Barbie Dolls

(Teresa) Her black lined sultry eyes, pointy brows, and red lips were very adult like characteristics. Although her appearance worried parents, Barbie was a hit in the industry. Within the first year, over 300,000 Barbies were sold for $1-$3 a doll. With over 150 careers, Barbie has been an idol to many girls all over the world. Julianne M., mom to one daughter, explained, "A doll with ... ... middle of paper ... ...ith accessories such as hats and a few different wigs.

Some of the most popular toys today came from Mattel Inc. Handler her husband and partner Elliot Matt created this organization having no idea what would come out of it. Shortly after Barbie’s first debut, Mattel was pushed to the top of the toy making industry. “Since her "birth," approximately 1 billion Barbie’s have been sold in four decades, making Handler's "child" the bestselling fashion doll in every major global market.” (Karen). The Barbie brand is valued at over 2 billon dollars making it the most successful of all time. Every year between 150-200 different Barbie’s are put on the market making this product one of the longest lasting ever.

Barbie has transformed herself from a simple doll to a household name worldwide. From first being introduced in early nineteen fifty-nine by toy manufacturing giant, Mattel, Barbie has grown to become the world’s top selling doll on the market – “accounting for half of Mattel’s $1.4 billion in sales” (Rogers). Known for her long, shapely legs, small waist, full chest, and charismatic smile, Barbie has become the epitome of beauty. However, Barbie’s appeal does not just stop at her looks. With nearly every imaginable career, lifestyle, and look of the doll mass marketed by Mattel, Barbie has evolved herself into one of the most successful and commendable image presented.

As you can see with the number of toy stores in our society, we find toys of great value to our lives and enjoy giving them to children as gifts. Ask just about any young girl what she wants for Christmas and you’ll undoubtedly get the same answer: “A Barbie.” But what exactly has caused this baby boomer Barbie craze, and how did the entire world get so caught up in it? The answer lies in Ruth Handler’s vision for the first children’s adult doll. Mrs. Handler’s eleven and one-half-inch chunk of plastic began causing problems even before it’s public debut in 1959, yet has managed to become one of America’s favorite dolls. Ruth Handler and her two young children, Barbara and Ken, were merely sightseeing in Lucerne, Switzerland, when Mrs. Handler first saw the doll she herself had been trying to create (Lord 29).

Barbie is typically a tall, skinny, blonde who is in a long-term relationship with her boyfriend Ken, and has had at least 100 jobs. Barbie has become an American icon; she is present in almost every girl’s childhood for some period of time. Barbie is a well known, long lasting company and overall a good role model to young girls. Barbie’s trademark blonde hair and blue eyes has become an American staple. She is in toy stores around the world, and has been on the market for 54 years and is still going strong.

Barbie was just a doll that we could make say what ever we wanted to, and we let our imaginations make each doll have their own personality. Our mothers played with them when they were our age and turned out pretty well, and no one that I have ever come across has ever felt scared from playing with Barbie. When the article “Barbie doesn’t add up,” was read by my self I felt shocked and upset that someone with no experience would be able to say that Barbie was a bad role model for young girls. Barbie is a toy doll that many girls from any age played with growing up or still do in the present time. As said in the article “Life in Plastic”, “Barbie draws her flock with a heady mix of marketing, magic and the colour pink,” which is trying to describe what exactly is the idea behind what a Barbie is.

Today, Barbie is a “symbol of consumer capitalism and is a global br... ... middle of paper ... ...wife should have. Barbie has had on many different types of girls as there have been many multicultural dolls ranging from Indian, Asian, African and many more. Mattel by making these dolls for everyone around the world shows that all women of different colours and cultures are accepted into this age. Understanding the need of a doll helps researchers comprehend the nature of Barbie becoming such a world-wide popular culture icon. Without the widespread access Barbie would not have influenced the teenage population as it had throughout the last fifty years.

As Lisa returned to Malibu Stacy 's creator, I must revisit Barbie. In the words of her creator, Ruth Handler states “My whole philosophy of Barbie was that through the doll, the little girl could be anything she wanted to be. Barbie always represented the fact that a woman has choices.” Handler developed Barbie as she was watching her daughter Barbara play with her friends their imagining future roles as adults and teenagers. Envisioning that experimenting with the idea of future through this performative play was vital to a girl 's development, Handler fought for years to get the 3-dimensional fashion doll into production, finally launching in 1959. Was Barbie a feminist success for the time?

These numbers indicate that Barbie is still a big part of our culture and lives, and although controversy surrounds her at every step, she still manages to be a well known, sought after woman. Let's delve into the history of how this woman came to be. Barbie was created by Ruth Handler, whose husband co-founded Mattel, the world's largest toy company. She noticed a gap in the market as she saw her daughter, Barbra, playing with adult paper dolls. At the time, the market for young girls was focused on baby dolls, but Barbra and her friends preferred to play with a grown-up version, dressing them up in outfits and pretending they were the grown up women they were playing with.

Fantasy play with dolls and action figures is a major socialization tool that many young children use. These young girls view their dolls as being alive and serve as a tangible representation of beauty. In the study, Does Barbie Make Girls Want to Be Thin, researchers created an alternative Barbie doll that has normal body proportions to explain how a Barbie doll can affect body image. The key component of this study was the creation of a doll that accurately represents the average dimensions of a woman. For a long time it has been hypothesized that there is a negative relationship between doll size and body image but, there has never been a study that tried to explain this connection until this one.