Today’s thread is dedicated to one of the greatest guerilla consciousness-raising exploits of all time.

In 1992, Mattel pissed off a lot of people with the release of “Teen Talk Barbie.” Barbie’s never been a great role model anyway, but this one learned particularly hard into the worst stereotypes about women; the talking doll offered such braindead bon mots as “Math class is tough!” and “Who wants to go shopping?”

So just in time for Christmas of ’93, the a feminist activist group calling itself the Barbie Liberation Organization performed “corrective surgery” on approximately 300 Teen Talk Barbies, switching their voice boxes with talking GI Joe figures. On Christmas Day, dozens of surprised kids got Barbies who offered badass utterances like “Vengeance is mine!” and “Troops, attack that Cobra tank!”

The absolute best was a sinister Cobra doll who gushed “Ken is such a dream!” and asked “Will we ever have enough clothes?”

Here’s the BLO’s original video announcing the coup. Also on YouTube are clips of some hilarious pearl-clutching from shitty parents and takes from people straightfacedly introduced as toy experts.

 

Have a great day, and never forget: math class is tough.