Nov 2, 2012 3 min read

It’s my niece Chloe’s birthday this week. We’re celebrating later today. I broke down and bought her another Barbie doll. Shh! Don’t spoil the surprise!

I got the Limited Edition Grace Kelly Barbie doll (technically, it should be considered Mattel’s Grace Kelly doll, but they’ve got to slap the word Barbie on it or the product doesn’t move). Try counting all the Barbie logos on Barbie’s Dream House. I counted more than 40 of them, including the signature silhouette cameo head.

Now, Chloe, at age 9, isn’t going to know who Grace Kelly is, and, frankly, if it weren’t for my love of Alfred Hitchcock films, I probably wouldn’t have known her either.

I am hoping that Chloe will keep the doll as the collectors intended. I am hoping the actress will be in the box in a display case somewhere, unopened. Does it make me a horrible person to buy a toy for a girl and not want her to play with it? I think it kinda does. But, in my defense, there is no Barbie shortage at my brother’s house. Chloe has at least 32 of them. That doesn’t include the knockoffs, the Kens and Disney dolls.

I’m surprised they don’t spill out of her room whenever you open the door, like a cluttered closet in a ’50s sitcom.

Grace Kelly was in several Hitchcock films, and the Mattel version has her in a dress from “To Catch a Thief,” but I like “Rear Window” better. She was always so elegant. She was also legit princess, unlike Barbie’s friends Jasmine, Cinderella and Snow White.

Back to Barbie: I have watched Chloe and her brother, Max, a few times, and I love going over there and playing. We’ve built stuff with Legos, played board games, etc. They’ve even seen me flop around trying to dance with the Wii.

I have to admit, I was always stymied when Chloe wanted to play Barbie. She would want me to pretend I was Ken or Midge or Troy from “High School Musical.” I never knew what to say. Something horrible would happen when I was Barbie. I became a raging sexist.

I always had Barbie talking about clothes, shopping and boys. I could just as easily have had Barbie work on a cure for cancer, plan a trip to the moon, or plan her presidential campaign. No. I went all Archie Bunker playing dolls and had Barbie cooking and cleaning and getting ready for a house party. At the party, she would invite the other 72 Barbies over. (P.S. I never met a Barbara who used that particular nickname; I can’t imagine a whole house full of them.)

It’s my main reason for not wanting to play Barbie dolls with Chloe. I didn’t want to instill ideas that I didn’t even believe in. I wanted a strong female role model.

Maybe next time I go over and play Barbie dolls, I can be Lisa Freemont sneaking over to Thornwald’s apartment (on the other side of the sofa) and climbing down the fire escape (pillow cushions). That’s if, and only if, I let her take Grace out of the box!