Can the Subaltern Shop? The Commodification of Difference in the Bratz Dolls

Abstract

This essay examines the recent shift in children's market popularity away from Barbie towards the hip alterity of the Bratz doll line. Tracing how race, class, and notions of “the other” have transformed the manner in which American girls are reimagining what it means to be stylish, empowered, and womanly, the essay focuses on four spaces of critical inquiry. It first considers the paradoxical investment in racial identities on which the line of Bratz dolls rely. Secondly, it interrogates the gender and sexual politics of the line. The third point of examination is the influence of materialism and commodity culture on the look, feel, and appeal of the line. Finally, it discusses the exoticization within the doll line. The “streetcred” culture with which the line exploits creates a tourist opportunity of the urban imaginary space, as well as racial identities within that space, without the messiness of the urban reality.