On March 9, 2009, Mattel’s Barbie fashion doll celebrated its 50th birthday. Since its introduction, the Barbie doll has become an icon of femininity. In particular, Barbie, as a fashion doll, helps to shape our notions about what makes a woman beautiful, a role for which she has suffered much criticism. Tall, slender, and sonsie, with long legs relative to her body, Barbie represents an ideal of attractiveness that many, ranging from feminists to health advocates to Islamic fundamentalists have critiqued as degrading, unhealthy, and decadent. In fact, as recently as this March, a West Virginia lawmaker proposed a ban on the sale of the doll in the state because it promotes the idea that “if you’re beautiful, you’re beautiful and you don’t have to be smart.” Mattel, of course, hopes to portray Barbie as a positive role model, whose 108 careers show that women can take on a variety of roles in life.
There is no doubt that Barbie is influential on little girls (and, to a lesser extent, little boys). In contrast to baby dolls, Barbie acts as an adult figure in a girl’s life, and the kinds of play in which a girl engages with Barbie helps her conceptualize future possibilities for life. But, despite the criticism it receives, Barbie is a passive figure that reflects social trends, rather than creating them. When Barbie was first introduced in her black-and-white swimsuit in 1959, it was the year of Gidget, soon to be followed by Where the Boys Are (1960), and Blue Hawaii (1961). All big box-office successes. When public support rallied behind the Apollo space missions, Miss Astronaut Barbie was introduced in 1965. And with the wave of patriotic militarism inspired by Desert Shield and Storm, and growing acceptance of women in military roles, Barbies were released wearing uniforms of officers in all four major branches of military service. Spiking political interest (including acceptance for women in leadership roles) among children led to the introduction of Barbie for president in 1992 (and re-released in 2004), and a presidential Barbie was released in 2000. Barbie even became a NASCAR driver in 1998 at the height of NASCAR’s nationwide popularity.
Is breast augmentation the most popular cosmetic surgery procedure because Barbie’s breasts were 38-D when today’s breast augmentation patients were children? No. Instead, Barbie’s figure, like her careers, is a product of our collective consciousness about what a woman should be. And, although we can expect that Barbie will probably undergo many changes in the future (including the recent change that made her facial features more like the now-squashed rival Bratz), we can expect that many of her characteristics will remain true to the core characteristics of the feminine body: large breasts, narrow waist, wide hips, and long, slender legs.
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