“Barbie and Instagram: a digital ethnography of the doll's image"
Barbie; Instagram; Image; Device; Digital ethnography
The convergence of computing with traditional media has resulted not only in the emergence of new cultural forms, such as the online social platform Instagram, but also in the redefinition of existing cultural objects, like the doll. In the digital, people of all ages from around the world use the Barbie doll as representations of themselves to share narratives and images that may or may not reinforce the image that the doll has promoted since its launch in 1959: that of a frivolous, thin, white, blonde, blue-eyed young woman, which we will call the Stereotypical Barbie. The aim of this PhD project is to identify, through digital ethnographic research, Brazilian profiles on Instagram that produce and share images of the Barbie doll that break away from this Stereotypical Barbie model. Additionally, the project seeks to highlight how these profiles break the doll's pattern and how the images they produce, used as devices in cyberspace, can contribute to give visibility to other faces and to a contemporary discussion of visual and aesthetic education.