Barbie Pink, Pantone 219C has dominated summer 2023 by far. This is all thanks to the release of Greta Gerwing's new film, “Barbie”, which managed to secure the reimbursement of production and marketing costs in the first weekend after its release. And the costs were impressive – $145 million went into the film making, while unofficial sources say that a similar amount included promotional activities. Unsurprisingly, recently there has been a lot of buzz about the 29-centimetre doll.
Barbie has been almost everywhere for several decades. It is certainly in mass culture. In this respect, the doll proves to be democratic. But it is not a uniform presence – not only are the representations diverse, so are the ways of looking. In the critical narratives of the media, in the commentaries of publicists and in the analyses of researchers, the story of Barbie is the story of a substitute for femininity, a story focused on adoration, an intrinsic part of a patriarchal discourse, unbridled consumerism and sucking up pop culture.
Debut in a one-piece beachwear
Barbie as a Mattel product debuted in the USA in 1959. Lilli doll, which originated in Germany, was said to be the direct, though unofficial, inspiration for the creation of Barbie. Lilli was a reproduction of an exclusive prostitute from German adult prints by Reinhard Beuthien. Her adventures were published in the Hamburg magazine "Bild Zeitung". The character from the graphics was seen as a determined, classy, fashionable, awe-inspiring figure, whose appearance some linked to that of Marlene Dietrich. Lilli had no reluctance to talk about sex, fashion, politics. Having bought the rights to the German doll, the first task facing Mattel's owners was therefore to create a Lilli counterpart that would appeal to a completely different consumer group.
Barbie, or Barbara Millicent Roberts, first officially appeared at the American International Toy Fair on 9 March 1959. She was dressed in a one-piece beachwear with black and white stripes. Its dimensions at the time were: 36–20–32. If these proportions were appropriately transferred to real conditions, she would be, and still is, an impossible figure. As a result of protests by organisations fighting anorexia Barbie's waistline gained a few millimetres in the very next decade. The producers explained Barbie's appearance by her nature – she was supposed to be a 'fashion doll', a three-dimensional answer to paper female characters who could be dressed in paper clothes. The dimensions were to be adapted so as to be able to display the clothes in a suitable, miniaturised way. Of course, the controversy was not silenced by this assurance, and the company itself, by releasing another version of the doll, only fuelled it. We are talking about the 1965 Barbie, which came with a bathroom scale indicating a score of 50 kg and a booklet with a weight-loss recipe on the cover with a slogan "don't eat".
Who is Barbara Millicent Roberts?
In the official narrative, Barbie does not come from a specific place. All that is known is that at the beginning of her career she was a teenager living in Willows, Wisconsin, while in the late 1990s she became a New York teenager. Nothing is known about her birth, not much is known about her parents. She lives in an ever expanding reality. While the animated TV series, fan magazines, books and games that conveyed these stories appeared only decades after the toy's launch, the very first advertisements told stories according to which Barbie was no ordinary doll, but had her own characteristic life with fixed values, passions and, above all, other toy people, for who Mattel also wrote appropriate but brief biographies. The Barbie universe, which has been expanding more and more every year, is now a big family where no one dies. It is a land where time has happily stopped and only successive signals from the real world – gadgets, fashion narratives – are able to update it.
However, the story of a Barbie doll is at least three different stories. The first is the official narrative, which includes marketing, media activities, accepted market strategies, projected stories and cultural norms that are consistently promoted and invented by the doll manufacturer. Another dominant narrative is the unofficial one – it’s a series of stories of transformations, quotations, inspirations and creative commentaries, artistic actions that refer to the official stories, reinterpreting and commenting on the effects of the doll's influence on reality. The last type – the individual narrative – is made up of millions of consumers' private experiences and stories.
Barbie is not just an object of easy modelling. It is also a driving force. Because the object/thing is alive, insofar as within a certain collectivity, it is 'for something', and this 'for something' means above all the necessity or possibility of doing something with it, with its help, participation or because of it or under its influence. Marek Krajewski argues that what brings material objects to life is the human action that is directed at them, but also what is provoked by the object itself. The Barbie doll is, therefore, alive first and foremost because her presence conditions social reactions and necessary cultural re-evaluations. Barbie is a thing that, as Remo Bodei has put it, shows both the traces of the natural and social processes that produced her (the thing), as well as the ideas, prejudices, inclinations and tastes of society. By doing so, it also becomes an object of opposition resulting from the attribution of specific values and beliefs to it. This was the case, for example, with Barbie from the 1992 series "Teen Talk Barbie", one of whose catchphrases "Math class is hard" triggered a wave of protest, including in the scientific community. The American Association of University Women has openly criticised the company for its exclusionary and stereotyping messages to a young audience.
Many faces of Barbie
Barbie is a system disguised as a thing. The more often she changes her disguise, the stronger she gets. A doll is simulating an actual existence by interacting with the world. It behaves like young girls, it has interests, friends, a certain look that is a hybridised version of the current canon. "Wow! She's real like me!" – screamed an advertisement from the early 1970s. Although officially she is still in her teens, the blonde-haired Barbie has already managed to become almost everyone. Her official versions include: ballerina, fashion designer, businesswoman, talent show contestant, presidential candidate, president, policewoman, fairy, princess, mermaid, model, astronaut, bride, aeroplane pilot, dentist, swimmer, Elizabeth Taylor, Britney Spears, Bella from "Twilight," Katniss from "The Deathly Hallows", Alexis and several other characters from "Dynasty," Joan Allen from "Mad Men", one of the characters from "Star Trek", Scarlett O'Hara and Tris from "Insurgent". In the unofficial versions, she has managed to become the Virgin Mary and a transvestite.
Mattel's language argues "Barbie can do anything"; "She is everything I want to be"; "Barbie – Be anything, do everything". It should be mentioned that, in response to this rhetoric, patches and badges appeared in the 1990s with the text written on a pink background: "I want to be just like BARBIE. That BITCH Has Everything!”.
Barbie today
Today, Barbie's appearance, depending on one's preferences, reads as an idealisation, hyperbolisation or degeneration of the image of an average young woman. Journalistic criticism and art projects – including those by Nicholas Lamm or Todd Haynes – resulted in the launch of the new Fashionistas line in 2016 – dolls that differ in size, appearance and racial and ethnic affiliation from the most popular Barbie models. The Fashionistas offer includes: 4 body shape types, 7 skin colour variations, 22 eye shades and 24 hairstyles. There has been a definite diversification in the set of clothes on offer. Whereas, in 2019, Mattel created a new line of dolls that are not explicitly gendered. This means, among other things, that children are free to decide on their appearance and identity.
The creative, imaginative use of Barbie's image and aesthetic is also very evident with the release of the film. Social media is full of realisations alluding to the iconic doll – from memes showing that 'we are all like Barbie' to elaborate creations and make-up inspired by her look. Barbie's identity, as always, remains in our hands.
Authors of the article: Dr Aleksandra Krupa-Ławrynowicz and Dr Alicja Piotrowska.
Source:
Bodei Remo, Life of Things, the Love of Things, transl. A. Bielak, Warsaw 2016.
Bosomtwe Olive, Neutralne genderowo lalki od producenta Barbie.To zmiana w stronę społeczności LGBT+ [Gender-neutral dolls from Barbie manufacturer. This is a shift towards the LGBT+ community], Noizz, https://noizz.pl/lgbt/mattel-producent-barbie-wprowadza-lalki-neutralne-genderowo-lgbt/r0stew4#slajd-1.
Clark Eric, Doll power: Barbie celebrates 50th anniversary and toy world dominances, „The Telegraph”, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/4014779/Doll-power-Barbie-celebrates-50th-anniversary-and-toy-dominance.html.
Krajewski Marek, Są w życiu rzeczy [There are things in life], Warsaw 2013.
Lord M.G., Forever Barbie: The Unauthorized Biography of a Reall Doll, Avon Books 1995.
Rogers Mary F., Barbie Culture, transl. E. Klekot, Warsaw 2003.
Text: Dr Aleksandra Krupa-Ławrynowicz and Dr Alicja Piotrowska (Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, University of Lodz)
Edit: Ronald Wójcik (Faculty of Philosophy and History, University of Lodz)