Barbies have been denounced for promoting unrealistic, white-centric beauty standards (small waist, big chest, blonde hair, blue eyes) and materialism. Here we have a young woman whose body and mind succumbed to a society that puts impossible pressures on women and here’s a doll that sums up everything about that garbage society. The story of The Carpenters’ rise to fame and Karen’s tragic struggle with anorexia is captured beautifully through Barbies. Everyone in Los Angeles buys their car in Downey. Which coincidentally is where I got my first car. Except they were from Downey, California. Karen and Richard Carpenter were America’s kids next door. They were “young and fresh,” wholesome, polite, and soft. The Carpenters were a salve they soothed the country in the midst of the Vietnam War and a corrupt presidency. So while Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath were pouring whiskey on audiences and getting laid and paid, Karen and Richard Carpenter were literally singing about hating Mondays. The Carpenters were a hit machine throughout the 70s but they were antithetical to rock ‘n’ roll. Maybe you’ve never heard “Baby, Baby, Baby” or “We’ve Only Just Begun” or “Rainy Days and Mondays” or “(They Long to Be) Close to You” or “Top of the World.” That’s OK it’s understandable. Maybe you don’t care about The Carpenters. But let’s not forget that he started with a bunch of Barbies and a Super 8 camera. This man, of course, went on to direct Carol, Safe, and I’m Not There, and a short for some band called Sonic Youth. Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story is a film that could’ve only been made by a highly intelligent professional pot-smoker.
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