How Has Barbie Changed In The 1960's

It was generally assumed that Roanoke would become the first of many permanent English settlements in the New World; however, those assumptions would prove false after the colonists who travelled there disappeared under mysterious circumstances. For over 400 years, the mystery of the “Lost Colony” has endured in the Chesapeake region of America and has yet to be definitively solved. Beginning in the 1580s, a series of ventures and ill-fated colonization attempts laid the context and set the stage for the greatest vanishing act in American history. From supply shortages and unfavorable weather, to misunderstandings and violent interactions with the indigenous people - all three attempts to settle at Roanoke Island were thwarted in one fashion or another. The third colonization attempt would not prove to be a “charm” for England, as these 118 colonists disappeared with little evidence of what had happened to them.

After so many years of condemnation that Barbie's looks did not reflect her diverse audience, Mattel (a toy company that produce Barbies), struggle to boost sales. Mattel introduced the Fashionistas line in the late 2013- 2015. The Fashionistas line includes more multiculturalism dolls. Mattel decided that they will bring out dolls with three new realistic body types with seven skin tones, twenty-two eye colors and twenty-four hairstyles. The doll new will include petite, tall and

Dolls before Barbie were designed incorporating the ideals of a mans era and the conformity of a women's role in the world. Barbie may have set the stage for the 1960's generation by exposing the youth to verity and free choice. Yet there is another matter in which Barbie may flawed.

The Barbie doll is an eleven-inch-long plastic doll that was the first representation of an adult woman. The original Barbie doll, built in 1959, looked as such, going from head to toe. The doll’s skin color was white. The hair color was available in either blonde or brunette put up in a ponytail. The face: the eyes were constructed with white irises, heavy black eyeliner, blonde or brown eyebrows, blush, and red lips. As for clothing, she wore a black and white striped swimsuit with gold hoop earrings. Along with her came two accessories of black open toe heels

As I was on the hunt for the perfect gift for an 8 year old’s birthday, I discovered the doll market is quite different than my coming of age. Undoubtedly, Barbie is still problematic, but now she has competitors, including Bratz, and Monster High dolls, who are noticeably thinner than barbie and dressed up to look like grown women getting ready for a night of clubbing than a game of tennis. As I pick up the first doll box, I find a doll chained up in a slither of clothing with a blank expression on her face, a prominent thigh gap, with the tagline “GREAT for girls ages 5 and up!” By all means, I never imagined in my life that I would miss Barbie. For that reason, I begin to sit myself down in the toy aisle to start googling everything I could about these dolls on my

Children’s child play has become a form of an unrealistic world. Although, it is considered for children to begin creating a creative imagination, the mind fascinates children into toys. Some child’s play toys are not ideal for young children, like the one and only “Barbie”. Barbie has become a worldwide toy product for children all over the world, from the North Pole to the South Pole. These dolls have emerged from one ethnicity to another. In Ann DuCille, “Dyes and Dolls: Multicultural Barbie and the Merchandising of Differences” the author talks about the race and gender differences; found in Barbie. She argues; “Is Barbie bad?” her response, was “Barbie is just a piece of plastic” (459). In contrast, this piece of plastic is not just a piece of plastic to young girls; it is much more than that. A piece of plastic that little girls all over the world wish they could be. Even though, it is only a piece of plastic to adults that Barbie significantly means nothing to them. Growing up, I owned a couple of Barbie dolls. The tall, long blond hair, blue-eyed doll was my best friend and my “role model”. I wanted to become exactly like Barbie. As a child, I thought only beautiful people who looked liked Barbie signified beauty. To my little to no knowledge, I soon came to find out no one really looks like Barbie, except people who want to become like Barbie. In my adolescent years, no one taught me Barbie was “unreal”; no one taught me it was just a figure in my imagination.

What was that one doll every little girl just had to have growing up? What doll made little girls obsess with perfection? What doll set the unrealistic standards for girls starting at ages three or four? Barbie is a children’s toy that was first introduced to the market in 1959. Barbie was the perfect role model for all girls. She was perfectly skinny, had a perfect boyfriend and family, perfect hair, perfect house, perfect everything, but her existence is completely ironic. Although Mattel, creator of Barbie, attempts to make Barbie absolute perfection, all her imperfect buyers are wondering why they cannot look like the beautiful doll. She is responsible for the diminishing young girls’ self-confidence. Lisa Belkin believes girls in today’s society cannot comprehend what true beauty is because they were so entranced with the idea of Barbie in her online article “Banning Barbie.” Barbie should be pulled off the shelves immediately. Barbie’s looks, actions, and lust for materialistic objects are the blame for the degeneration of assurance in young girls and women.

Toys and sports also promote gender appearances. Male appearances are characterized by being physically fit, strong and aggressive whereas females are to be beautiful, feminine and nurturing. Jane Smiley describes Barbie as being slender, stylish and most of all popular. Barbie is often dressed in pink and wears make up. Models in today’s society fit this description which makes other females want to achieve the same look. The appearances for females set by society‘s norms are presented in toys that gives off the message that ‘if you do not look like this’, it is considered unattractive. “Frilly, sexy, pink, purple, bedizened, and bejewelled were the preferred Barbies,” (Smiley 238) shows that females should have these characteristics in order to be seen as

Barbie dolls are trying to improve their race representation by creating more diverse Barbies so that little girls of different ethnicities don’t feel left out. According to Kristina Milnor, “between 1993 and 1997 the American toy company Mattel produced the “Great Eras Collection,” a series of Barbie dolls dressed to represent historical moments ranging from Eighteenth-Dynasty pharaonic Egypt through 1920s America” (215). Mattel released ten different Barbies in the Great Eras Collection in hopes of having a more diverse line, along with Mattel’s trademark Barbie. The ten different Barbies come from different historical periods that have different skin colors and have different clothing to represent racial diversity. In hopes of trying to boost little girls of color self-esteem, Mattel tried to make the line as diverse as possible, but there is a problem. According to Milnor, “here are ten dolls in all, beginning (since they appeared out of chronological order) with Gibson Girl Barbie, proceeding to Flapper Barbie, Egyptian Queen Barbie, Southern Belle Barbie, Medieval Lady Barbie, Elizabethan Queen Barbie, Grecian Goddess Barbie, Victorian Lady Barbie, French Lady Barbie, and finally Chinese Empress Barbie,” which are all considered high class status (215). This is a problem because it does not reflect all little girls. There is race representation in this line but having all the dolls portrayed as high social class does not represent most of the little girls playing with

Barbie’s intelligence has been one of the most debated topics about the doll. While some say that she is just a “bimbo,” others find her to be a positive role model with all that Barbie can be. Schroeder says that by playing with a Barbie that was either a Doctor Barbie or a Vet Barbie will send a young girl to a therapist, and the infamous quote that one Barbie said “Math class is tough” (Schroeder 2). While some of the things that Barbie used to be about looked badly upon the dolls intelligence there have been may improvements since

Barbie, at the age of 41, is one of the longest living toys in America. Analyzing her early history can give a person a look into the societal trends and culture of the late 1950's and early 1960's. There is evidence of fashion innovations in Barbie's wardrobe. Also, one can see the perception of females by society, such as what they should look like, how they should act and dress, as well as what their future goals could be. The following essay follows Barbie's history from 1959 to 1963, covering her development, her appeal to children, and her existence as a cultural artifact of the time period.

It wasn’t until the late 1960’s that critics began “comparing Barbie to a Playboy Bunny and calling her a corrupter of youth” (”Bad Girl” 3). One woman commented, “She’s an absurd representation of what a woman should be” (“Bad Girl” 3)-–and that’s exactly what many others thought she was, too. With such impossible real-life measurements of 5’9” tall, 36”-18”-33” bust, waist, and hip (Benstock and Ferriss 35), it’s easy to see why mothers across the country banned the doll from their homes and refused to let their impressionable young daughters be influenced by a piece of painted plastic (Bestock and Ferriss 35). Since dolls have often been responsible for teaching children what society deems important or beautiful, many concerned parents wondered why Mattel did not design a doll that taught more valuable lessons than dressing pretty and being dangerously skinny (Edut 19)? Who said a runway model was best suited for teaching a child what is beautiful anyway? “According to a Mattel spokesperson, a Kate Moss figure is better suited for today’s fashions” (Edut 19), and that is one reason why Barbie must be so disproportional. Actually, another reason for Barbie’s anorexic figure can be traced back long before Kate Moss and the fashion runway. Barbie was

One study took a group of 6th grade girls and had them play with Barbie’s, then later asked them what their views of Barbie were:

a. Girls, this is a question for you. How many of you have had Barbie dolls growing up? (Have time to answer)

3. Barbie dolls came into existence in 1959. During that time all dolls were infant dolls and Ruth Handler creator of the barbie dolls saw that “children will enjoy giving the Barbie adult roles” because it is different than playing with infant dolls. It has evolved over time, due to the improving technology, the dolls these days look very realistic. The social impact it has made is that it gives children a chance to play with more advanced toys and gives them the ability to admire Barbie’s achievements through her various career