A Barbie Fan Speaks Out

I will freely confess that I am a Barbie fan; I stayed in the closet for a long time but I played Barbies well into my teens and even after that I still made all kinds of Barbie clothes, mostly “olden day” gowns and hats.  I even made bloomers and lavish petticoats.  I made doll houses for Barbie and created all kinds of stories for her while playing with my little sister.  We made one doll house at the bottom of Mom’s linen closet and amazingly my mother let us keep it there for weeks on end.

This week Mattel revealed a new series of Barbies that included petite, tall and ‘curvy’ as well as various skin tones and ethnic looks.  There is a lot of discussion around this new creation but some of it seems a bit of bosh to me.  First of all the skin tones and ethnic looks are not new, they have been around for quite a while and does anyone remember Barbie’s original best friend Midge who had a very different face, a pug nose and freckles? 

The real talk is about Barbie’s unrealistic figure which of course has been talked about a great deal of the years but from the first time I saw Barbie I fell in love.  I liked a “grown up” doll much better than the baby dolls which I abandoned immediately when I got my first Barbie (which was actually the doll Mitzi – Barbie’s original rival).  I loved to be able to dress her in different fashions and back in the early 60’s Mattel brought out really great quality costumes complete with hat, gloves and shoes to coordinate with the outfit.  In those days the outfits were beautifully tailored unlike the cheap clothes that is put out today.

The discussion I heard on the news this week claimed that Barbie was basically a fashion doll and not in keeping with real life.  I thought “what kind of talk is that”?  Of course, girls love to dress up the doll in different costumes but if a girl has any imagination she is going to make a story out of the costume.  Today Barbie is wearing her stewardess outfit and she is flying off to Hawaii.  Once there she will meet Ken and they will have a holiday on the beach where, of course, they will find a body of GI Joe.  Barbie luckily has brought her camera and immediately takes pictures of the crime scene.  As luck would have it, she brought along her notebook, etc. 

Any girl with the real stuff knows how to play up with Barbie or any other toy.  Her imagination is only limited by whatever is put in her brain by negative talk and curbing adult ideas. 

The difference with the 1960’s and 2016 has a lot to do with the programming on television.  Today children appear to be taught by the example of what is thrown at them on television; vampires, crime and sex seem to be the fodder on television and even in young adult books.  In the 60’s we watched westerns, detective shows and family shows.  Even by the mid 60’s there were female detectives like Honey West, Emma Peel and April Dancer (the girl from UNCLE).  Enlightened parents taught their daughters that they could go to university and aspire to any professional open to men.  Today, what is being taught?  I’d like to know where the problem lies.  But don’t blame Barbie, please.