A good place to start on the history of this iconic doll is its own episode on The Toys That Made Us which is also intertwined with the Mattel Corporation’s story. There’s another show on Hulu with the words “tiny waist” in it. I’m not sure if it covers the same territory or is it about how Barbie now comes in different body types as well as ethnicities.
The annoying thing about Barbie is how she (or it? a doll isn’t “real”) has been the biggest toy for mostly American/Canadian girls over numerous decades. Maybe it’s my male bias but I cannot come up with any competitor which has ever come close. Boys have had more (Star Wars, GI Joe, Hot Wheels, Star Trek) alongside others with shorter windows yet made a huge impact in their heyday (He-Man, Transformers). I’m not totally ignorant. I remember the commercials for life-like dolls, Strawberry Shortcake, My Little Pony (made a comeback), Barbie imitators (most bit the dust) and stuff for girls to pigeon-hole them into the homemaker role (Easy-Bake Oven). I am very willing to admit to being wrong, so any ladies I know out there, please chime in.
As for Barbie, I know she receives a lot of crap from many angles, especially how unrealistic her shape is. Are girls more susceptible to this? With all the exaggerations on my GI Joes: Kung-Fu Grip, muscles and a facial scar; I never thought there was anything wrong with me. I prefer to give girls more credit for having intelligence and understanding how, “it’s only a doll.” The skin/hair/nose thing I do agree on. Children should have characters who reflect the people they interact with. Then throw in some others to broaden their horizons while these should have instructions included. For example, when we were growing up, my brother had a GI Joe who was Black. He interacted normally, meaning, we didn’t give him a racist-based personality. Sometimes he was the commander in our space operas, more often an important officer (helmsman, CAG). However, due to the limited scope of what we saw on TV, the poor dude usually had Jackson as his surname.
Back to the star, Barbie.
Believe it or not, I secretly wanted to have a couple in my legion of “action figures.” I probably chickened out to ask because Barbie was a “girl toy.” Still I wanted to have them to reflect the reality I knew around me. Reality? Yes. In my young brain I often pondered, don’t GI Joe and Steve Austin have wives, girlfriends, sisters and daughters? Half of my classmates in school were girls, something was amiss on the Battlestar Unicorn.
I do hope Mattel continues to hang in there. Times are rough. Disney ditched them on their princess line and now makes them with Hasbro which has the boys’ lines pretty wrapped up via Star Wars, Transformers, GI Joe and inevitably Marvel. They have made some cool ones over the last decade or two, several we own: Deborah Harry, Joan Jett, Batgirl and Rosie O’Donnell. I hope to find a Cyndi Lauper and Star Trek in good shape.