Dustin Brookshire MAGA Barbie —after Denise Duhamel She could be from Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Alabama, or any state that voted red in 2016. Little girls never pick her. Mothers make the purchase, bribe their daughters to pose with Barbie and wear a matching MAGA hat. Mothers post the pictures on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. #MAGAWomen #WomenForTrump #TrumpGirlsBreakTheInternet MAGA Ken isn’t sold separately, Barbie’s instruction sheet explains a strong MAGA family is led by a man, Barbie and Ken are already married, why else would they be so close in that box? After the photo shoot, mother’s quickly trash Barbie’s box. Some daughters notice Barbie’s logo isn’t the signature cursive, the pink isn’t pantone pink, and it is M-A-T-E-L-L instead of M-A-T-T-E-L on the bottom of the box. With Google, girls quickly discover the Trump campaign launched MAGA Barbie after Mattel announced Barbie Campaign Team Giftset: a campaign manager, fundraiser, voter, and a black presidential candidate. Barbie Giftset includes a link to a downloadable voting ballot, “I’m a Future Voter!” sticker, and “You Can Be Anything” activity sheets. Daughters prefer these items to the 5% discount code for Art of the Deal, prefer these four Barbies over MAGA Barbie and Ken who only remind them of what they don’t want to become, their parents. —Submitted on 08/08/2020
Dustin Brookshire is the author of To The One Who Raped Me (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2012). His poetry has appeared in Subtle Tea, Ocho, Assaracus, RFD, Oranges & Sardines, and other journals, as well as in the anthologies Divining Divas: 100 Gay Men on their Muses (Lethe Press, 2012) and The Queer South: LGBTQ Writers on the American South (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2014). Brookshire lives in Florida and curates the Wild and Precious Life Series.
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