On March 09th 1959, the Barbie doll made her debut at the American Toy Fair in New York City. Behind a successful woman, best-selling doll, there is a tribe of others to hold her back. Ruth Handler, the co-founder of Mattel, Inc., noticed her young daughter ignore the baby dolls and play make-believe with paper dolls of adult women. Boys' toys were diverse and encouraged them limitless imagination, while girls' were poor, carboard and baby dolls representing their limiting future as housewives and mothers. Handler spotted a niche for a toy that allowed young girls to think ahead. However, firstly, her idea was not accepted at Mattel by her husband and the other co-workers. Additionally, they said it would be unpopular, controversial, and difficult to produce. During a trip to Switzerland, Handler and her family met the Bild Lilli.
Bild Lilli was modelled after a popular comic character from the German tabloid Bild Zeitung created by the cartoonist Reinhard Beuthien. She was a sex symbol and novelty toy targeted at men. The doll was made of plastic and had moulded eyelashes, pale skin, a painted face with side-glancing eyes, high narrow eyebrows and red lips, so her fingernails. She wore her hair in a ponytail with one curl on the forehead. Her shoes and earrings were shaped on. Furthermore, she had a woman's body with an overly large bust. Barbie’s famous appearance-blonde hair, tiny waist, and enormous breasts- was inspired by that German pornographic doll.
Handler named her doll after her daughter, Barbara. In 1959, Barbie was an instantaneous success, but not for Rolf Hausser, the creator of the Bild Lilli doll. He complained about its copyrights as the doll shared a resemblance with his creation. Besides that, Greiner & Hausser struck a licensing deal with Mattel competitor, Louis Marx, who began using the Lilli head moulds to create “Miss Seventeen.” Then, Marx and Hausser sued Mattel for infringing on Lilli. All terrible things must come to an end. The lawsuit was unsuccessful. Hausser sold the copyright and patents to Lilli to Mattel in 1964 for a small sum, and his company soon became bankrupt.
Charlotte Johnson was the first dress designer from the doll.
On the one hand, Barbie represented an alternative to the traditional 1950s gender roles, because the doll had a series of different jobs and roles, apart from being a housewife or mother. Following the suggestions from Judy Shackelford, Mattel's Former Senior VP of Girls Toys. Besides that, they could keep their femininity in order to achieve these dreams. Each decade presented a facet from the doll and shared a few similarities with the youth of the time.
In contrast, the doll reinforces the white beauty standard, and presents an unrealistic and harmful example that fosters a negative body image through a tiny waist and large breasts. It is noteworthy that by 1963, feminists were already protesting the improbably-curvy doll’s body and sexualised origins. In the same time period, the teen-aged “babysitter” Barbie was sold with a tiny doll-sized diet book titled “Don’t Eat.” Although the company insisted for decades had no impact on girls’ beliefs about their bodies, some researchers suggest otherwise. Only in 2016 with the Fashionistas collection that the doll portrayed the diversity.
There are some controversial dolls. In 1992, Mattel’s “Teen Talk Barbie” infamously chirped, “Math class is tough!” In 1997, the Mattel toy company released a cookie-themed “Oreo Fun” Barbie and later that year, they released an African-American version. The book I Can Be a Computer Engineer! was published in 2014. She is a computer science student. Barbie was portrayed as incompetent and in need of her male classmates' help.
Last but not least, Barbie encourages people to strive for the impossible, perfection.
Barbie has been a part of childhood for sixty-three years and four generations, including myself with many memories with the doll and her varied products. Her diversity and inclusion reflect events in the real world and have influenced popular culture. Her varied roles and acquisitions. Countless hairstyles, hair textures, clothes and accessories, body and skin types, ethnicities, disabilities. Although, it is important to highlight that throughout these decades, the doll was and still is banned in some countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran and Russia. Respectively for a threat of morality, Western influence(eroding Islamic values) or awaken sexual impulses at an early age. Moreover, the doll’s vintage plastic toys found to contain toxic heavy metals like lead, cadmium and even arsenic.
Aside from this mentioned connection between the doll and its audience, Barbie has become much more than just a toy. After all, her mother was an entrepreneur. Even though, Mattel had almost none female CEOs over 80 years.
The doll became a product of varied sectors, such as cosmetics, clothes, accessories, notebooks, pens and much more. She even became the muse of poetry and songs, such as "Backwoods Barbie" by Dolly Parton, "Plastico" by JD Natasha, and late 1990s Aqua hit “Barbie Girl”. The second song was sampled recently as “Not Your Barbie Girl” by Ava Max. In the 2000s, Barbie got a website and was the protagonist of numerous games and animated films. She is different from Disney princesses-active and the heroine of her own journeys.
Next summer, in July 2023, it will be released the first live action with the doll, directed by the reputed Greta Gerwig, starred by big names, such as Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling. Its trailer and poster bring an important reflection regards gender roles of the real world. In the Barbieverse, Barbie is everything, while Ken is a disposable item with limited actions. Besides that, Barbie and her female friends are united, while Ken and the other male characters are enemies.
In 2024, Barbie is set to celebrate her 65th anniversary with a commemorative collection named "Inspiring Stories, Shaping Futures," showcasing the themes mentioned previously, as well as a dolls based on the EGOT holder, Viola Davies, and the first indigenous one, named after the Brazilian Native influencer Maira Gomez, among other diverse
Additionally, the movie based on Barbie proved to be a box-office summer hit, dominating cinemas with a sea of pink and achieving a record for a female director, though it didn't necessarily receive critical acclaim in terms of awards. The film illustrates the doll's revolution, drawing parallels to other classics such as its opening reminiscent of "2001: A Space Odyssey" (Stanley Kubrick, 1968). While the doll is a personification serving as a backdrop for commentary on gender inequality and contemporary societal issues. The portrayal was clever emulating the young child in us playing with diverse Barbie and Ken dolls. It uses colours and symbols as metaphors to big themes. Tiptoes to address the fantastical Barbieworld with sisterhood and flat feet representing the feet on the ground, the weight of being a woman in a capitalist patriarchal world with phallic skyscrapers
ruling.
Barbie’s legacy remains generation after generation, encouraging girls (and boys) to empower and rule the world. Regardless of where they are from socio-geographically, their identity and who they love, they can do it!
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