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OPINION: More than a billion Barbie dolls have made their way from toy-store shelves to children’s bedrooms around the globe since the brand launched more than 60 years ago.
Barbie remains Mattel Inc.’s top-selling product, a cultural phenomenon synonymous with blonde hair and the signature “Barbie Pink” Pantone colour 219. Her plastic allure, however, has been in a slow decline since 1997, the main criticism of the beloved boxed doll being her lack of relatability.
In response, Mattel has introduced hundreds of Barbie dolls with different skin tones, body types and abilities over the past 20 years. Yet many of these attempts at progress have been marred by mishaps that have only added to the perception that Barbie is out of touch with the modern world.
There was Barbie’s ill-conceived stint as a computer engineer in the 2010 book Barbie: I Can Be A Computer Engineer. The story, aimed at three to seven-year-olds, follows Barbie as she accidentally downloads a computer virus, and relies on “Steven” and “Brian” to fix it and then to do her coding.
Teaching young girls that they can’t excel in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and should depend on males to do the work for them naturally prompted a backlash. Mattel issued an apology on Facebook, admitting the doll’s portrayal didn’t align with its intended vision for Barbie.
And let’s not forget “Skateboarder” Barbie, one of five commemorative dolls created for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Although Mattel designed the doll to represent Asian athletes, Skateboarder Barbie was released with predominantly Caucasian features, a bewildering decision that drew criticism from all quarters. Again, Mattel was forced to apologise for white-washing Barbie.
Further, Barbie’s disproportionate physique has been a source of controversy for decades, with studies demonstrating that exposure to Barbie can have a harmful effect on young girls’ body image and self-esteem.
Yet despite Barbie’s shortcomings, Aqua’s 90s hit Barbie Girl still resonates with millennials worldwide, imploring us to believe that life in plastic is fantastic. What Barbie lacks in feminist ideals or diversity and inclusivity, she makes up for in childhood nostalgia. Through pretend play, she was a symbol of possibility and adventure, allowing us to live out our hopes and dreams, and it’s this emotional connection we find so hard to relinquish.
Ahead of the Barbie movie premiere, Mattel leveraged Barbie’s nostalgic appeal through a slew of IP licensing deals implemented with CEO Ynon Kreiz’s strategic guidance: today Barbie permeates our social media feeds, wardrobes and homes with her branded, signature hot-pink merchandise.
Yet the question remains: can she align with contemporary ideals? A former screenwriter on the Barbie movie, Diablo Cody, left the project in 2018 because of conflicting visions of Barbie’s character, explaining that “they [the executives] wanted a girl-boss feminist twist on Barbie, and I couldn’t figure it out because that’s not what Barbie is”.
Then, in July 2019, Greta Gerwig was brought in to co-write and direct the film. Gerwig was lauded for reviving Little Women under a fresher, feminist lens; Barbie, starring Margot Robbie in the title role, has already been hailed as a feminist epic.
Gerwig’s Barbie narrative ventures where no Barbie has before, leaving Computer Engineer Barbie’s virus-riddled laptop and Steven and Brian firmly in the dust. In the movie, with cellulite forming on her thighs and her flat feet losing their perfect arch, Barbie is expelled from Barbieland for being too real, and thrust into the harsh, modern world where she’s mocked for her fantastical aesthetic and admonished by surly teenage girls who had tired of her a long time ago.
Barbie’s Barbieland is also a far cry from the “blonde bimbo” doll universe we embraced as children. As actress Issa Rae, who plays President Barbie, put it in an interview with Time: “My worry was that it [Barbieland] was going to feel too white feminist-y, but I think that it’s self-aware.”
Supporting Barbie’s diverse and inclusive evolution is not about erasing her past but enriching her future. Although I’m reserving judgment on whether the movie can genuinely make up for the doll’s past regressions (and despite Aqua’s “Barbie Girl” song eternally typecasting her as a blonde bimbo), for old time’s sake, I hope that Barbie will find her redemption on the big screen.
