August 26, 2019

Mattel Just Released a Rosa Parks Barbie

I’m not sure how to feel about this.

Barbie/Mattel

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Barbie’s latest incarnation is a far cry from the blond fashionista whose highest aspiration was an unlimited shopping spree. Mattel announced Monday that the latest in its lineup of Inspiring Women Barbies will be civil rights leader Rosa Parks.

Parks made history when, in 1955, she refused to give her bus seat up for a white passenger—an event that launched the Montgomery bus boycott, which ended in the racial desegregation of buses in Alabama. Barbie’s Inspiring Women series features “courageous women who took risks, changed rules and paved the way for generations of girls to dream bigger than ever before,” according to the doll’s product description. Now, for $30.99, kids can play with a doll worth looking up to. 

The Inspiring Women series also includes Sally Ride, the pioneering astronaut and first American woman in space.

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FACT:

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Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2021 demands.

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