Janet CollinsBarbie – a woman’s success story
January 1st 2009 12:22
When Ruth Handler came up with the idea of a grown up doll for her young daughter, she would never have dreamed how successful the doll would become. Nor would she have imagined the doll becoming the subject of so many writings, finding its way into books written by feminists and many a thesis on feminism, society and culture.
That’s before you get to the avalanche of unfavourable articles that even today generate so much debate about the influence of the Barbie doll in society.
Barbie turns 50 this year and it would be a pretty sure bet that we will all be bombarded with even more on the sexualising of dolls, the irresponsibility of marketers who promote unachievable images and even how Barbie is responsible for most of the cases of anorexia in our teens.
My Barbie doll was probably my most memorable childhood gift. I can remember not long after receiving it for a birthday, a friend’s mother was horrified when she asked if she could get one for her birthday too. My friend had to settle for a “less womanly” looking doll called “Cindy” which was also pretty popular at the time but a little less modern.
It was quite some years before I could understand what all the fuss was about. Even after building some very strong feminist beliefs of my own, I still think the arguments against the Barbie doll really stretch the imagination a little too far.
After all Barbie was a doll. I don’t remember ever thinking I was going to turn into her or turn out to look just like her. She was a doll that I could dress in various clothes – a grown up doll. In fact, I think it was almost liberating that I didn’t have to keep playing with dolls that looked like overgrown babies. My Barbie may have had the hour-glass figure but to me she was just a much groovier looking doll than I had ever owned.
We often hail women who find success in the business world and the story behind Barbie is a pretty god one - an idea by a woman who read the world of the child extremely well.
The idea came to, Ruth Handler, after watching her daughter, Barbara, giving her dolls adult roles whenever she played with them. Handler also found there were no adult-type dolls on the market and saw a great opportunity for a new doll. Yet, Handler was unable to convince her husband, Elliot, the co-founder of the Mattel toy company of the merits of such a product. Neither were Elliot’s co-directors open to the idea.
It was only after a trip some time later to Europe where Handler found a German doll, Bild Lilli, which was actually a doll originally marketed to adults, that Handler decided to try again. Bild Lilli was actually supposed to be a working girl and had breasts. Handler bought six of them, one for her daughter and five for her second proposal to Matel.
As they say, the rest is history. More than 350,000 Barbie dolls were sold during the first year of production in 1979 and estimates for total sales are now more than a billion. Ruth Handler went on to later become President of Mattel.
Controversy over Barbie could probably be turned around. Handler could instead be admired by most women who have visions of climbing to the top of the business world. Identifying opportunities and making something of them is something preached to graduates and executives alike. True she had the connections but her idea did not become a reality on the first attempt. And generations later Barbie remains at the international number one doll.
Women will never agree on the pros and cons. A recent article in The Guardian (UK) gave two opposing views on the subject of Barbie. Titled dumb blonde – or diehard feminist? a defender of Barbie includes all the honourable career roles she has had including doctor, vet, astronaut, firefighter, pop singer, teacher, film star and presidential candidate.
The case against was quite brutal. Of course, it talked about stereotyping and an unrealistic body type. Worse than that, it refers to the cartoon character than Bild Lilli was modelled on (and hence, Barbie) being a “gold digging prostitute” and Barbie being a symbol of an emerging sex industry.
Talk about harsh!
The full article in The Guardian is here:
Really Long Link
Information sourced from:
Wikipedia
The Guardian, UK
Image courtesy of The Guardian
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Comment by James Rickard
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Comment by Lilla
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Absolutely!
The irony is not lost here, is it? *chuckle*
And introducing todays new Welfare Barbie, *lol* neither feminist nor success story, just a decadent mess who reflects the sign of our times perhaps?
New independance at the pivotal point at which affluent society has come full circle and begins to decay, or an over criticised wreck?
One has to wonder if there will be a bloated, obese Barbie to follow?
Thanks for the entertainment, I really enjoyed this post!
Happy New Year ~ hoping 2009 is filled with much opportunity, abundance and bliss for you in its days.
Lilla ...
Comment by Janet Collins
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I think the measurements if she were blown up to human size are bantered around as 36-18-33 which is a bit unrealistic but remember, this is a doll. Those statistics also wouldn't mean too much to most younger women in Australia anyway because we reverted to metric not too long after Barbie was born.
I think there are far worse influences on younger women than Barbie but there are many who wll never agree with me.
Comment by Janet Collins
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I loved them too. It made playing with dolls a hell of a lot more interesting.
Comment by Janet Collins
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Welfare Barbie? Hahaha! Your pic of the Barbie Mum with the six-pack, the bottle of grog and the pack of Marlborough gave me a really good laugh.
Hope 2009 is great for you too. Thanks a lot for the comment.
Comment by Chris Champion
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Comment by Janet Collins
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Don't get too upset about it Chris because she has kept her looks!!
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I loved Lilla's contribution - Bogan Barbie hahahaha
If you want to see an alternative version I wrote post a while back about an Aussie doll called FERAL CHERYL. I originally came across it because we have the same name (the Cheryl not the feral!) but it's very cool. I doubt it would make kids go out and smoke dope and get tatts and piercings.
Comment by Janet Collins
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Lilla's additions were great. I just loved the pic. And Feral Cheryl was a pretty good read too.
Comment by Lilla
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that Ferral Cheryl sure is a country cousin of the Bogan Barbie, huh?
Too funny...
Comment by Anonymous
it is proven that children's toys are influencial in their self-concept.
Comment by Janet Collins
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Yes, but do they discuss the images of say Superman - I don't every read about young boys being deluded into thinking they will look just like him hen they grow up.
Thank you for stopping by.