Mom’s Soap Box

Happy Belated Birthday Barbie!

Barbie doesn’t look a day older than at her debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York on March 9, 1959.

“I’m a Barbie girl, in a Barbie world” - the music group Aqua’s tune was the only possible soundtrack to celebrate the iconic doll with her fantastical wardrobe turning 50. Mattel teamed up with the Council of Fashion Designers of America to bring 50 designer fantasies to the runway for Barbie’s birthday.

New versions of Barbie have been produced each year, along with a never-ending stream of outfits for her and her friends (nearly one billion over the years), including special high fashion designs by Versace, Gucci and Givenchy (much-prized by collectors; after all, who can afford a life-size version?).

“Barbie is everything that an all-American gal should be - sporty, smart, sophisticated and sexy,” said Michael Kors, while Tommy Hilfiger called the plastic fantastic with impossibly slim hips and preternaturally rounded bosoms “the quintessential American icon.”

Barbie has spent the last five decades setting a standard—for good or ill—for how some girls view themselves. Part of Barbie’s appeal, sociologists say, is that she has always had a foot in two worlds. While praised for representing an independent, adventurous female, feminists who say she portrays women as sex objects have long targeted her.

Mattel has been accused over the years of ignoring ethnic diversity by creating African-American, Hispanic and Asian Barbie versions that had darker skin tones but retained white features of the traditional doll. Mary Rogers, a sociologist at the University of West Florida and author of “Barbie Culture” said, “That [Mattel] can manipulate racial and class imagery is what makes Barbie such a powerful commentator on who we are and the cultural contradictions we have.”

Barbie evolved from a teenage fashion model in 1959 to a successful career woman. She took on non-traditional female roles such as astronaut, Army medic, NASCAR driver and presidential candidate years before real women did. She taught us independence. Barbie was her own woman. She could invent herself with a costume change: sing a solo in the spotlight one minute, pilot a star ship the next. She was Grace Slick and Sally Ride, Marie Osmond and Marie Curie. She was all that we could be.