First of all, we need to talk about the Barbie timeline: the first doll in Barbie history was released in 1959. The idea came from Ruth Handler, who wanted to give her daughter unlimited choices to play just like her son had – because dolls, at that time, were very limited compared to “boys” toys, that let the kid imagine himself as anything, while girls could only imagine a future of being housewives. Besides the incredible idea of wanting to make things more equal between boys and girls in the toy world, the first Barbie was just a doll with a pretty swimsuit.
After that, the Barbie company just grew, starting to release many things and products with the doll logo. One of the most important releases at that time was the first Dreamhouse, which was revolutionary since women were not even allowed to open their own bank accounts. Suddenly, Barbie was buying a house all by herself, so inevitably she started to become a symbol of independence and empowerment.
But this is the timeline on Barbie’s official site, and it makes sense for the brand to put only things that will collaborate with its image nowadays, that is to be a very successful woman in everything she wants to do. So they skipped an important thing that happened between her release and buying the Dreamhouse, and that is Ken, Barbie’s boyfriend. The male doll was introduced in 1961 only two years after Barbie’s release.
Nowadays, everyone knows that Ken’s only purpose is to be Barbie’s escort – but it was not always like this: at the beginning, Ken was totally independent; he had many options for career, wardrobe and more. Things left the idea that Barbie was just a pretty girl who would take care of their house because she was subordinate to her boyfriend. This really reflects the social ideas of the time: that women should not have their own lives apart from their partners. Besides that, Ken’s launch had a strong consumer demand behind it.
Just by that, we can see that the Barbie company already contradicts the doll creation, since Barbie had the purpose of giving girls hope of more possibilities they could have for their future, something that was revolutionary at the time. And they only did it because, if they changed this detail and made her devoted to a boyfriend, the doll would sell more. Making Barbie fall on the same old ideas of the time instead of making a real change.
But let’s move on. I also want to bring to you the idea that the doll’s next steps are always connected with what is happening in society at the given time. For example, when the brand’s first black doll, Christie – one of Barbie’s best friends -, was released in 1968. Her supposed main release purpose was to support equal rights, a topic that was being well discussed then. But was that really their intention?
I don’t think so, because, if you really give a thought about it, they only jumped into the hot topic. First of all, you can see that she was not a Barbie, she was only one of her friends, and that brings the idea that Barbie could never be a black doll. So, in the end, did they really care about equal rights or just want more visibility? Well, I can assure you that this helped their sales at the time.
After this, Barbie had many dolls released related to social topics that were being discussed at the time. Another example was when society had this idea that women were not able to be president, so Barbie became president. Or that, for women to be perfect, they had to be exactly like Barbie – blond and skinny – so they released Barbie dolls with different body types.
They have been doing this since the beginning of the brand, so we can see that it was always about what the public wanted and what was being well discussed at the time, the hot topic, and not about a real initiative from the brand. Because, if something is a hot topic, everyone will want it and will see that brand is changing their product to this new social idea, giving the impression of being different and better than other brands. But we know by now that, even if this helps with the cause, it is nothing more than just a really well-done marketing strategy that will bring them more money only by putting some false representativeness of diversity and the idea of caring about others.
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The article above was edited by Clarissa Palácio.
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