Ideals of Adults in Children’s Toy- Barbie Dolls

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Recommended: The Good the Bad and the Barbie: A Doll's History and Her Impact on Us

Dolls are one of the most favorite toys for girls of all ages. They come in different shapes and forms often very different country by country. However, one of them is known and sold all around the world: Barbie dolls. To own one of these “American” dolls is dream of many girls for over fifty years. A toy in childhood can become hobby or even obsession in adult life. For all Barbie lovers from age 1 to 100 is prepared a permanent exhibition more than 1 200 Barbie dolls and over 3 000 accessories in the Dolls Land Gallery in Prague. Barbie dolls are interesting phenomena and can be seen in many different connotations. That is why I decided to visit this exhibition and analyze several aspects that are connected to this extraordinary toy.
1950s – Barbie was born
The first Barbie doll was introduced in 1959 by her inventor Ruth Handler. Barbie looked different than other dolls at that time. It was not a baby or a little girl. It was grown-up woman. She wore black and white swimsuit and was either blonde or brunet. The doll became popular very quickly. About 350,000 of the dolls were sold in the first year.
It was no coincidence that this kind of doll was created and had such a big success at the end of 1950s and 1960s. If we look at the U.S. society at that time, we could see some interesting parallels. The social role of women has changed after World War II. They were not needed in industry anymore and they needed to give up their jobs so that men that came back from the war had place to work. The ideal woman at that time was “feminine woman”. That meant that woman should not fight for their political rights, they should not try to get good education and to be successful. Their life mission should be to take care of their husban...

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...hey provide for them. Some of the companies target often parents together with children. Adults are the ones making toys and the products reflect the ideals of their inventor and designer.
There were a lot of controversies surrounding the Barbie dolls but I don’t think it is bad toy for small children. It depends on how it is presented to them. They need to know the difference between fiction (toy) and real life. If parents approach all the toys and other products, there are almost none that would be really bad for kids. Barbie doll can teach kids that there are different kinds of people from different countries and that they are actually not that different.
I think that Barbie doll will stay popular for a long time. It will change slightly according to society ideals as it has before. There will still be people who will hate the toy and people who will adore it.

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