What Barbie doesn’t tell you
Barbie, the vessel of possibility, endlessly repurposed in the private worlds of children who made her kiss, fight, rebel, or fall in love in ways Mattel never scripted. Her smile hides a double life: on the surface, the neat fantasy of consumer perfection; underneath, a canvas for secret narratives stitched together when adults weren’t looking. Sold as a flawless girlfriend and fashion icon, she was meant to embody aspiration. Yet on bedroom floors she became something else: a protagonist in stranger, queerer and more complicated dramas.
That hidden layer has always unsettled Barbie’s official image. Alexander Avila’s video essay “Overanalyzing the Barbie Movies with Queer Marxist Theory” teased out the contradiction: a doll designed to sell heterosexual ideals could also enable queer self-discovery. The 2023 blockbuster reminded audiences of Barbie’s grip on the imagination, but the more radical reinventions had been happening for decades in improvised doll weddings and secret play. Toys, like culture itself, are never fully controlled by those who make them. Children reshape them into what they need, often rewriting the very scripts they are meant to enforce.
Dreaming Soda’s new single “Kissing Stacey” drops straight into that paradox. Written in 2022 and carried into release by two Kickstarter campaigns, the track imagines Barbie turning away from Ken and into another life entirely. Its lyrics are playful; Barbie kisses Stacey while the narrator wonders what that means for themselves, but the appeal goes deeper. The song has long been a live favourite across Sydney and Melbourne, its mix of humour and sincerity echoing the same subversive spark that once animated childhood games. Produced at Hercules Studios and mastered by Becki Whitton, “Kissing Stacey” was inspired by Avila’s essay but transforms theory into glittery pop provocation.
The duo’s track record shows why this works. Their debut EP arrived with a comic book and themed cocktails, proof of a commitment to world-building that extends beyond the music. “Kissing Stacey” continues that ethos, reimagining a cultural symbol that has never belonged entirely to Mattel. The Kickstarter support behind it suggests these half-hidden Barbie stories resonate far beyond one band. What Barbie doesn’t tell us is precisely what children have always known: the most powerful stories are the ones smuggled into toys, whispered in games, and now, sung back in pop songs that refuse to follow the script.