Barbie doesn’t always mimic life

Growing up, Alison Babusci was never given a Barbie by her mother.

Monday night, however,… Growing up, Alison Babusci was never given a Barbie by her mother.

Monday night, however, Barbie dolls and Barbie clothes surrounded Babusci as she presented “Deconstructing Barbie” in the Frick Fine Arts Auditorium.

Babusci is a native Pittsburgher and professional storyteller who first presented “Deconstructing Barbie” in 1999 with director Daniella Topol from Carnegie Mellon University. She has since continued performing the show, while Topol has moved to New York City.

Babusci, sporting stylish hair, make-up and an all-black ensemble, sat barefoot by a clothesline of Barbie outfits and began to tell the story of her life, from childhood to the present.

“There were not a lot of things that were forbidden [in my childhood],” she said.

Babusci explained that her parents were politically active hippies of the early 1970s, and while politics and sex were frequently discussed at the dinner table, Barbie dolls and Easy-Bake ovens were not allowed.

While her friends were eating Jif and playing with Barbie dolls, Babusci was eating greasy peanut butter from the co-op, she said.

She also reminisced about her first “best friend,” Jenny, a rich, spoiled, little girl who told Babusci that they could not be friends anymore when Jenny went off to private school.

“I was like the dollar-store Barbie with the messed-up hair and the knees that don’t really bend,” Babusci said.

She continued her story, comparing different Barbies to different things she experienced as a young woman.

Growing Up Skipper, a doll that sprouted breasts when her arms were cranked and became flat-chested again when they were turned in the opposite direction, was used as an example for Babusci’s first steps into womanhood.

While Skipper’s chest could be enlarged and shrunk, Babusci admitted, “mine weren’t going anywhere.”

She told of the humiliation of being the first in her class to wear a bra and described the humiliation of shopping in a Downtown department store’s teen underwear section — in front of a window looking out onto Forbes Avenue.

Her girlfriends soon followed her lead, she said. She went on to tell about her first kiss and wearing her first pair of designer jeans.

“I had turned myself from schoolgirl to teenager,” Babusci said.

When Babusci entered college at American University, she admitted that there were “Barbies everywhere.”

When her teacher/boss tried to put the moves on her and invited her to go camping, Babusci felt sexually harassed for the first time.

Babusci decided to go to the woman in charge of the theatre department, only to be dismayed by the woman’s response.

“She said, ‘Well, look at yourself, Alison,” Babusci said, adding that the teacher had commented on her bust size.

“Oh, I meant to wear the small ones this semester,” Babusci reported replying.

Barbie doesn’t have these problems, though, Babusci said.

“Where’s my Sexual Harassment Barbie?” she asked the audience.

Babusci mentioned several other speculative versions of Barbie before the conclusion of her program. She talked about Art Teacher Barbie — “never mind she doesn’t have any underwear” — and the controversial, pregnant Midge that, despite coming fully accessorized with baby gear, did not come equipped with a father.

“I think it was G.I. Joe,” she said of the unborn child’s father.

The event ended with a panel discussion among Babusci and Pitt professors Mary Duquin, Michael Goodhart, Maureen Porter and Carrie Rentschler, who gave feedback and answered questions from the audience.