Barbie - The History and Psychology of 52-Year-Barbie | Body Image

The history of Barbie, created by Handler and her husband Elliot, cofounders of Mattel Toys, is recounted here. The doll, which was "born" in 1959 and whose "big boobs" aroused controversy at the time, enjoyed such commercial success that the market was expanded to include her boyfriend, Ken, siblings and friends-all with their own wardrobes and accessories. Assisted by Shannon (Why It's Great to Be a Girl), Handler also bitterly recalls her 1970 mastectomy and forced resignation from Mattel in 1975, after she was indicted for preparing false financial records.--Library Journal - Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Barbie and Ruth: The Story of the World's Most Famous Doll and the Woman Who Created Her by Robin Gerber

Biography of Ruth Handler and the story of Barbie.

Cofounder of the Mattel Company, Ruth Handler and her husband, Elliot, turned the toy industry upside down, not only with the 1959 creation of Barbie and the subsequent introduction of boyfriend Ken but also with Hot Wheels and prescient advertising tie-ins to the Mickey Mouse Club. Yet the behind-the-scenes journey is just as fascinating as the public persona: born the tenth child of Polish-Jewish immigrants, Ruth was raised by her sister—and, early on, recognized the talent of her husband as a designer. Motherhood was not her natural state of being, though she named both dolls after her children.

After being forced out of Mattel in the 1970s, Ruth then founded a second company, “Nearly Me,” producing prosthetics designed for women who had undergone mastectomies—just like her. Tragedy, unfortunately, continued to strike the family; son Ken died of AIDS in 1994, and Ruth herself lost her battle with cancer in 2002. ...a fascinating account of entrepreneurial ups and downs. --Barbara Jacobs, Booklist

Barbie Nation: An Unauthorized Tour (1998) - DVD- with Ruth Handler (Actor), Susan Stern

53 minute DVD documenting the subject of the Barbie doll.

Female Force: Ruth Handler - The Creator of Barbie by Tara Broeckel (Author), Neil Alexander

For over fifty years, Barbie has helped young girls come of age in the midst of an ever-changing social climate - but what do we really know about her? Female Force: Barbie tells the story of how America's favorite fashion doll emerged from the seedy underworld of German sex symbols and cigarette shop gag gifts to become one of history's most iconic women.

Ruth Handler: From Lilli to Barbie (Titans of Fortune) by Daniel Alef

The American dream comes in many shapes and colors, limited only by one's imagination and work ethic. Ruth Handler, the daughter of poor Russian-Jewish èmigrès, is a prime example. She turned a Swiss toy sex doll into a quintessentially American icon -- Barbie -- one so well-known that more than a billion have been sold.

Forever Barbie: The Unauthorized Biography of a Real Doll by M. G. Lord

If you think Barbie is just a child's plaything, you'll think again after reading this fascinating, funny, and far-reaching biography of the pointy-breasted, slim-waisted, high-arched gal who changed the way we think about dolls and ourselves. Lord, who writes for Newsday, approaches the story like an investigative reporter. She unearths Barbie's low origins as Lili, a slutty doll sold to German men as a gag gift, and goes on to cover the Barbie story on numerous fronts: creative, commercial, and sociological. She interviews Barbie's designers, critics, collectors, even a woman who has undergone more than 50 cosmetic surgeries so she can look like a Barbie doll.

...As Lord puts it, "For every mother that embraces Barbie . . . there is another mother who tries to banish Barbie from the house." Cheerleaders, career women, bulimics, and mythmakers can all hang their hats--with justification--on Barbie's well-coiffed head.

Lord, for example, makes a convincing case that Barbie is a pagan symbol, a queen surrounding herself with such drones as the penis-less Ken. We can buy that easily enough, but when Lord describes Barbie as "an incarnation of the One Goddess with a thousand names . . . an archetype of something ancient, matriarchal, and profound," she might be going just a wee bit over the top. The photographs are terrific, too, especially, the close-up of the original Barbie with her sly eyes and arched brows. --Ilene Cooper - Booklist

So Sexy So Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids by Diane E. Levin Ph.D., Jean Kilbourne Ed.D.

Constantly, American children are exposed to a barrage of sexual images in television, movies, music and the Internet. They are taught young that buying certain clothes, consuming brand-name soft drinks and owning the right possessions will make them sexy and cool—and being sexy and cool is the most important thing. Eating disorders and body image issues are common as early as grade school.

Levin and Kilbourne stress that there is nothing wrong with a young person's natural sexual awakening, but it is wrong to allow a young person's sexuality to be hijacked by corporations who want them as customers. The authors offer advice on how parents can limit children's exposure to commercialized sex, and how parents can engage kids in constructive, age-appropriate conversation about sex and the media. --Publishers Weekly -Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Photo credits:
Barbie portrait -CarrieBee
First Edition Barbies, 1959 - Сергей Бережной

Page updated August 23, 2012

The History and Psychology of 52-year old Barbie

"the diminutive yet arrestingly voluptuous doll"

Barbie, since 1959, has captured the imagination of girls.

"I’m a Barbie girl, in a Barbie world…", so sings Danish-Norwegian dance-pop group Aqua in their breakthrough 1997 single, a modern parody sex-tinged pop-song of Barbie and Ken genre. The average American girl has ten Barbies and there are two Barbie dolls sold somewhere in the world every second

Much has been said about Barbie and her effect on girls’ psyche. Some are very defensive of this childhood icon. One mother said that she played with Barbie dolls growing up, is very well adjusted, has no body-image issues or resultant eating disorder, so what is the big deal?

Others are equally as strong in their view that Barbie is a sexualized children’s icon, not appropriate for children, and that it projects an idealized and unattainable body image (only about 100,000 women in the world have similar proportions). Playing with Barbie dolls as children, some say, can result in eating disorders for teen girls.

While playing with Barbie dolls as a girl does not guarantee a future body-dissatisfaction complex or necessarily precipitate an eating disorder, there may be some truth to the hunch that Barbie is part of the commercial packaging contributing to the surge in eating disorders over the past 50 years, about how long Barbie has been around. Of course, any mental health issue has no single cause and is usually multi-faceted in its etiology.

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Some Barbie Facts:

The average American girl has 10 Barbies

only one in 100,000 women in the world have a comparable body

Barbie was introduced in 1959

The actual Barbie doll was an inspiration from German sex-doll Lilli (since 1956)

There is some evidence that Barbie dolls may actually contribute to dissatisfaction with self body-image and lead to eating disorders.

Barbie and Ken were named after the children of Ruth Handle, the creator of Barbie.

Ruth Handle lost her breasts in breast cancer in the 1970s and established a company which manufactured breast prosthetics.

The History of the Barbie Doll

The Barbie Doll was invented by the wife of a businessman in the U.S. who had a picture frame business. Handler and her husband started a toy manufacturing company which produced a then-controversial toy knows as the Burp Gun, which Handler went to lengths to defend as appropriate for children. (Ruth )Handler noticed how her daughter played dolls with her friends, and instead of playing house with baby dolls, the chose adult fashion paper dolls. The girls used the dolls in roles other than that of motherhood, which was the typical way in which dolls had been historically used by girls in the past. They were projecting their own futures and dreams when coming of age as women.

German sex-doll, prositute, Lilli patterned after, predecessor of Barbie.

When on a trip to Europe, Handler was inspired by a German doll known as Bild Lilli or Lilli, that had been created in 1956. Lilli was characterized after a raunchy German comic strip, and was dressed as basically a streetwalker or prostitute. Psychologist and author Susan Adler states in a Psychology Today blog, “The German doll was actually fashioned after a prostitute and was a toy for men. Until this time, dolls were baby dolls and did not have the body of an adult woman.” The German gag doll Lilli could be found in most bars in Germany between 1956 to 1959.

This was exactly what Handle was looking for, and she used it as a prototype for a cleaned-up version for a doll depicting an idealized American woman. She was looking for a doll with a woman's figure who could show off grown up clothes. Lillie the streetwalker prostitute comic strip, doll and R-rated pinup, became Barbie doll for girls.

Bald Lilli dolls, German gag-sex dolls that inspired the form of the Barbie doll.

Lilli, the German sex doll depicted prostitute or "streetwalker" that Barbies were patterned after.

Handler purposely toned down the sexual features of the Lilli doll in creating her Barbie doll, but still, mothers were reluctant to accept the doll for their daughters. The toy company Mattel, which transformed from a picture frame company to that of a toy manufacturing company, got around this issue by marketing the doll directly to children via television, which by now had become a somewhat ubiquitous feature in the American home and routine. the Mattel company already was advertising on the Mickey Mouse Club, which had first aired in 1955. The first Barbie commercial ran in 1959 on the Mickey Mouse Club, home of the original American cartoon icon. Barbie caught on, and by the 1960s was making a million dollars a year.

The first 1959 Barbies, shown here, were patterned after the German Lilli dolls which appeared in bars and pinups throughout Germany since 1956.

1959 First Edition Barbie Dolls

Commentary on the Barbie Doll

Barbie "may be the most potent icon of American popular culture in the late twentieth century," says Newsday writer M. G. Lord in Forever Barbie: The Unauthorized Biography of a Real Doll. Booklist, in a review of Lord’s “biography” describes Barbie as a “pointy-breasted, slim-waisted, high-arched gal who changed the way we think about dolls and ourselves.”

Some other commentaries about the Barbie doll are,

“The Barbie doll is not just the world's most popular toy, she's a Rorschach test, revealing attitudes about sexuality, body image, gender roles and creativity,” states Barbie Nation – An Unauthorized Tour, in an in-depth documentary coverage of the subject.

Robin Gerber in the book, Barbie and Ruth: The Story of the World's Most Famous Doll and the Woman Who Created Her, 2009, describes Barbie as “the diminutive yet arrestingly voluptuous doll”. Barbie was first unveiled at the 1959 Toy Fair and sales gained momentum until today when 90 percent of American girls, as well as girls from 150 other countries, own at least one of these icons.

When Barbie dolls began to gain popularity, feminists fought against Barbie, claiming that the Barbie doll encouraged girls to look at themselves either as mannequins, sex objects or housekeepers. However, Mary F. Rogers, in the book, Barbie Culture, describes Barbie as “a creature of privilege” who isn’t content to stay home, look pretty and clean house. Some of Barbie’s diverse character roles have been Olympic athlete and competitor, an air force pilot, a boutique owner, a fashion designer, a presidential candidate, a veterinarian, NASCAR driver, pilot, even a palaentologist, over 100 professions.

One Barbie aficionado from said of her childhood years, “When I played with her, I could make her do and be anything I wanted. Never before or since have I found such an ideal method of living vicariously through anyone or anything”. (Weisssman, p. 72) The name of the woman who made this statement is Cindy Jackson. Jackson has been using multiple plastic surgery procedures to restructure her appearance to that of a Barbie doll.

Barbie, Body Image and Eating Disorders

If Barbie were the height of a real human, her dimensions would be, by some estimates, 38-18-34. That figure can be found with only around 1 in 100,000 women. Some have described her figure as “anorexic,” when you interpolate her dimensions to a five-foot six-inch woman. A headline from London’s (serious) newspaper The Time highlighted a UK study from British researchers of the University of Sussex and the University of the West of England stating, “Skinny Barbie blamed over eating disorders”. The study was based on the reactions of girls ages five to eight to the impressions of their own body images after seeing images of various figures, including Barbie dolls.

“The results showed that girls aged five to six were more dissatisfied with their shape and wanted more extreme thinness after seeing Barbie doll images than after seeing other pictures. For those aged six to seven the negative effects were even stronger.”

A documentary about Karen Carpenter and her eating disorder featured Barbie Dolls

Karen Carpenter who died of anorexia in 1983 at the age of 32.

Interestingly, a documentary about Karen Carpenter who eventually died form anorexia, used Barbie dolls as characters for the entire movie which was quite discerning, according to a radio documentary on American Icons by Studio 360. Previous to the Barbie doll, the only time girls could have opportunity to see the naked breasts of women was in National Geographic magazine. “Barbie's breasts were kind of fun and a revelation,” said one commentator who bonded with Barbie in the 1960s.

Susan Adlers, who is a psychologist who specializes in eating issues, weight loss and body image, and author of the book 50 Ways to Soothe Yourself Without Food, notes that her personal perception of Barbie changed after reading the book Robin Gerber’s book on the subject. Adler describes the pained life of Handler, whose ambitions were realized with the Barbie doll, but who conducted her business rather ruthlessly. Adler comments that lack of social connections and friendships or connections with children may have blinded her to the realization of the impact that children’s toys can have on kids’ social development. To her, they were dollars and cents.” Barbie and Ken were named after Handler’s own children. The real Ken became a homosexual and died of AIDS.

It is ironic that the creator of the doll which had the ideal female figure, with 38 inch breasts and a 24 inch waistline, if interpolated into an actual female, lost both of her breasts to breast cancer after Barbie became a standardized American icon. After breast cancer, Handler went on to form and devote her energies to Ruthton Corp, using her skills in shaping plastic to create the first breast prosthetic created by a woman. Her development of this product (Nearly Me) helped women who had lost a breast or breasts to cancer to feel more comfortable with themselves and changed the lives of women positively in this respect.

Everyone has a Barbie Story

“Everybody has a Barbie story,” is a sub-theme of a Studio 360 radio-aired documentary about Barbie and from a series on American icons.

* Barbie phenomenon - last year a British study documented that Barbie dolls are regularly decapitated, mutilated, microwaved, run over by children.

…one recalled how they had a “giant box of naked Barbies.”

A mother told how the children “would all take her clothes off, reflexively, “ like they really didn't know what they were doing.

One mother who was a girl in 1960s, “who could resist Barbie and the Rockers?”

Susan Stern in the documentary Barbie Nation notes that Barbie has wholesome American girl personality but is also described in terms of her sexuality and of what was expected of woman sexually at that time. Women were expected to be sexual, but also a little bit “dippy,” (not Stern’s adjective) that is, bubble-headed, as in the Doris Day type of Hollywood movies. Barbie never got married, she was a career woman and relished her independence. Barbie is described as being very destabilizing to the middle class American. She was along the lines of “Sex and the Single Girl,” and is noted as displaying an “anti-marriage” manifesto.

Barbie, having no husband, instead, reflects the materialistic tradition of American society, and is surrounded by a never-ending array of personal belongings and beauty aids. The marketing of Barbie dolls, then, involves not just selling the doll itself (or herself), but keeping the customer returning for more Barbie goods.

Concerning advertising for Barbie dolls, Marketing specialist Kristin Noelle Weissman notes in the book, Barbie: the icon, the image, the ideal: an analytical interpretation of the Barbie Doll in popular culture, “People who internalize these ads and purchase the products because of them identify with a cultural image or iconic presence in society.” Barbie is viewed by some as a bad influence and sexual icon for children, by others Barbie is seen as a positive role model.

Conclusion

Teryl Henderson, a student a Southwestern University, in her graphic online presentation on the theme, “Believing in Barbie: Buying, Being and Building the Icon, sums it up very nicely, “When Barbie is played with by girls, she communicates a message of thin, big-breasted modelesque beauty.

As girls grow older there is a threat that they will recall images of Barbie as the sole way of being beautiful and imagine themselves in the image of Barbie. When the image of Barbie is unattainable to a girl or young women (as it is for many), a misunderstanding of beauty occurs The purchasing of objects, cosmetic procedures or ideologies seem to be a few of the ways that girls and women can reach such high standards of beauty that Barbie has set before them.” “When people make unrelentless attempts at becoming as Barbie-like as possible, they are trying to be Barbie, be a representation of an ideal of beauty.”

We have come to a time, notes Studio 360, when Barbie may not be sexual enough. Today Bratz dolls, noted by Dianne Levin in her book So Sexy So Soon, are described as “raw caricatures of sexual females,” with "sassy attitudes".

Therefore, those that desire the Barbie image are people who seek out and focus on the connection between the Barbie doll and their own perceptions and experiences.

References to Barbie page

1. American Icons. A radio series from Studio 360, produced by WYNC. www.studio360.org/2009/feb/13/barbie/

2. Barbie Culture, Mary F. Rogers. 1998. Safe Publications.

3. Barbie nation –An Unauthorized Tour. Bernal Beach Films. Official site http://www.barbienation.com/

4. Barbie: the icon, the image, the ideal: an analytical interpretation of the Barbie Doll in popular culture by Kristin Noelle Weissman. 1999. Universal Publishers.

5. Barbie Turns 50. Laura Clover. Vision.org

6. New Day Films: Barbie Nation http://www.newday.com/films/BarbieNation.html

7. Skinny Barbie blamed over eating disorders. May 14, 2006. Roger Dobson The Times. London. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1083049.ece

8. A Barbie World Don't Hate Barbie Because She's Beautiful Published on December 3, 2009 by Dr. Susan Albers, Psy.D. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/comfort-cravings/200912/barbie-world

9. The Story of the World's Most Famous Doll and the Woman Who Created Her Robin Gerber http://books.google.com/books?id=5IzgNwAACAAJ&dq=barbie+and+ruth

10. Believing in Barbie: Buying, Being and Building the Icon. Teryl Henderson, Communications Studies, Southwestern University. http://people.southwestern.edu/~bednarb/su_netWorks/projects/henderson/icon.html

More Reading On Barbie

Dream Doll: The Ruth Handler Story

Lenore Wright “The Wonder of Barbie: Popular Culture and the Making of Female Identity,” in Essays in Philosophy (January 2003).

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