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Long Live the Queen: HOME Over 50 Years of Barbie Reign Essays written by: Jade Russell Table of Contents Upon entering a nursery, day care, or pre-school one might easily predicte how Students’ Guide To Writing chil- dren are playing. Boys will engage in rough play with each other or spend their time using their imagination with building Dedication, blocks or toy cars. Some little girls will be Acknowledgements & seen coloring and playing cooperatively Credits together, and without a doubt, some girls will be playing dress up or house with their favorite dolls. When talking to a girl of any age about her childhood, it is presumable that she spent time playing with a very pop- ular doll by the name of Barbie. This queen of all other dolls has become a cornerstone to young girls’ play everywhere. An article published in The Economist in 2002 put the prevalence of the doll in perspective when Mattel, the company that manufactures the

The first Barbie doll was created in 1959 by Ruth Handler, one of the founders of the Mattel toy company. When Ruth Handler passed away in 2002, an article was pub- lished in The Economist describing her life and the process she went through to make the Barbie doll a reality. After moving to California to pursue a career in acting, Ruth Handler settled down with her husband Elliot and gave birth to her chil- dren, Barbara and Ken. The company began in the Handlers’ garage where Ruth and her husband built furniture for doll houses and other assorted children’s toys. Handler was inspired after taking a trip to Switzerland where she stumbled upon a scantily-clad German doll named Blonde Lilli (“Ruth”). She took three of the dolls back to that garage in California and began her own design of a teenage doll, an innovative creation at the time due to the prevalence of paper dolls and baby dolls. After her design was complete, Handler named the doll Barbie after her daughter. Little did she know everything that name would come to represent over the next five decades. The design was sent to Japan where the doll was manufactured for the first time. Then in 1959, Barbie made her famous premiere at the American Toy Fair in New York as a busty, long legged blonde and immediately caught everybody’s attention. The novelty gained popularity rapidly;

Many imitations of the Barbie doll have been cre- ated around the globe, such as the The Barbie doll is Fulla doll found in Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries. The Fulla doll was blatantly perpetuting an described by the The New York Times as overly feminine “Barbie with a prayer mat” (qtd. in Agogino). The Fulla website describes the doll as stereotype that is unfair to wearing “modest outfits” and one of her top priorities being respect for herself and women. others. When comparing Barbie in her mini skirt and Fulla in her removable hijab, they are very obvi- ously at opposite ends of the spectrum. This compari- son draws to atten- tion the extent of Barbie’s sexuality through her body type and wardrobe. It can be argued that the middle-eastern Fulla is more conservative because of the values set forth by Muslim law. But, does this then mean that Americans value sex appeal and body image? It would appear that way thanks to the ubiquitous messages of the impor- tance of beauty and appearance conveyed by the media. Regardless, these ideals should not be represented in the toys of young

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