So, the other day, Daughter and My Callipygian Spouse were in the store and Daughter's eyes fell, as they do, on this doll. The one being held by that dashing man in that picture off to the right there. Normally, the eyes fall on something, Daughter makes a remark, and that's that. But on seeing this doll, she insisted she had to have it.

"Mama, Mama!" she said. "I love that Barbie! Look at her hair! Look at her color! She looks like me!"

So of course, My Munificent Spouse had to buy it for her. The reasoning behind Daughter's fascination seems a little too complex to even bring up, but there it is. The doll doesn't look like mom & dad. It doesn't look like her little brother. It looks like *her*. Something just happened there, and I don't know what. Some kind of mental circuitry clicked.

She's developing a self-image and a standard of beauty that's all her own, which is kind of awesome. But complicated....

Meanwhile, the outstanding Danwei blog has a piece on Chinese culture and the consensus view that big eyes are beautiful. Those of us who've already been over there will recognize that this has nothing to do with Asian or Western faces, per se - Chinese people call Westerners "big noses", not big eyes. But it's a different standard of beauty. Things don't always look the same to different people.

Outside appearances don't matter when it comes to the heart's business, of course. I mean, just take a look at this baby monkey loving pigeon with much love in a Guangdong animal sanctuary. It matters when the pigeon tries teaching the monkey to fly, I suppose. Maybe I should scratch that analogy and make some other model of my own.

Like this dude from Shanghai. He always wanted Transformers and his parents never bought them - so he built his own Transformer out of KFC boxes, custard packaging and a lot of time.

Now there's some dedication. There's some unique self-image.

And it looks just like a Transformer. Seems significant somehow, eh? A better analogy. Because it's complicated.


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