At least I think that’s the reason; I have to confess I don’t follow the pageant calendar with the same fervency of Power Line’s Chief Pageant Correspondent, John H.
This year’s SI swimsuit cover girl is . . . Barbie! Hooray! I say “Hooray!” because this turned out to be perfect bait for the angry, humorless cultural Left, which has always hated Barbie. (Who needs Pavlov when you’ve got Leftists?) What really galls the Left is that both SI and Barbie’s maker, Mattel, are “unapologetic” about their partnership, as the New York Times explained:
TWO familiar brands that have for decades been the targets of complaints about their depictions of women have joined forces for a promotional campaign that tells critics they are proudly “unapologetic” about who they are.
SI and Mattel just don’t understand that the first thing you’re supposed to do in any controversy is apologize to the Left for your latest sexism/racism/capitalism. Right on cue the totally misnamed Center for American Progress defaulted to the usual utopian social engineering that is the Left’s stock and trade (because never forget how much more wise than the rest of us they are):
Barbie’s designers could choose to interpret this moment of competition as ripe for experimentation. Why not try to fix whatever’s not working for today’s girls? Why not build a better Barbie, who could tap into the imaginations of non-white, normal-sized girls and push them to aspire to new, healthier ideals?
I think a much better idea is to take in Kate Upton . . . weightless? Now this is innovation! The only thing she needs is a Space Age ray gun, and she could make our Saturday Week in Pictures feature. Modern science really is wonderful.
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