美国国家公共电台 NPR As Mexico Capitalizes On Her Image, Has Frida Kahlo Become Over-Commercialized?

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

In a few short decades, the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo has gone from obscurity to pop-culture icon¹. Forever 21 and Zahra have sold clothes with her self-portraits. But a recent lawsuit² to stop the sale of a Barbie doll in Frida Kahlo's likeness³ raises new questions about whether the commercialization of Frida Kahlo honors or betrays her independent spirit. From Mexico City, Emily Green reports.

EMILY GREEN, BYLINE⁴: Fridamania (ph) is on full display in her Mexico City neighborhood of Coyoacan.

T-shirts, dolls, notebooks, magnets, dresses and hats with her image on it.

Pedro Hernandez runs one of the booths. He says everything with Frida's image sells quickly.

PEDRO HERNANDEZ: (Speaking Spanish).

GREEN: Hernandez says Frida gear is an important source of income. But he doesn't actually know about her.

HERNANDEZ: (Speaking Spanish).

GREEN: He says, "she must be important, because if not, she wouldn't be famous." Frita's self-portraits depicting⁵ her lifelong struggle with pain, but also her fortitude⁶, turned her into an iconic figure. But has she become too famous, too commercialized? The toymaker Mattel launched the Frida Kahlo Barbie as part of its Inspiring Women series. But some of Frida's descendants say the doll betrays Frida's very essence by eliminating her signature unibrow, lightening her eyes and thinning her hips⁷. Rebecca Tushnet teaches intellectual property law at Harvard University.

REBECCA TUSHNET: The question really is, who controls how people are interpreted? And when can you be made into a cultural icon?

GREEN: She says courts in the U.S. have increasingly allowed celebrities⁸ to control the commercialization of their images. But when the celebrity⁹ is dead, the question of who owns those rights can be murky¹⁰. In Frida's case, the rights to her image are claimed by the Panama-based Frida Kahlo Corporation.

TUSHNET: There is something fundamentally disturbing about publicity¹¹ rights, to the extent that they are held by entities¹² that may have no real relationship to the celebrity.

GREEN: The Frida Kahlo Corporation says it bought the rights to Frida's image in 2005 from the painter's niece, Isolda, who then became one of its shareholders¹³ until her death in 2007. It has since sold Frida's image far and wide, including on a high-end tequila. Beatriz Alvarado is the corporation's spokeswoman.

BEATRIZ ALVARADO: It's an honor to have a piece of Frida Kahlo that will inspire you day to day.

GREEN: Alvarado says the Frida Barbie doll will ensure that her story lives on. And, she adds, the Barbie does have a unibrow. It's just very faint.

ALVARADO: The idea is to bring Frida to new generations that they're just 6 to 10 years old, and to share and spread that we should be our own muse¹⁴.

GREEN: But the daughter of Frida's niece, Isolda, claims she owns the sole rights to Frida's image, not the corporation her mother helped create. She declined to comment for this story. In April, a judge in Mexico sided with her and blocked the sale of the Frida Barbie in Mexico. The ruling doesn't extend to the U.S. Barbie or not, the question of whether Fridamania honors or devalues the painter sparks strong feelings. David Martin Del Campo wrote a biography of Frida.

DAVID MARTIN DEL CAMPO: (Speaking Spanish).

GREEN: He says Frida was a militant¹⁵, anticapitalist, communist and feminist¹⁶. And what they celebrate now are the superficial aspects of her and the way she dressed. Even so, Martin Del Campo says Frida sought publicity while she was alive.

MARTIN DEL CAMPO: (Speaking Spanish).

GREEN: And, he says, she would probably like that her legacy¹⁷ lives on after her death. And her artwork is now more appreciated and more celebrated¹⁸. As for those of you in the U.S., for now, you can buy a Frida Kahlo Barbie doll in the Wal-Mart near you. For NPR News, I'm Emily Green in Mexico City.

1 icon   

n.偶像，崇拜的对象，画像

参考例句：

• They found an icon in the monastery.他们在修道院中发现了一个圣像。
• Click on this icon to align or justify text.点击这个图标使文本排齐。

2 lawsuit   

n.诉讼，控诉

参考例句：

• They threatened him with a lawsuit.他们以诉讼威逼他。
• He was perpetually involving himself in this long lawsuit.他使自己无休止地卷入这场长时间的诉讼。

3 likeness   

n.相像，相似（之处）

参考例句：

• I think the painter has produced a very true likeness.我认为这位画家画得非常逼真。
• She treasured the painted likeness of her son.她珍藏她儿子的画像。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 depicting   

描绘，描画( depict的现在分词 )； 描述

参考例句：

• a painting depicting the Virgin and Child 一幅描绘童贞马利亚和圣子耶稣的画
• The movie depicting the battles and bloodshed is bound to strike home. 这部描写战斗和流血牺牲的影片一定会取得预期效果。

6 fortitude   

n.坚忍不拔；刚毅

参考例句：

• His dauntless fortitude makes him absolutely fearless.他不屈不挠的坚韧让他绝无恐惧。
• He bore the pain with great fortitude.他以极大的毅力忍受了痛苦。

7 hips   

abbr.high impact polystyrene 高冲击强度聚苯乙烯，耐冲性聚苯乙烯n.臀部( hip的名词复数 )；[建筑学]屋脊；臀围（尺寸）；臀部…的

参考例句：

• She stood with her hands on her hips. 她双手叉腰站着。
• They wiggled their hips to the sound of pop music. 他们随着流行音乐的声音摇晃着臀部。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 celebrities   

n.（尤指娱乐界的）名人( celebrity的名词复数 )；名流；名声；名誉

参考例句：

• He only invited A-list celebrities to his parties. 他只邀请头等名流参加他的聚会。
• a TV chat show full of B-list celebrities 由众多二流人物参加的电视访谈节目

9 celebrity   

n.名人，名流；著名，名声，名望

参考例句：

• Tom found himself something of a celebrity. 汤姆意识到自己已小有名气了。
• He haunted famous men, hoping to get celebrity for himself. 他常和名人在一起, 希望借此使自己获得名气。

10 murky   

adj.黑暗的，朦胧的；adv.阴暗地，混浊地；n.阴暗；昏暗

参考例句：

• She threw it into the river's murky depths.她把它扔进了混浊的河水深处。
• She had a decidedly murky past.她的历史背景令人捉摸不透。

11 publicity   

n.众所周知，闻名；宣传，广告

参考例句：

• The singer star's marriage got a lot of publicity.这位歌星的婚事引起了公众的关注。
• He dismissed the event as just a publicity gimmick.他不理会这件事，只当它是一种宣传手法。

12 entities   

实体对像； 实体，独立存在体，实际存在物( entity的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Our newspaper and our printing business form separate corporate entities. 我们的报纸和印刷业形成相对独立的企业实体。
• The North American continent is made up of three great structural entities. 北美大陆是由三个构造单元组成的。

13 shareholders   

n.股东( shareholder的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The meeting was attended by 90% of shareholders. 90%的股东出席了会议。
• the company's fiduciary duty to its shareholders 公司对股东负有的受托责任

14 muse   

n.缪斯（希腊神话中的女神），创作灵感

参考例句：

• His muse had deserted him,and he could no longer write.他已无灵感，不能再写作了。
• Many of the papers muse on the fate of the President.很多报纸都在揣测总统的命运。

15 militant   

adj.激进的，好斗的；n.激进分子，斗士

参考例句：

• Some militant leaders want to merge with white radicals.一些好斗的领导人要和白人中的激进派联合。
• He is a militant in the movement.他在那次运动中是个激进人物。

16 feminist   

adj.主张男女平等的，女权主义的

参考例句：

• She followed the feminist movement.她支持女权运动。
• From then on,feminist studies on literature boomed.从那时起，男女平等受教育的现象开始迅速兴起。

17 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。

18 celebrated   

adj.有名的，声誉卓著的

参考例句：

• He was soon one of the most celebrated young painters in England.不久他就成了英格兰最负盛名的年轻画家之一。
• The celebrated violinist was mobbed by the audience.观众团团围住了这位著名的小提琴演奏家。