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Ever since the first Barbie rolled off the assembly line, the diminutive doll has been a pop culture juggernaut, an 11-inch tall giant in the toy world whose success is celebrated by some and vilified by others.
“The cycle of toys is that they last for a few years and then they die out. Not Barbie,” says Robin Gerber, author of “Barbie and Ruth: The Story of the World’s Most Famous Doll.” “Barbie has dominated the culture for six decades. She’s an icon.”
Barbie turns 60 on March 9, marking the day she first strutted into the spotlight clad in a zebra swimsuit and stiletto heels at the American Toy Fair In New York. Global sales are up, says Mattel. There are plans for a Barbie movie and a new line of National Geographic inspired dolls. But six decades after her birth, the popular doll with the physically impossible silhouette remains a lightning rod for the status of girls and women.
“Back in the ’60s, her popularity was that she functioned as a way for mothers to transmit a necessary message to their daughters: how to be female in America in those times — how to dress, how to be feminine, how to be successful with boys,” says professor Robin Lakoff, an expert in gender at the UC Berkeley. “Barbie still has meaning, but a very different meaning, than she had back then.”
Created by Ruth Handler and named after Handler’s daughter Barbara, Barbie was a shift away from old-fashioned baby dolls. Handler wanted little girls to be able to dream of futures beyond then traditional roles of wife and mother. “My whole philosophy of Barbie was that through the doll, the little girl could be anything she wanted to be,” Handler wrote in her autobiography. “Barbie always represented the fact that a woman has choices.”
Today, Barbie’s cultural legacy is far more complicated.
To fans, she’s an enduring symbol who has evolved with the times. Bethany Cardwell of Discovery Bay cherished the Barbie dolls her grandmother gave her every Christmas. Her own daughters have about 30 dolls.
“Barbie reminds me of playing with my friends and trying to figure out what it means to be a female,” said Cardwell.
But critics say Barbie offers a narrow definition of beauty that can affect the way girls see themselves and their place in the world. A 2006 study, published in the journal Developmental Psychology, found that girls exposed to Barbie at a young age were far more concerned with being thin than other girls.
That’s one reason many feminists have banished Barbie from their households. They fear the impact the doll has on the self-esteem and development of girls.
“I felt really separate from the Barbie world as a child because of my brown skin,” says Corin Grillo, a mother of two who lives in Sunol. “I don’t want something like Barbie setting the standard for beauty and perfection.”
Barbie has undergone many makeovers through the years as Mattel has created Barbies with different skin colors, hair colors, body types and careers to be more inclusive and diverse. The company soon plans to debut a Barbie with a prosthetic limb and a wheelchair to reach out to girls with disabilities, and is partnering with National Geographic on a line of science and explorer dolls.
“We are the original girl-empowerment brand and our purpose is to inspire the limitless potential in every girl, which is a message that is more relevant than ever,” says Lisa McKnight, senior vice president and global general manager for Barbie. “As an influencer in her own right, we are very proud of the progression the brand has made and dedicated to making sure Barbie is a role model to all the girls she reaches.”
Matt Sutton, a Barbie collector who helps run the Nice Twice Doll Shop in Campbell, which has a vast vintage Barbie collection, applauds the changes.
“I love how inclusive Barbie is now,” he says. “There is a Barbie every little girl can relate to, and I think that’s fantastic.”
But others note that Mattel has made its share of missteps over the years, among them a talking Barbie who said math was hard.
“Barbie has tried to change with the times but sometimes they just ended up just reinforcing newer stereotypes,” said Thomas Plante, professor of psychology at Santa Clara University. “They came up with nonwhite and non-blonde Barbies, but the figure was the same unrealistic figure.”
Barbie buffs are quick to defend her against charges of sexism.
“Barbie has become a bit of a scapegoat,” says Gerber. “You can’t lay all the blame for the subjugation of women on Barbie’s tiny shoulders.”
“Barbie gets a bad rap,” agrees Sutton, who grew up playing with his sister’s dolls and now has a Barbie collection of his own. “Remember that there was a freaking astronaut Barbie in the mid-’60s, long before we had even landed on the moon. That’s empowering.”
Gerber sees Barbie as a cultural Rorschach test, a blank slate that children project themselves onto.
“Little girls playing at what they want to be, what their future will hold, is all about feminism,” says Gerber. “Once they go into their rooms and strip off all her clothes, as they always do, they can make Barbie be anything they want her to be.”
Barbie through the decades
1959: Barbie Millicent Roberts from fictional Willows, Wisconsin, makes her debut at the American Toy Fair in New York on March 9 in a black and white striped swimsuit and high heels.
1965: Astronaut Barbie goes to space four years before man landed on the moon.
1980: Mattel releases the first black and Latina dolls named Barbie.
1985: Barbie breaks the glass ceiling with the release of CEO Barbie.
1992: Mattel unveils a presidential candidate Barbie, and Teen Talk Barbie, who sparked controversy because among other things, she said, “Math class is tough.”
2016: Curvy, petite and tall Barbie become available, updating the doll’s original body type.
2019: Mattel debuts a Barbie in a wheelchair and a Barbie with a prosthetic leg, to represent people with disabilities, as well as dolls with different skin tones and hair textures.
