The Making of Wonder Barbie
by Gala Wilkie
Granny loved dolls and she had several porcelain girls, baby faced purity wrapped in Victorian silks and secrets. In my room at Granny’s house there was a four-poster single bed and a rocking cradle I had used once as a baby. There was also a closet and a chair, and on the chair sat one of her treasured dolls. Sometimes she was my doll, but she lived at Granny’s house in the guest/my bedroom. I remember the doll had strawberry blond curls and green glass eyes, the kind that closed long lashes when put to sleep. I believe she represented Ann of Green Gables, because my Granny explained that our people were from Scotland and then Prince Edward Island. Granny had strawberry hair, and I had the green eyes.
I also loved dolls. I had started loving playing mommy to my babies when I first went to daycare. At home I had few toys of my own because most of my belongings had been ruined in the fire, but for my sixth birthday M.om gave me a Wonder Woman doll. M.om had always refused to buy Barbies because they were a sexist waste of money, but I was in love with Wonder Woman and her thigh high red boots, golden truth lasso, and invisible airplane. I was going to grow up and be a mostly naked Amazon! I loved her strength, I loved the television show, I loved her sparkling eyes and her long dark hair.
On the day of my birthday, I lost Wonder Woman’s boot. I had also received a pair of running shoes, and I wanted to demonstrate how fast I could run in them! I scoped out a runway and cleared the path from one end of the apartment to the back wall of the back bedroom at the other end, perhaps twenty-five feet long. I practiced my flight a few times until I was breathless, and then rounded up my adults. D.ad saw it coming. But I was too fast, and I misjudged when to stop. When the wall stopped me, the world was silent. D.ad scooped me up within a heartbeat and leapt up the stairs to the street and running. Nestled and bloody in his arms, against his chest I sobbed, clutching Wonder Woman and angry that she only had one boot. The hospital was two streets away from where we lived, and I fought the doctors and screamed in visceral rage as I was held down, anesthetized, and my chin sewn back together.
My Granny and Aunty, with their immaculate doll collections, couldn’t comprehend why my doll remained perpetually naked, flying around in her invisible airplane. Didn’t I want to play dress up? They hatched a plan one beautiful autumn weekend when Granny drove me to Ottawa to visit Aunty Vera. I loved the long drive. As we headed westwards, leaving Mont Royal behind, the forested roadside undulated quietly into farmland. Suddenly a tall building rose over the river. Aunty Vera’s apartment was so high up! Granny and Aunty had told me last time they would remember to let me see the lights, and true to her promise Vera brought me on the balcony to watch the twilight. Ottawa glittered like the sky, a jewel. Then Aunty tucked me into the most comfortable bed and tucked me in with hugs and kisses from them both. I tried to sleep but I had a habit of listening.
Granny and Aunty Vera had planned all along to put me to bed and then together crochet a whole wardrobe for my naked doll. I could hear them talking, clinking, and laughing as they worked. I had to peek! I thought I was very good at sneaking, and I slipped from bed with a surge of daring. I made it as far as behind the armchair before Aunty heard me. What was I doing out of bed? Oh, “I was sleepwalking”, and “I had to pee”, and there was a “nightmare”, and “my eyes are still closed, see?”. I heard myself saying these things as Granny guided me back to bed. Like Lot’s wife I looked back and met Auntie’s glittering eyes as she laughed “Oh Lorna, she saw! She did see! Hoo hoo!” Aunty Vera could smell a lie and she believed what her own two eyes could tell her. I knew she knew I had seen the surprise, but I wasn’t sure if she knew that I knew. I had tried to lie to allow her to surprise me, but she wasn’t convinced. I awoke in the morning hoping they had not given up and gone to bed after I had ruined the fun.
I waited in bed impatiently until I heard Aunty moving around and using the washroom. Then I smelled toasted cornbread and coffee and my stomach roared. I pretended to myself to have forgotten the night before. I took my turn to pee, and then went to the kitchen before casually strolling through the living room for no reason at all. There was Wonder Barbie! Clad in head-to-toe pink, hand crocheted with love I could feel like a hug and kiss goodnight. She had a romper, a skirt and a jumper, and a pair of slacks! Wonder Barbie could play dress-up several times an hour now, with so many things to do in her clothes other than flying naked. I spent the weekend helping Wonder Barbie into and out of her skirt and slacks. My Wonder Barbie was still missing footwear, but I was able to stop fretting about it. Since she was no longer completely naked, she could go back to flying her invisible airplane without worrying that the boys would look up.
