What a doll. The most intriguing thing about the @barbie exhibit at the @madmuseum is seeing how Barbie’s evolution mirrored the women’s movement in the U.S. As a child, I grew up believing I could be anything, and I think that is in large part because I grew up with toys going above and beyond to try to show that. (Maybe because it wasn’t yet really the case in the U.S., even though theoretically there was no reason why it shouldn’t have been.) Especially these days, when it feels like societally, some (threatened) people are trying to remind women/other marginalized groups that a ceiling exists, I still believe it doesn’t fundamentally. And I think it is important to tell little boys and girls that, be it through toys or just the people around them. Decades later they will grow up and maybe even make that kind of world a reality. There’s a lot of hatred (and misogyny in this case) everywhere in the news these days, but human potential innately knows no gender or race (or even class. Intelligence is intelligence; it just needs to be nurtured). As a young woman, I learned that the world is a little more dangerous for women than it is for men. But I’m glad as a little girl I was blissfully unaware, in part thanks to toys like this. I don’t know if it’s the same for today’s children (I hope it is), but I recognize the privilege any child has who gets to grow up believing that they can really do anything in their career. Swipe for highlights from the exhibit.