# Barbie: I Can Be a Computer Engineer Parodies
On November 17, 2014, screenwriter Pamie Ribon's blog takedown of Mattel's picture book exposed a plot where Barbie needed two boys to actually code her game. Within 48 hours, programmer Kathleen Tuite had launched Feminist Hacker Barbie, a web app letting anyone rewrite the book's panels, and the hashtag #feministhackerbarbie carried thousands of parody pages across Twitter.
## Origin
Backlash catalyst: November 17, 2014. American screenwriter and author Pamie Ribon posted "Barbie Fucks It Up Again" on her personal blog, quoting pages where Barbie admits "I'm only creating the design ideas. I'll need Steven and Brian's help to turn it into a real game"[1]. The 2013 picture book was written by Susan Marenco as a companion to Mattel's 2010 Computer Engineer Barbie doll[5]. Ribon walked through the plot, where Barbie infects her laptop with a virus, hands her machine to two boys to fix, and then takes credit for the finished game at a school assembly[1].
Earliest known meme edits: November 19, 2014. Programmer Kathleen Tuite launched Feminist Hacker Barbie, a browser tool that let users retype each panel and save a new version, two days after Ribon's post went up[2]. Casey Fiesler, @Spacekatgal and @SwiftOnSecurity contributed early rewrites that other users then copied and remixed[3].
- **Platform:** Personal blog (catalyst) / Twitter (viral spread)
- **Creator:** Kathleen Tuite (Feminist Hacker Barbie web app)
- **Date:** 2014
## Overview
Parodies work by rewriting the dialogue on panels from Mattel's 2013 picture book, so illustrations of Barbie at her pink laptop or chatting with the characters Skipper, Steven and Brian are repurposed into scenes where she reverse-engineers malware or lectures male colleagues on secure coding practices[2]. Kathleen Tuite's Feminist Hacker Barbie tool at computer-engineer-barbie.herokuapp.com overlays fresh copy on each spread, letting anyone produce a page that still looks like Mattel art[3].
Edits ran from technical gags about PGP keys and incident response to pointed commentary on how women are depicted in STEM materials[2]. Infosec parody account @SwiftOnSecurity, researcher Casey Fiesler and writer @Spacekatgal supplied seed examples that set the tone for later submissions[3]. The joke works because the original art shows Barbie clearly in charge of a computer, which lets contributors keep her competent while flipping the book's script[1].
## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is Barbie: I Can Be a Computer Engineer Parodies?
A set of exploitable rewrites of panels from Mattel's 2013 picture book, created mostly through Kathleen Tuite's Feminist Hacker Barbie web app, that recast Barbie as a competent engineer giving advice to the male characters in the story[3].
### Where did Barbie: I Can Be a Computer Engineer Parodies come from?
They emerged after screenwriter Pamie Ribon's November 17, 2014 blog post "Barbie Fucks It Up Again" quoted the book's plot, in which Barbie needs two boys named Steven and Brian to code her game[1].
### What does Barbie: I Can Be a Computer Engineer Parodies mean?
The edits mock Mattel's framing of Barbie as a girl who outsources the actual programming to boys, pointing at how children's media depicts women in STEM[2].
### How do you use Barbie: I Can Be a Computer Engineer Parodies?
Users visit computer-engineer-barbie.herokuapp.com, type new captions over the original panels, and share the result, often with the #feministhackerbarbie hashtag[3].
### Is Barbie: I Can Be a Computer Engineer Parodies still popular?
It is a classic 2014 moment that no longer trends; peak activity was the week of November 17 to 20, 2014, when Mattel apologized and pulled the book[4].
## References
1. [https://pamie.com/2014/11/barbie-fucks-it-up-again/]()
2. [https://www.theverge.com/2014/11/19/7245461/feminist-barbie-hacker-engineer-fix]()
3. [https://computer-engineer-barbie.herokuapp.com/]()
4. [http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/19/mattel-pulls-sexist-barbie-book-i-can-be-a-computer-engineer-off-amazon/]()
5. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/barbie-i-can-be-a-computer-engineer-parodies]()
6. [http://gizmodo.com/barbie-f-cks-it-up-again-1660326671]()
7. [https://www.buzzfeed.com/rachelzarrell/sexist-barbie-book-is-sexist]()
8. [https://www.dailydot.com/geek/sexist-barbie-book-stem-remix-engineer-gaming/]()
9. [https://cheezburger.com/8381410304]()
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Source: https://meme.com/memes/barbie-i-can-be-a-computer-engineer-parodies
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