Switched has a new home! Huffpost Tech.

Click here to visit the new home of Switched!

Hot on HuffPost Tech:

See More Stories
AOL Tech

'Geek Chic' Barbie Goes Nerd, Still Looking 'Rexy

by Matthew Zuras on February 12, 2010 at 05:18 PM

Barbie, you've come a long way. After 50-plus years of conversely inspiring and depressing millions of young girls (and even some boys) with her unnaturally svelte figure and to-die-for looks, the dream doll has undergone yet another incarnation. Mattel has just unveiled Geek Chic Barbie, possibly the closest interpretation of a computer nerd that the designers could offer. The new figurine sports slim architect glasses, a Bluetooth headset, a binary-patterned overlong tee, and a laptop.

The designers apparently worked with the Society of Women Engineers and the National Academy of Engineering to make sure that the new Barbie was "realistic and representative of a real computer engineer." You be the judge, as we're not sure we've come across many engineers this smokin'. As Wired points out, Barbie bears an uncanny likeness to Reese Witherspoon's Elle Woods in 'Legally Blonde.' We'd venture one better and say she looks like a sales rep at Forever 21.

We're torn, because, on one hand, we're all for representing women in tech and nerds, in general. On the other, Barbie still looks fake as hell. We want children to have ideals and models to which they should aspire, but we don't want them thinking they need to go Heidi Montag on their faces to get there. Where's the Beth Ditto Barbie? (Actually, a B.D. doll would look amazing in the original Barbie's striped singlet.) That's what we call realism. [From: Wired]

Tags: barbie, geek chic, GeekChic, mattel, top, toys

HuffPost AOL Social News Most Popular