Turning 50 with Barbie

(BiV's contribution to International Women's Day)

Today I realized for the first time that I would be turning 50 this year with Mattel's Barbie, who was launched March 9th at the 1959 New York Toy Fair. I haven't yet embraced this milestone (I have until November to come to terms with it), but then, neither has she.


Barbie's creator, Polish immigrant Ruth Handler, had noticed that despite the fact that dolls of the 1950's were mainly helpless infants to be cuddled, her daughter, Barbara, preferred to play with paper cut-out dolls. Ruth realized that a more grown-up doll would allow girls such as her daughter to enact imaginary adult situations and allow them to project fantasies of independence and glamour.

While traveling in Switzerland Ruth came across a German doll which had the physical characteristics she had envisaged – long legs, a tiny waist, a bust. The doll, "Bild Lilli," had gone on sale in 1955 and was based on a prostitute from a German adult cartoon. It was marketed not to children but to men in bars and tobacco shops as a novelty, though Ruth was unaware of this at the time. When she returned to the States, she used Lilli as a proto­type for her new doll, overcoming the resistance of engineers and other skeptics who insisted the doll was too expensive to produce and would not sell well.

Now that Barbie is turning 50, she has experienced a few changes in her figure, just as I have! In 1997 Barbie's body mold was redesigned and given a wider waist. It's odd how my life parallels this--I had the last of my eight children in 1998, and I definitely noticed a bit of waist thickening by then!



Other than that, it seems Barbie hasn't aged at all. She's still wearing swim suits, glamour gowns, and driving around in her pink DreamCar. I think that women of my generation have a lot more in common with Barbie than we do with our own grandmothers. And there's some good and bad in that. Yes, we emphasize materialism a lot more than those thrifty denizens of the Depression and World War II. Some 50-year-olds have fought aging tooth and nail, with nips and tucks and permanent eyeliner. It's true that we place WAY too much importance on a 19-inch waist. But on the other hand, we've stayed fit all these years. We aren't hiding behind an apron and a saggy sweater, but we are out windsurfing and jogging. We are in the House and in the Senate, and we're competing in triathlons.

Here's Barbie at 50:



Here's my Grandmother in 1958, a pre-Barbie generation. At 50 years old, she is already wearing the gray, tightly curled grandma haircut and baggy sweater. It would be another year before I made her a grandmother for the first time, but she already looks like one.



Now, my mom in 1987 at 50. She has just won the 5K race for her age group. At this point in her life, she has 4 grandchildren, and only her hairdresser knows for sure.



Here's me--I'll be 50 this year. And this is my facebook profile pic. (Can you tell I am just dying to have you comment and tell me I look more like Barbie than my grandma at 50???)



So, despite her unrealistic proportions which may influence girls to place undue importance on physical beauty, and her many accessories which promote a consumer culture, I wasn't completely ruined by my Barbie dolls. Through role playing, she taught me how to talk to boys (Ken). She taught me class and confidence and that it was normal to develop breasts. She showed me that girls could be anything from a doctor, teacher, or astronaut while still playing tennis with her friends. And wearing pink designer sunglasses.

I admit I played with Barbie, and I admit that we had them in the house when my 7 daughters (and one son) were growing up. (Though he tended to rip off their heads and use their dismembered bodies as guns.) I even admit that I have purchased Barbies as birthday gifts for little friends' parties. Tell me, what was your Barbie experience? And were you scarred for life?