Rafael Casal’s poem, “Barbie and Ken 101,” engages the dangers of societies’ obsession with attractiveness.
Dustin Hoffman’s admission to being “brainwashed” by conceptions of female attractiveness reminded me of one of my favorite segments of HBO’s Def Poetry Slam. Berkeley, CA native Rafael Casal slams about our societies’ fixation with attractiveness and how it affects women in our culture, including his own girlfriend. He concludes that he will take proudly take an F for Barbie and Ken 101!