Barbies were never my favorite dolls as a little girl, but Wonder Woman Barbie stands apart from the usual Barbie. I could never exactly relate to the blonde-haired, bimbo kind of Barbie and I truthfully never found Ken all that attractive- perhaps he was a little metro-sexual for my tastes?

Wonder Woman Barbie is a different breed altogether from almost every Barbie I've seen. Although she is priced to be a collector’s item at prices ranging from $45-55 and her figure is just as unrealistic as any other Barbie, I feel like she is someone that little girls could look up to- despite the fact that she is wearing not as many clothes as she probably should be, she is more than a fashion plate or an icon- she is a sign of female strength.

I can hear the arguments against Wonder Woman Barbie already- they are echoing in my head. She looks a little trampy, which might not be a good for kids. The rope might be seen as an implicit understanding that bondage and S & M play are ok given the fact that kids today are exposed to so much more than when I was a kid. And, truthfully, her headband could use some up-dating.

That said, there are so few women super-heroes for little girls to look up to and I like the idea of strength in a woman actually being represented in a Barbie doll, which hasn’t been the case in the past. The traditional Barbie image that I have in my mind is of a woman who is totally dependent on her looks to get by in the world, who needs all the trappings of the perfect car and the dream house, but settles for less than she should in terms of her personal value. She doesn’t even have to exercise to keep her figure, heads to the tanning booth far too often, and has probably had surgical implants to impress any men around.

Wonder Woman, on the other hand, could probably take on Superman- by HERSELF. I watched her through childhood and she never spent time getting a fake tan, she spent time kicking ass to bad guys. Don’t you think that some girls would have fun playing with a superhero doll, too? As we all know, it’s not only boys who like to kick ass.