This is SOOOO up the stripcreator alley!
Judge Rules Artist Can Parody Barbie in Artwork
by Sarah Tippit
Monday, August 13, 2001 4:18 p.m. EDT
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Barbie, the world's most famous plastic bombshell, is now legally free to pose nude in sexually explicit or controversial artistic photographs, a federal judge in Los Angeles ruled on Monday in what legal experts called "a blow" to the world's No. 1 toymaker, Mattel Inc.
U.S. District Court Judge Ronald Lew ruled on Monday that the free speech rights of Utah artist Tom Forsythe -- who was sued by Mattel two years ago after he parodied Barbie dolls in a series of photographs meant as a stinging social comment -- outweigh the company's trademarks and intellectual property rights as they relate to the 42-year-old doll.
"The ruling doesn't mean it's open season (to exploit products by) Mattel, it means there is a certain amount of breathing room for artists who want to use a commercial symbol that has tremendous cultural meaning, for purposes of artistic expression," Forsythe's attorney Simon Frankel said.
Adrian Pruetz, an attorney for Mattel, was not immediately available for comment Monday.
Forsythe's limited edition photographs were taken in 1998 and use Barbie in an attempt to skewer the stereotyping of women and commodification of female bodies.
Exhibited several times in the Western United States and offered for sale on Forsythe's Web site (http://www.creativefreedomdefense.org), they depict, among other images, a "Missionary Barbie," unclothed on her back with an electric beater pointed toward her body in a suggestive way; "Barbie Enchiladas," naked Barbies wrapped in a tortillas, covered with tomato sauce, and lying in a baking pan; a "Heatwave" Barbie who reclines in a toaster oven, a "Malted Barbie," who peeks demurely out of a milkshake machine, and "Blue Ice" Barbie, who poses nude in a martini glass.
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"Jelly-belly gigglin, dancin and a-wigglin, honey that's the way I am!" Janice the Muppet
