The History Of Barbie

Don’t get me wrong though, not all in the world of Barbie is rosy like her aisle at the local Toys ‘R Us store. For as many people that agree with Barbie and what she stands for, there are just as many who don’t . One of the biggest arguments about Barbie and the ideals she is teaching is all over a couple little numbers. Well numbers that mean a lot and numbers that young girls encounter every time they play with Barbie. But still numbers nonetheless.

36-18-33. If Barbie was an actual five foot nine inch tall woman she would have these highly unrealistic measurements. Hard to imagine? That’s probably because that those measurements are highly unlikely for any woman. According to research done at the University Central Hospital in Helsinki, Finland, Barbie would be far below the required 17-22 percent of body fat needed to menstruate. I guess it’s a good thing Mattel never gave Barbie children, because they would be a compete miracle. However, Mattel gives a reason for why these measurements are justified. They say that exaggerating Barbie’s proportions so much is needed to make her look natural with clothing on.

But not only is it the measurements of Barbie’s body that strike a nerve with feminists and activists but also the items that Barbie is sold with. These critics assert that the large collection of accessories relating to clothes, hair, and looking pretty causes young girls to focus too much on such shallow things. This is evident in one of the Barbie dolls that has caused the most uproar since her creation. In 1993 Mattel released “Teen Talk Barbie.” She spoke a variety of phrases such as, “Will we ever have enough clothes?” “I love shopping!” and, “Wanna have a pizza party?” One of the possible 270 phrases that could be programmed into these dolls was “Math is hard!” Even though only 1.5% of the dolls said this, it caused people to accuse Mattel of representing women in a bad light. However, this was not the biggest controversy that Mattel has had to deal with in connection to Barbie.

The Barbie doll industry makes about $1.9 Billion a year. That could buy Barbie quite the collection of tiny pink shoes. Mattel has also claimed that approximately three Barbies are sold every second somewhere in the world. It seems that the only way to go is up for Mattel and Barbie sales have been steadily increasing since her introduction. However, recently it seems Barbie has hit a little bump in the road. The competition against her is growing as well and a new brand of dolls “Bratz” is honing in on her territory. It seems that she has already felt the sting of competition as U.S. sales of Barbie decreased by 30% and world sales by 18% in 2005. In order to try and get some buyers back Mattel has decided to change the proportions of Barbie a bit, but not for the reasons you may think. No they are not cracking under the pressure of criticisms of everybody saying Barbie is unrealistic. Mattel simply claims that they are changing her measurements in order for her to “look right” in the popular fashions of today such as the hip huggers. It’s being said that Barbie’s breasts are being cut down, her waist enlarged, and her hips slimmed down. All this for fashion? Quite the price to pay. Hopefully for Barbie the new make-over of her body will help her to attract some of her once skeptical criticizers.

We can assume that there will never be a time when everyone agrees about Barbie. People will always hate to love her and at the same time people will always love to hate her. But now that we’ve taken a closer look at her life, the views that people have about her, and taken a tiny peek at what is expected for her future, hopefully you too will also be able to better understand her. No matter how people feel about her, everyone can agree, her staying power and adaptability is definitely a force to be reckoned with. Although she’s become much more than just the blond haired, blue eyed girl she used to be, she will definitely always be the perfect teenage fashion model that mesmerized the world and generations. She definitely has the world in her tiny plastic hand.