Post to your blogs for COMM 390:
What does the way Porochista Khakpour played with dolls tell you about the differences between Middle Eastern and American cultures? What does it tell you about American consumer culture?
How do dolls help girls model adult behavior? Compare the baby dolls Khakpour had in Iran with the Barbies she played with later.
She says of her days working in a major metro area in the U.S.:
For one brief phase, though, she got me. In New York, without family, without an Iranian in sight, I took to filling myself in and out, like a coloring book. My makeup palette turned all multichromatic madness and for exercise I simply raved away at nightclubs: Patricia Field stilettos, iridescent body shimmer, sparkly hot pants and sky-high afro — all hot pink, pleather and prattle.My mother, that summer: What have you become?
During that era, my daylight hours were all crummy cubicle life in an office where I was the sole “ethnic person.” One day, I found myself at lunch with the usual group of middle-aged, disgruntled co-workers, all women. One hairy-eyeballed my big container of dressing-less salad and Diet Orange Sunkist — either that or my gold glitter French manicure — and muttered under her breath “Persian Barbie.”
She left before I could jump out of my seat and give her the hug of my life.
What do you think she means by this? Does it relate to what Arthur Berger says when he says we go out and buy our identity in America?
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