Turns out Mattel just can't win.
"Food Chain Barbie," artist Tom Forsythe's take on our national ur-female icon, drove the toymaker insane, and it went to court to have the artist silenced and made to disappear his work.
Surprise: Mattel lost.
This is the third time Mattel's gone to court to try and shield Barbie from mockers. The first was over the classic song "Barbie Girl": the U.S. Supreme Court refused even to hear a case appealed by Matte.
Next was last year in New York, when a court ruled that an artist who sold sadomasochistic "Dungeon Dolls," a la Barbie, was exercising his right of free speech.
Mattel's in-house lawyers love it, of course. Ka-ching...
Article comments
1 - BB
I can assure you Mattel isn't hurting. Excepting the knock-off Barbie mockers, I have probably purchased every flavor that Barbie comes in for my 7 year old daughter. "Oh, isn't that adorable - and it's on sale! We must get it" (sigh). I have probably single-handedly funded most of Mattel's legal debacles!!!