Bad girls ain't no good, and the good girls ain't no fun...

  Oh My! Barbies Gone Bad!! Who doesn't love it when a good girl goes bad? Below are some of our favorite images of Barbie going bad from the minds of David Leviathan, Sarah Haney and Mariel Clayton.

 

"Bad Barbie", David Levinthal 1972

 

"A sequence of photographs,  made in black and white, that date from 1972 represents Levinthal’s first explorations with the use of toys in making his art. He deploys the commercially ubiquitous dolls, Barbie, her “boyfriend” Ken, and G.I. Joe in a series of poses and tableaux of sexual liaison and activity. The young artist was responding to a contemporary atmosphere of new sexual license enjoyed by youthful America following the liberal-leaning social upheavals of the 1960s. Barbie, already a popular icon, had morphed into the preternaturally blonde, tanned, buxom California beach model so desirous of the era. Levinthal shoots her in scenes of sexual libertinism, solo and with partners, reveling in her freedom and sexuality. She gives pleasure and is pleasured in return. Levinthal’s Barbie, exuding the progressiveness of the times, blithely crosses the racial divide in her carefree eroticism, hooking up with a black G.I.Joe action figure for several carnal encounters."
-John McWhinnie on Levinthal images

Sarah Haney, 'Welcome To The Dream House', 'Life in Plastic', 'Things Fall Apart'

“On the surface, Barbie appears perfect. She’s beautiful, has great clothes, several good careers, and a perpetual smile on her face. As a child, I was always bothered by that smile- I put her through any number of tragedies, but no matter what befell her, she kept that fixed little smirk. As an adult, thinking about that fixed expression of pleasure made me start to think about what she might be hiding behind the façade of perfection after all, how great could life really be for a woman who clearly has an eating disorder, an addiction to plastic surgery, and nothing between her ears? My photographs portray the dark side of life in the Dream House: Barbie’s obsession with her body, Ken’s quest for sexual gratification, all the dirty little secrets they attempt to hide as they present themselves as icons of the American Dream….” -  Sarah Haney

For more pictures visit Sarah Haney's page.

 Mariel Clayton, Bad Barbie 

"I think women (and men) need to stop worrying about “isms” and suck it up, take responsibility for your own life and how you deal with it, regardless of what gender you happen to be. It may seem weird that I call myself an anti-feminist when I create pictures that are definitely cruelty towards men, but I’m not doing it with some sort of agenda or social message. I just think it’s funny: sweet little perfect Barbie, the psychopath." -Mariel Clayton 

 

For more pictures visit Mariel Clayton's page.