Barbie me, Barbie you? Dina Goldstein against the princesses.

From an early age, little girls are involved in stories whose protagonists are princesses waiting for an honest and kind prince, who arrives ready to make them live a love story around a world of dreams and castles everywhere. What no one says is that they are actually fairy tales and princes. 

Many of these stories have marked the lives of countless women, victims of a gender stereotype and social mandate that imposes the ideal of perfection and hides the crude inequality between men and women.

From this perspective, photographer Dina Goldstein(1), breaks the aesthetics of the frivolous world of fairy tales and princesses to confront the viewer with human miseries.

Topics such as obesity, cancer, homosexuality, alcoholism and cosmetic surgeries, are some of the scenarios that the beautiful princesses go through, under the critical gaze of the artist.

Goldstein is encouraged to leave aside the social mandate and tell a new version of this stories, more real and human. She offers to embark the viewer on stories based on real events, inviting women to stop dreaming of Prince Charming and build other narratives.

In the "Fallen Princesses" series, we see Snow White changing her sweet songs for diaper. Belle from Beauty and the Beast as a surgery addict and Rapunzel losing her long hair to cancer.

Snow White

Barbie does not escape from Goldstein's critical eye.  In the "In the Dollhouse" series, the sexy blonde doll with eternal legs discovers that her beloved Ken is a perfect shopping companion.Barbie, doesn't  escape of Goldstein's critical eye.  In the series "In the Dollhouse," the blonde, sexy doll with eternal legs discovers that her beloved Ken is the perfect shopping mate.

Barbie

Although real life differs greatly from the stories we are regaled with in the wonderful world of fairy tales, it is worth pausing for a moment and recognizing the meaning and recognizing the meaning of the metamessage hidden in fairy tales, barbies and princesses.

Por. Lic. María Florencia Ferreyro

Publicado en: Crac Magazine! 

(1) DINA GOLDSTEIN: (born in Tel Aviv in 1969) is a visual artist based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. If you wanna see more pictures, this is her website https://www.dinagoldstein.com/