Barbie Continues to Turn Her Back on Architecture

Following up from our story last week about University of Buffalo professor Despina Stratigakos‘ long-standing movement to get Barbie a career in architecture, it looks like she has more work ahead of her. The ‘I Can Be‘ contest has come to an end and the iconic doll’s new professions are Computer Engineer (good) and News Anchor (blech). Our pals at Curbed LA have some feedback about the loss from both Stratigakos and a spokesperson for Mattel, who said some pretty remarkable things, including this:

“When they imagine Mommy going to work, they think ‘she drinks coffee; she wears a dress to work; she is on the phone all day.’ A professional architect ‘is not in their lexicon.’”

We’d imagine a quote like that will only add fuel to Stratigakos’ fire and yet another architecture push will happen the next time Mattel decides to run the contest. On a positive note, bravo to the members of the Society of Women Engineers, who helped get Computer Engineer chosen (PDF).

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