Valeria Lukyanova came to my attention perhaps through a Huffington Post article declaring her a “Real Life Barbie Doll” but liking her on FB has given me more than enough fodder to be fascinated, conflicted, and alienated by her existence. The 21-year-old Ukranian girl allegedly spent $800,000 to look as unnatural and inhuman as possible. At first glance, the images seem to be CGI or at the very least heavily photoshopped, but then you notice that the landscape is in fact real, and sometimes she is with a blonde guy, who is in fact real. Those may be my favorite images- the ones with the blonde guy. This is more modern than a K-pop video in 3-D and puts the issues of body-type objectification on blast in a way that is almost atomic. I hope someday soon she finds the yacht-owning criminal or Saudi prince of her dreams.
