Popular Barbie - Does She Represent Real Women?

There is a certain irony that a doll fashioned after a German men's joke, Bild Lilli, should have captured the desire of millions of young girls around the world. She was the inspiration of Ruth Handler who found her while visiting Switzerland in the mid 1950s. Apparently Ruth's own daughter, Barbie, preferred to play with more adult like dolls than baby dolls. With the help of both technicians and engineers from Mattel (a company owned by the Handlers and their partner Harold Mattson) and Charlotte Johnson, a fashion designer, Ruth had her Barbie. In 1958 the patent for this long-limbed, small-waisted, shapely doll was granted. The first Barbie had either long blond or brunette hair in a pony tail and wardrobe to die for.

Her initial appearance at the 1959 New York Toy show was not very spectacular. Because this was such a departure from the accustomed baby doll toy buyers were reluctant to stock her. However toy consumers changed that and by the following year demand far exceeded Mattel's forecast. It is hard to know but it is possible that Barbie's acceptance was because she represented a 3 dimensional version of the popular paper dolls of the time.

The greatest controversy surrounding Barbie has been that she does not represent a realistic body image. If the 1/16 scale that she is fashioned upon was expanded to full size her waist would be 18 inches. This combined with a 36 inch chest and a 33 inch hip is just not achievable by the majority of women. At the time Barbie was gaining her most popularity women were fighting for equality in both the work place and at home. Many women did not want their daughters to have the idea that to be accepted you needed to be a shapely underweight woman. To add to this unrealistic body figure, in 1965 Barbie came with a book on weight lose that advised not eating. That year the Barbie doll was accompanied with pink bathroom scales reading 110lbs. Many Mothers were very disturbed by this message. Finally with eating disorders sharply on the rise in 1997 Mattel gave way to pressure and increased Barbie's waist.

In an attempt to gain acceptance Mattel has built a whole family surrounding Barbie. Mattel has produced a number of themes to emulate real life. In 1965 she appeared as an Astronaut, in 1971 she becomes a hippie, in 1976 she becomes an Olympic skier, a gymnast, a skater, a doctor, a nurse, a ballerina, and a flight attendant. In 1980 Barbie becomes multiracial and in 1989 she joins the U.S. Army. In 1997 Barbie takes to the Harley-Davidson and was the most desired doll of the year. In 1999 Barbie begins the message that girls can do anything and be anyone! This is followed in 2000 with Barbie running for president. In 2001 Barbie stars in her first movie Barbie in the Nutcracker. Since that time Barbie has combined movies that portray her doing "good deeds" with a combination of body styles. She is either dressed in glamorous ball gowns or sporting tattoos.

Although the Bratz dolls and the new Liv doll have taken a run at replacing her, Barbie celebrated her fiftieth birthday this year and apparently is as popular as ever