Barbie: Baller

On her 50th birthday, Barbie is a controversial role model. Some say she represents an unrealistic image of women. She is the standard of American beauty: blond hair, blue eyes, a tiny waste and tits to topple her over. Others contend Barbie, who has been a doctor and a pilot, is an entrepreneur and a role model. While no little girl should aspire to have her plastic breasts, I say that Barbie is a baller.
Barbara “Barbie” Millicent Roberts was modeled after a German doll in 1959 by a woman named Ruth Handler. Her daughter, Barbara (a.k.a. Barbie) was tired of her baby dolls and Handler was attracted to the German model which was an adult woman doll. Handler brought the idea to her husband, a co-founder of Mattel. The company was unenthusiastic with Handler’s idea and I need not say how rare a businesswoman was in the 1950s. Yet Barbie debuted in her great zebra bathing suit and the rest, as they say, is history.
I’m a feminist and I’ve never had a problem with Barbie. In fact, I love Barbie. I played with Barbie from the time my thumbs were opposable to the time when boys were more important than Barbies (fifth grade, ok?). I kept my Barbies in a big white bag filled with fabulous clothes and an array of little plastic multicolored shoes. I had over 20 Barbies, all different in appearance and personality. There was Theresa, a no-nonsense brunette with killer legs, obviously. There was Barbie’s teenage sister, Skipper, whose hair my sister shored to a buzz-cut before we got any male Kens. …A total lesbian now that I think of it. And then there was Keira. Keira was my favorite, Asian and awesome, with a streak of light brown in her beautiful jet black hair.
Like any famous woman, Barbie is surrounded with controversy. The most common criticism of the doll is that she is an inaccurate and unrealistic of women. If Barbie was a real woman, her body could not hold her internal organs and she would be unable to stand due to the weight of her breasts. Yet, Barbie is not a real woman; she is a doll. Margaux Lange, who creates jewelry from Barbie’s appendages, said “I think people have a hard time separating Barbie from a real woman.”
Barbie was a staple in my life for nearly a decade and not once did I think, “I want to look just like Barbie.” She was skinning and I was not, but I had parents telling me I could do and be whoever I wanted and a sister teaching me about self-confidence.
Girls are inundated with negative images of women daily, but Barbie is not just big boobs. Teen magazines that tell girls what “real” guys want from “real” girls but Barbie asks girls what they want from themselves. Barbie herself has had numerous careers, a lot of friends, and never married.
I do not regret one day I spent with Barbie. My sister and I played Barbies endlessly and can remember us going to bed one night, so excited to play Barbies the next morning. But my best times with Barbie were when I played with all my Barbies alone in my room. Through Barbie I developed a limitless imagination and a keen interest in people.
Barbie’s popularity is waning and her stocks are dropping but I hope Barbie is around for another 50 years so my daughters can imagine who they want to be. And the alternative is pretty frightening.