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“Barbie” Through my many long travels I’ve seen women reading books on planes, buses, and trains… Over the years, three titles caught my eye, each in the hands of women who looked—or tried to look—like the Barbie doll. I don’t recall the exact names, but one was along the lines of ‘How to Keep Your Husband’ or ‘How to Preserve Your Marriage.’ The second warned of ‘Signs He’s Cheating on You,’ and the third promised how to get rid of him—and move on. It felt as if these three titles mapped out the lifecycle of every woman who lets herself play Barbie. And I often wonder: wouldn’t reading ‘How to Stop Playing the Barbie Role in Love and Life’ be enough to solve all the problems those books claim to fix? [Original poem published” — Louis Yako