Barbie, you can be anything!
”My whole philosophy of Barbie was that, through the doll, the little girl could be anything she wanted to be. Barbie always represented the fact that a woman has choices.” — Ruth Handler, creator of Barbie
Barbara Millicent Roberts, or “Barbie”, was introduced at the 1959 New York Toy fair by Ruth Handler, the co-founder of the toy company called Mattel.
Across 150 countries, the brand makes about $1.5 billion in sales annually, and statistics show that around 92% of American girls aged 3–12 have owned a Barbie.
Ever since her debut, Barbie has grown to be a worldwide icon, making an impact in the lives of millions, especially young children. The question is, what kind of impact has she made? Is it a good one, or a bad one?
Although Mattel markets Barbie to be a symbol of feminism, throughout the past 60 years, the doll and her brand have undergone multiple controversies.
Barbie has been criticized due to her unrealistic body proportion and her brand’s lack of diversity. She has also been criticized about the image she projects to the public, which may influence children in negative ways.
The first issue, which was about Barbie’s figure, was raised in 1958, right before Barbie’s release.
Mothers criticized the doll for having “too much of a figure”, and critics thought that the doll was meant to be a sex symbol.
This was just the beginning for the long list of controversies Barbie has been through.
Get kaira balcos’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
In 1963, “Slumber Party Barbie” was released. She sparked up controversy about Barbie’s being a bad role model, since the doll held a diet book which said “Don’t eat” and also came with a scale set to 110 pounds.
In 1967, “Colored Francie” was released, the first ever Barbie of color. Consumers were not happy because although she did have the skin color, the rest of her features were not those of an African American woman.
In 1992, “Teen Talk Barbie” was released, a talking doll which spoke when you pressed a button. One of the programmed phrases which some of the dolls had made Barbie say, “Math is hard!”. Many parents raised concerns about this doll, saying that Barbie was being superficial and downgrading the capability of women in academics.
To fight back against all the controversies, Mattel has created many projects in order to modernize and diversify Barbie.
In response to early criticisms about Barbie solely being a sex symbol, Mattel released dolls such as Midge, her best friend and Skipper, her little sister. In response to the complaints about the brand’s lack of diversity and the Colored Francie controversy, Mattel released Christie in 1968, the first real Barbie of color. In 1980, Mattel released the first official African-American and Latina Barbies, and since then they have released more than 40 dolls with different nationalities.
In response to the issue about Barbie’s body proportions, Mattel started redesigning her body, and in 2016, Barbie Fashionistas was released. This new line of dolls, had 4 new body types, 7 skin tones, 22 eye colors and 24 hairstyles.
To address the issue about Barbie being a bad role model, Barbie started the “Sheroes” collection, making dolls based on different iconic and inspirational women such as Amelia Earhart.
Barbie has broken many barriers, especially with the hundreds of careers she has had since being introduced.
She’s been a businesswoman, an astronaut, an architect and a surgeon, at a time when only 9% of all doctors were women.
Her brand has continuously been redesigning in order to be more inclusive of different races and cultures.
Although Barbie has had her fair share of controversies, Mattel has been working to change the way people see her, and the ideals she stands for. To turn her into a symbol of female empowerment.
For now, I’ll let you be the judge. Is Barbie’s influence in our modern society positive or negative?
