Harper's BAZAARさんのインスタグラム写真 - (Harper's BAZAARInstagram)「As a kid, writer and poet Airea D. Matthews (@aireadeefam) sought refuge in #Barbie. “In my world of escape, I had many friends, and they all came out of a pink cardboard package with a cellophane window and box tether,” she writes. “There were Barbie, George, Ken, Skipper, Francie, and Christie. They’d whisper fantastic ideas and places in my ear, and were the kind of friends who let me work out my fears and desires through a story.” Her father, a gambling addict, took notice. “My father [created an] elaborate ruse in which my dolls and I could be his spies at his midday backroom games. He figured that Barbie, through a series of gestures and manipulations, could indicate to him what the other men at the table were holding. I would only need to circle the table periodically, see the men’s hands, and pose Barbie into encrypted messages, helping him determine how much or how little to wager and, most importantly, when to fold,” she explains. “My father’s thinking was simple: A girl with a doll wasn’t an obvious ploy and was not a threat.” It took a solid month of intensive tutorials to devise a plan. There were codes for the most important high hands. Rubbing Skipper’s chin or scratching Francie’s cheek, changing Superstar’s clothes, tightening the purple ribbon around Ballerina Barbie’s hair—each held meaning. But the work turned out to be a tall order for a five-year-old. “The fact is, I didn’t want to play with my Barbies according to my father’s conscription, and I resisted,” Matthews writes. Keep reading at the link in bio. #SundayLongReads」7月24日 2時05分