Joseph Pisani Barbie

Barbie is always in style. She keeps up with the era no matter the style. In the 1970's Barbie was all about girl power during the time of sex discrimination in education and athletics. Barbie showed "girl power" by participating in numerous sports(“History”). Barbie now, not only keeps up with the current fashion; moreover the technology. Barbie went to the moon, but now she is going to mars(Chang). Barbie teamed up with NASA to create a Mission Mars Barbie. This shows that Barbie really does know how to stay in style which is what many young girls want. American Girl dolls are based off of history. American girl dolls have the historical dress, that is not as modern and stylish as Barbie’s. American Girl dolls are also made to look like a young girl. In summary, Barbie is more stylish than American Girl dolls, which will appeal to younger girls. Barbie has changed with the era’s styles and technology, providing a more modern girl toy to play

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:

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

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.

Young girls have been playing with Barbie dolls since the dolls inception at the American International Toy Fair in New York. Recently, researchers have been skeptical on whether the dolls have an effect on the self-image of girls who play with them. In order to determine if Barbies have an impact on young-girls self-concept, clinicians have carried out several studies where they monitor the interaction between the young girls and the famous figurine. From these experiments, scientists concluded that Barbies can have a bearing on a girls self-image, making the consumers who buy the doll more aware of the issue Barbie

Early in the 1960s, Mattel had made over $100 million in sales, due largely to Barbie (Woo). The company was based in Hawthorne, and annually made out new versions of Barbie as well as a huge wardrobe of outfits and accessories. Soon enough Barbie grew an exponentially amount of friends and family. Ken, named after the Handler's son, invented in 1961; Midge in 1963; Skipper in 1965; and African American doll Christie, Barbie's first ethnic friend, in 1969. The first black Barbie came much later, in 1981. In the 1970’s The National Organization for Women and other feminists targeted Barbie, arguing that the doll promoted unreachable expectations for young girls. If Barbie was 5 foot 6 instead of 11 1/ 2 inches tall, she would be the “perfect woman”. An academic expert once calculated that a woman's possibility of being shaped like Barbie was less than 1 in 100,000.

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

Barbie was introduced to the public in 1959 by Mattel, and swiftly established the place in thousands of households. Barbie generated huge sales, dominating the place in the market. Within one year of her founding, Mattel had sold 300, 000 dolls and with the sales now reaching up to 3 Barbie dolls being sold every second worldwide. The creator, Ruth Handler came up with the idea when she saw her daughter abandoning her baby dolls and playing with a paper cut out adult doll instead. So she created Barbie based on what the kids appealed to at the time. Ruth discovered that little girls were interested in growing up, hence they preferred playing with adult-figured dolls rather than baby dolls. So in 1959, barbie adopted the look of a typical blonde

In New York on March 9, 1959, Mattel introduced the Barbie doll to America. The thin, teenage fashion model that has a perfect slender nose, big eyes, a valumptuious bust, a narrow midsection, and curvy hips. It is estimated that over a billion Barbie dolls have been sold worldwide in over 150 countries. Barbie is one of the first toys to have a marketing strategy based extensively on television advertising, which has been widely copied by other toys. Barbie has also appeared in a series of animated films such as Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3. Barbie’s petite figure, perfectly arched eyebrows, and plastic smile has become the desired American image that many teenage

Everyday we see young girls look to idols such as people and even play toys. Such thoughts make young girls feel they are not good enough and to strive to look like a doll a very important topic is slightly broken down in an article written by Cynthia Tucker called Barbie Madness. While she touches on the topic of how kids love their toys such as Barbie dolls, she discusses how obsessed they become in looking like them. However, even though she points out that children look up to Barbies, she turns it back around on the parents, stating that they play a much bigger role in their lives than any toy would. Breaking down the article the writer really shows how children are influenced by their environment, their parents, and how its important to encourage them to be themselves.

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.

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

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

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.

For opportunities, Barbie is a worldwide brand. So there is an opportunity for the company to use that reputation to increase its market share.