Unlike women of the time, who were limited by laws that prevented them from doing things like accessing their own lines of credit, she was both a mirror for the progress made and a vision for what could be. In the 1960s, Barbie’s careers included: fashion editor, executive, and student teacher, alongside the more traditionally-gendered roles of teenage fashion model and singer. Barbie kept up with global events, embracing different careers and interests as they became news headlines. Ken is attractive and accomplished (the Barbie website denotes him as a businessman, Olympian, pilot, and Pisces, among other things), but always on the sidelines next to the prolific Barbie.Īs she grew in popularity, Barbie became more than just a children’s toy: She emerged from her plastic wrappings to become a powerful symbol of womanhood for the girls who played with her, just as Handler intended. Two years later, on March 11, 1961, the Ken doll was introduced, with Ruth Handler’s son, Kenneth, serving as his namesake. To Handler, Bild Lilli’s size, shape, and ability to easily swap outfits made her the perfect prototype. The character began in a one-off comic strip created by Reinhard Beuthien for the German tabloid Bild, which turned into a regular column, which turned into the doll. The Bild Lilli doll was sold as a gag gift, primarily for men. Standing 11.5 inches tall with a bright blond ponytail and a distinctly mature body, here was the plastic doll that would inspire Barbie. On a vacation in Switzerland, she stumbled upon a sexy call girl named Bild Lilli who showed her the way. From Gag to Trailblazerīut Handler wasn’t ready to give up and kept working on the idea on her own. They could not have anticipated that this small step toward creative freedom for young girls would someday become one of American culture’s most profitable and iconic symbols. Typical fashion dolls were flat-chested with stocky limbs and chubby cheeks, like toddlers, and leaders at Mattel did not believe that Handler’s vision of an adult doll, with breasts, would be financially successful. They were skeptical of a doll designed to look like an adult woman. Handler’s colleagues at Mattel were not enthusiastic about the idea. Like the paper dolls, Barbie could be dressed and redressed to fit all the latest fashion trends. Traditional fashion dolls were made of paper and came in packets resembling sticker books. In order to provide her daughter with a similar outlet for imagination, Handler decided to create a three-dimensional fashion doll for girls. Her son, Kenneth, had access to toys that allowed him to imagine all kinds of careers like a firefighter, an astronaut, etc. Handler’s daughter had dreams that were not represented by these toys. At the time, dolls were designed for girls to imagine themselves as one thing-caregivers. Handler’s family was closely tied in with the Mattel business-Ruth’s husband, Elliot, was her co-founder, and Barbie was inspired by Handler’s own daughter, Barbara. In 1959, mother and co-founder of Mattel toy manufacturer, Ruth Handler, created a doll that would redefine play for generations of children to come: an unrealistically proportioned, outrageously beautiful, impossibly accomplished woman who would come to be known by the mononym Barbie.
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