Barbie

St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture by Sara Pendergast

Barbie, the 11 inch, full-figured plastic doll from Mattel, Inc., is among the most popular toys ever invented; by 1998 Mattel estimated that the average American girl between the ages of 3 and 11 owned ten Barbie dolls. Precisely because it is so popular, the Barbie doll has become more than just a toy: it has become a central figure in American debates about women's relationship to fashion, their independence in the workplace, their dependence on men, and their body image. Satirized by musicians and comedians, criticized by feminist scholars, and embraced by young children throughout the world, the Barbie doll exists both as a physical toy and an image of femininity. The physical attributes of the doll--its shape and its beauty--along with the myriad costumes and props available to it have been tied to some of the most fundamental questions about what makes a woman successful and what are the appropriate roles for women in American society.

The Barbie doll's creator, Ruth Handler, was inspired when she noticed her daughter creating imaginative teenage or adult lives for her paper dolls. Handler investigated whether there was an opportunity to produce a doll in the likeness of an adult for the toy market. She was well positioned to do so, for she and her husband Elliot ran Mattel, Inc., which they had founded with Harold Matson in 1945 to manufacture plastic picture frames. By the end of World War II, Mattel had found its niche in toy manufacturing with the Ukedoodle, a plastic ukelele. When Handler introduced her idea, many of her colleagues were skeptical. She kept the idea in the back of her mind, however. During a trip to Switzerland, Ruth encountered the Lilli doll and realized that she had found the kind of toy she had hoped to produce at Mattel.

Created in 1952, the Lilli doll was based on a comic character from the German publication Bild Zeitung and was an 11- inch, platinum-ponytailed, heavily made-up, full-figured doll, with high heels for feet. The Lilli doll had not been intended for children, but as an adult toy complete with tight sweaters and racy lingerie. Ruth Handler was not interested in the history of the doll's marketing, but rather in the doll's adult shape. Unable to produce a similar doll in the United States cost effectively, Mattel soon discovered a manufacturing source in Japan.

The Barbie doll was introduced at a unique time in history: a time when the luxury of fashionable attire had become available to more women, when roles for women were beginning to change dramatically, when the term "teenager" had emerged as a definition of the distinct period between childhood and adult life, and when teenagers had been embraced by television and movie producers as a viable target market. Mattel capitalized on these trends in American culture when it introduced the Barbie doll in 1959 as a teenage fashion model.

As a fashion toy, the Barbie doll seemed especially well suited to the era in which it was introduced. When Christian Dior introduced his New Look in 1947, he changed women's fashion from the utilitarian style demanded by shortages during World War II to an extravagant style that celebrated the voluptuousness of the female form. With the dramatic change in styles, high fashion soon gained popular interest. By the early 1950s, designers had broadened their clientele by licensing designs to department stores. In addition, beauty and fashion were featured on the first nationally televised Miss America Pageant in 1954. The Barbie doll, with its fashionable accessories, was one of the first dolls to present young girls with an opportunity to participate in the emerging world of fashion. Meticulously crafted outfits that mimicked the most desirable fashions of the time could be purchased for the doll. By 1961, the Barbie doll had become the best-selling fashion doll of all time.

Just as the fashions for the Barbie doll were new to the toy market, so was the age of the doll. Mattel's decision to market the Barbie doll as a teenager in 1959 made sense when juxtaposed against themes resonating in popular culture. Teenagers were just emerging as a distinct and interesting social group, as evidenced by the attention directed toward them. At least eight movies with the word "teenage" in the title were released between 1956 and 1961, including Teenage Rebel (1956), Teenage Bad Girl (1957), Teenagers from Outer Space (1959), and Teenage Millionaire (1961). During these same years, the Little Miss America pageant debuted, Teenbeat magazine began publication for a teenage readership, and teen idols like Fabian and Frankie Avalon made youthful audiences swoon. The Barbie doll fit well into the emerging social scene made popular by such trends. Marketed without parents, the Barbie doll allowed children to imagine the teenage world as independent from the adult world of family. Though by 1961, Barbie did have a little sister in the Skipper doll, the role of a sibling did not impose any limiting family responsibilities on the Barbie doll. Early on, the Barbie doll could be a prom date for the Ken doll (introduced in 1961 after much consumer demand) or outfitted for a sock hop. Unlike real teenagers though, the Barbie doll possessed a fully developed figure.