A white humpback whale is dead. Washed up on the Australian beach. For a moment, animal lovers feared that it was the public’s favorite Migaloo, the only albino whale known to date. But this female whale turned out to be just a look-a-like. Lived in glory, died nameless. Maybe she wasn’t even really white, it sounded quick. The skin under the barnacles on her body was surprisingly dark. The rest may have been laundered by the salt water.
While the whale was decomposing, I was chasing after my own white whale. A search for an elusive Barbie with the face of biologist Jane Goodall. Last week, manufacturer Mattel had launched the chimpanzee researcher as Barbie, in the series ‘Inspiring Women’. At least 75 percent recycled plastic, with khaki suit, fake binoculars and fake chimpanzee. According to a promo video of the 88-year-old primatologist, “the doll she always wanted.”
The Barbie-Jane in the video was significantly younger. The huge eyes glowed in a stereotypical Barbie head, which – as a YouTuber recently discovered – is easily recognized as ‘human’ by facial recognition software. (Cryingly, such software often has trouble recognizing dark-skinned people, last week’s story of the student who had to shine a lamp on herself before university software noticed her.)
I thought back to my own meeting with Goodall. Just after graduating, I got to interview her – my first interview with a celebrity. I knew she always had a plush monkey with her, so I brought my worn-out cuddly toy, Jiminy, as an icebreaker. Me, delighted: “This is my stuffed monkey.” Goodall, sternly: “That’s not a monkey, he doesn’t have a tail.” “A great ape,” I said quickly. Goodall frowned. “I’d say an ugly teddy bear.” My childhood heroine insulting my hug, it hit hard at the time. But it was time to bury the past. And what better way to do that than with this Goodall-approved primatologist doll?
Only: the doll turned out to be just as mythical as the white whale. Nowhere to be found. Too popular, I thought, but later I learned that it was only available in the US, in limited edition.
Does Mattel really want to inspire, or is the recycled Jane a marketing stunt? In the past, the manufacturer has been criticized for ‘whitewashing’ women by giving them a lighter skin color in Barbie form. Those who look skeptical can see the Goodall doll as greenwashing for a more sustainable image. Another one coming soon limited edition of the Barbie Jeep: the Greta Thunberg SUV. Or a Barbie Magic Glacier, which is disappearing even faster due to climate change than the collapsing glacier that was recently filmed in Kyrgyzstan. And of course Barbie as a humpback babe, on Migaloo’s back. Whiter than white.
Gemma Venhuizen is a biology editor at NRC and writes a column here every Wednesday.
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of 20 July 2022