Barbie’s doll blue dress cultural history

The beloved and hated toy is stirring up new controversy at 64 years oldSix Barbie doll blue dress wear zebra-striped swimsuits in a synchronized formation in a poolBarbie’s first swimsuit in 1959 was a stylish one-piece with zebra stripes. Photo illustration by David Parise Ruth Handler, who founded Mattel in 1945 with her husband Elliot Handler and Harold Matson, watched her daughter Barbara play with paper dolls and dream of the kind of woman she would become.

Ruth decided there should be a real doll on which girls could project their highest desires. (In another version of this origin story, Ruth got the idea from a new adult doll she saw while on vacation in Switzerland.) Ruth named the doll Barbie, after her daughter. The first model was exhibited at the annual New York City Toy Fair in March 1959.

In Barbie’s first television commercial

, which aired that year, a woman sings from a young girl’s perspective and promises that one day she will be just like Barbie. “Until then, I know exactly what to do: Barbie, beautiful Barbie, I will pretend to be you.”

Despite toy industry critics who said no one would want to play with a doll with breasts, Barbie doll blue dress – with her small waist and her varied but always idealized appearance – became a worldwide phenomenon.

The toys quickly became so popular that she needed her own entourage. In 1961, Barbie got a boyfriend, Ken, who was perhaps strangely named after Handler’s son. In 1963 she had a best friend, Midge, and in 1964 a sister, Skipper. By 2021, Mattel shipped more than 86 million Barbie Universe dolls, which equates to approximately 164 dolls per minute. From the beginning, Barbie has focused on making young girls dream. At once idealistic and materialistic, the dolls offer a quintessentially American fantasy, but at a price.

Barbie doll blue dress quickly became a central

part of the cultural and political conversation, outraged critics across the political spectrum. However, many activists disagreed with the dolls. During the 1970 women’s strike for equal rights in New York, some protesters declared their independence by chanting, “I’m not a barbie doll!”

a black toy Barbie mixed with real woman’s hair in a photo illustration As insecure as she was, Barbie was committed to equality. Although Christie was part of the extended Barbie universe, she was not a Barbie doll blue dress herself, but in 1980 Mattel introduced the first black Barbie, designed by Kitty Black Perkins. Her box read: “It’s black! She’s beautiful! She’s dynamite!”

Families like the Handlers have navigated their identity choices in their own ways. The Merchants were Jewish and developed pop at a time when many American Jews were struggling with their own ambivalence about assimilating into America,

seeking a delicate balance between feeling secure as Americans without losing their roots. A 2005 short documentary, The Tribe, uses Barbie doll blue dress and Ruth Handler as examples of the contradictions that continue to confront American Jews

Of course, the original beauty ideal remained dominant, even as Mattel released more diverse models that expressed civil rights and feminism.

But once she’s unpacked, Barbie doll blue dress can be anything

—and while many Barbie models today still convey an unattainable notion of beauty, researchers and therapists say children often use these dolls in surprising ways that don’t necessarily reflect the packaging.

Chin mentions some videos she’s seen on YouTube where Barbie cheats on Ken with a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle or wears a wedding dress made out of toilet paper. As Chin says, “Kids often go off script in very interesting ways and can be quite provocative or very thoughtful.”

And despite how she represents a female comeback, Barbie has always hinted at the future. After all, it wasn’t until Sally Ride was released in 1983 that an American woman landed in space, while Astronaut Barbie doll blue dress was first released in 1965.

Ultimately, Astronaut Barbie became a representation of what was. But first she showed us what could be.

This article is excerpted from the June 2023 issue of Smithsonian Magazine

He started out as Barbie’s sidekick. In time he became a man in his own rightA variety of Ken toy dolls in various outfits

Courtesy of Mattel Inc.

His first fateful encounter withBarbie doll blue dress was when the two appeared together in a TV commercial in 1961. Since then, Ken – full name Ken Carson – has been her on-again, off-again relationship partner and has enjoyed an astonishingly varied career, including other things like astronaut, multi-sport Olympian, lemonade seller, dog trainer, dentist and rap rock star. Of course, Ken would have to be a renaissance man to keep up with Barbie.

1961

Introduced at Toy Fair this year as Barbie’s boyfriend, the 12-inch doll (a half-inch taller than Barbie) sported a molded plastic hairdo and was ready for water adventures: Ken ’61 came with sandals, a yellow beach towel and a stylish red swim trunks .

1978Superstar Ken

In the midst of disco fever, this dance floor dynamo was hailed as “more positionable than ever”! and wore a bright blue jumpsuit with wide legs.

1982 Sunsational Malibu Ken

This model came in three ethnicities: a blond, blue-eyed white version; a black version with a long afro; and shortly thereafter a Latin American version. The black Sunsational Ken, in particular, remains a sought-after rarity among Barbie doll blue dress collectors.

1993Earring Magic Ken

Mattel based Ken’s new look on a survey of young girls who said they wanted Ken to look cooler. The result was the first, if unintentional, gay Ken. However, controversy quickly arose, and despite its popularity, Mattel discontinued the doll.

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