LOSING
HER EDGE
her as an inspiration for Barbie.)
McDonough said Barbie had
more of an independent-woman
bent than other dolls at the time.
“There was definitely a subversive
element in this doll because even
though she conformed to a lot of
the stereotypes of the day, the outfits kind of created identities for
her,” McDonough said. “Ken is an
HUFFINGTON
03.02.14
entire world, where they’re now
skipping the parents.”
And as America changed, Barbie
changed too, Chin said. When the
second-wave feminist movement
began to take shape in the 1960s,
Barbie became a career woman
— even launching into space in
1965. After Americans became
more concerned with multicultur-
Barbie’s head designer said there are no plans to
change the doll’s look, saying she “was never designed
to be realistic” and there’s an “issue of heritage.”
accessory, She’s a bride but she is
never a wife. The whole mythology
did not include her being married.”
Barbie’s gumption and independence were part of what made
her attractive to girls, Chidoni,
the Mattel spokeswoman, noted,
and she flew off the shelves within a few months of her launch.
Barbie also transformed the toy
and marketing world along with
her, according to Chin.
“The first Barbie TV commercial is actually the first time that
TV advertising is really aimed
directly at the child,” Chin said.
“It’s a changing moment of consumerism in America and the
alism, Mattel launched AfricanAmerican and Hispanic Barbies in
1980. Finally, after mounting pressure, Barbie’s proportions become
slightly more realistic in the 1990s.
“The history, certainly in the
United States, of how families and
mothers and girls have related to
Barbie pretty much follows the
other social things that are happening,” Chin said.
Can Barbie keep up this time?
‘HERITAGE’
More moms and young women
today are looking up to real live
female icons — people like Janet
Yellen, who was named chair of
the Federal Reserve earlier this
year, Hillary Clinton, who could
be the next U.S. president, and