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As I turned four, my parents had to acknowledge the inevitable – and I was gifted my very first Barbie doll. Pink, sparkles, dresses, glitter, horses, ballgowns – you name it, and I had it. My precious father could have craved nothing more than to anticipate my first motorcross competition win or my first recorded studio song as a drummer in a pre-eminent band, but being raised during the time of Barbie Fashionistas, there wasn’t much leeway. Precisely, if you were a girl, between the ages of three and thirteen, and financially able, you had a Barbie.
Few children’s toys have allured our society in the approach that Barbie has – statistically, none have remotely resembled. Emerging with the intent of inspiring ‘limitless potential’ within young girls, the Barbie doll has single-handedly revolutionised feministic philosophies, depicted hindrance against discriminatory barriers, and just recently evolved into a distinguished symbol of women’s empowerment. All the while, ‘Barbie’, as a household concept, has consistently encountered considerable backlash and controversy throughout the eras, asking the arguable question – is Barbie a hyper-sexualised bimbo, or a feminist icon? Barbie, without fail, has frequently been interpreted as a classic ‘bombshell’ perpetuating unrealistic beauty standards and inequality regarding race and disability for young girls. However, more recently juxtaposing this dated attitude, she is now viewed by young girls and most women as an influential female figure. As we celebrate International Women’s History Month, we can delve into the evolution of the ‘doll-turned-icon’, and begin to understand both perspectives, as well as appreciating the significance of the dazzling cultural phenomenon.
Debuted during the glamorous year of 1959 in New York City, the Barbie doll exhibited the distinguished feminine morality, capturing young girls and women globally. Established as a signature female, subject to body specifications of the time, Hadler’s (co-founder of Mattel) preliminary vision of the doll was “to inspire the limitless potential in every girl” and encourage young girls to envision semi-unattainable (at the time) careers and dreams. Harmless, right? Among the countless dolls sold, Astronaut Barbie, Twist N Turn Barbie, and Barbie’s Dreamhouse reigned supreme throughout young girl’s bedrooms, revealing a world seemingly fresh to them. By 1967, celebrity-enthused dolls were being produced, the initial to be British fashion model, Twiggy. During Barbie’s materialisation into the world, she had already begun to gain critique for being a ‘sex symbol’ as, unintentionally or not, she reflected the primitive male preference of objectified women. Barbie was a key representation of the superlative woman – slicked and slim legs, large breasts, and limited stomach fat supressing her to basically having no organs. During 1965, the world watched as the infamous ‘Slumber Party Barbie’ promoted outrageous unrealistic women’s figure standards, as she endorsed a scale reading 50kg, and a dieting book labelled ‘How to Lose Weight’. Ironically, the book denoted one simple instruction – ‘Don’t Eat!’. Evidently, the anti-feminist and unrealistic illustration of women lingering. As society entered ‘The Disco Decade’, rebellious spirits and bell-bottoms witnessed the release of ‘Malibu Barbie’, commemorating Barbie’s prominent image of the sun-kissed, blue-eyed, California girl. Who didn’t want to be her? The 60s and 70s saw the definition of a worldwide legacy, expressed by bouffant hairstyles and glamorous outfits, and though Barbie continued to adapt, she upheld slimness as a social norm for all women.
Approaching the 80s, society glimpsed efforts from Mattel to attempt inclusivity, as the first black Barbie was released. Slightly stereotypical, ‘Black Barbie’ wore a red disco jumpsuit, and was tag lined to be ‘dynamite’. The magnitude of this release amplified Mattel’s sales dramatically, as audiences finally received a taste of equality from the company, signifying an important step in Barbie’s redemption. In 2023, Netflix released a documentary highlighting the substantial extent of ‘Black Barbie’, as she persists to exemplify inclusivity today. While Barbie’s earlier careers were clichéd to be distinctly feminine, by 1991 she had joined the US Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps. She really strived to dismantle the sexist, male-dominated workforce label! However, the unswerving commentary surrounding the doll has been predominantly linked to her lack of inclusivity regarding her unproportional figure, limited races, and zero representations for disabled women. Perhaps by epitomising myriad careers, her disparity could be ignored? Following conversation regarding this ongoing imbalance, the first Barbie in a wheelchair (Share a Smile Becky) was pioneered during 1997. Once again, Mattel were progressing in the right direction… somewhat. Gaining tremendous disapproval rather than popularity, 2002 saw the parental polemic of the first pregnant Barbie,‘Midge’. ‘Midge’ was an alleged advocation for teen pregnancy, complete with her detachable womb, and it wasn’t long before all ‘Midge’ dolls were seized from shelves and relegated to the fringes of society. One of my eternal memories as a child is housing my friend’s ‘Midge’ doll in her bedroom and seeing her mother’s everlasting expression of confusion when she saw it!
Relative from Barbie’s introduction through to Ruth Handler’s 1994 memoir, Handler’s objective has consistently remained the same – “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 women had choices”.
Presently, a segment of youth disenchanted by these antiquated values of anti-feminism, negative body imaging, and imparity, will fascinate to Barbie’s contradictory recent missions, including The Barbie Dream Gap Project, and Greta Gerwig’s ‘Barbie’ movie. Practically every girl aged 5 to 50 attended cinemas to see the ‘Barbie’ movie, demonstrating such a sense of female empowerment – truly heartening! In accordance, the movie topped $1 billion in ticket sales globally, and enormously revived Mattel’s brand image and stock performance, redefining their reputation in the public’s eye. Gerwig extraordinarily managed to strip Barbie back from a major controversy to a dominant female societal figure in just one pink, shoe-stacked, 113-minute film. Furthermore, The Barbie Dream Gap Project, established in 2018, is a global initiative “dedicated to closing the gap by challenging gender stereotypes and helping undo the biases that hold girls back from reaching their full potential”. Since establishment, the project has funded $250000 each year and granted to varying charities working directly with young girls. From inadvertently encouraging the image of an unattainable svelte woman, to devoting a company with the hope of mending young girls’ negative image of themselves, Barbie has profoundly turned a page! Additionally upstaging the obsolete illustration that Barbie as a concept is restricted to shameful body standards, Mattel have recently introduced more dolls with varying body types, skin tones, and additional careers. Included in this list are dolls with prosthetic limbs, vitiligo (skin condition), and even down syndrome. Barbie’s nuanced determinations to improve fairness and equality are now fundamentally valued by the public, and life in plastic is now finally fantastic!
Evolving simply from a doll produced to inspire young girls’ aspirations, to an international prejudicial conversation, presenting now as a noteworthy symbol of feminism, Barbie has been both criticised and celebrated. A former lightning rod for feminist discontent, Barbie’s brand now has 99% global awareness and is a confident role model for every young girl across the world. “All of these women are Barbie, and Barbie is all of these women. She might have started out as just a lady in a bathing suit, but she became so much more.” – Barbie, 2023.
Written by Bridie Sorenson
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