The Barbie Movie

 

 

The Barbie movie would have you believe that the world of little girls was changed when the Betsy-Wetsy doll was replaced with Barbie in March 1959. No longer were little girls destined to be mothers caring for, feeding, and diaper-changing baby dolls when they could use all their talents and become  grown-up Barbies who could be astronauts, Pulitzer prize-winners, or even presidential candidates — AND mothers.

That's a lovely dream — a pat on the back to Mattel for their prescience and feminine foresight. The problem is, it's not quite accurate.

While the Barbie doll was launched in 1959, her unrealistic figure and beauty were the main selling points. Succeeding iterations of Barbie were frolicking at the beach, Malibu Barbie, or otherwise engaged in frivolous activities, Superstar Barbie and Golden Dream Barbie.

It was not until 1980, that an African-American Barbie was introduced, and we'd have to wait another twelve years for Presidential Candidate Barbie. Not until 2016, were there four new body types, including Curvy Barbie (a size 10 and pegged on the Internet as Fat Barbie), seven skin tones and twenty-two (!) eye colors.

So, no, Barbie didn't change gender roles in America. The person who is most responsible for changing gender stereotypes is Betty Friedan because her book, The Feminine Mystique, published in 1963, caused shock waves which fueled the feminist movement.

     As Harvard University Press said about Friedan's book, " 'It changed my life.' That’s what Betty Friedan heard over and over from women throughout the United States after the publication of her radical best-seller, The Feminine Mystique, sparked the beginning of contemporary feminism. The first stirring and uncertain years of the women’s movement helped many women put a name to the sense of invisibility, powerlessness, and depression that Friedan famously called 'the problem that has no name'.”

The feminist movement was launched by Friedan, and fueled by the tumultuous changes of the Sixties (Who can forget the football player, Rosey Greer, shown placidly knitting, in the children's film, "Free to Be, You and Me"), and the birth of Ms Magazine in July 1972.

So, while the "Barbie" movie is great fun with some laugh-out-loud moments and makes the point that liberation means no gender should be stereotyped, that movie follows in the non-high heel footsteps of trailblazers like Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem. 

Am I glad I saw the movie? Absolutely! Will I ever believe impossibly beautiful and perfectly-shaped Barbie changed the lives of women for the better? Never!