The first Barbie come up with the hand of Ruth Handle. This entrepreneur, on a trip to Europe, saw a german doll, blond and with curves, called Lilli. She was delighted wth this dolls and she decided to buy the rights of the company for stop the production and started to produce a new doll: Barbie, who inherit the long legs, the wasp waist, the bulky german chest and also, the heels and the makeup. In fact, the creator of barbie baptized the doll with the name of her daughter. We can also say, as a curious fact, that she have a son called Kenneth and we all know how is called Barbie's boyfriend.
Now, Barbie is about to turn fifty-seven and she have to face serious problems: her sales have fallen, the competition has increased with new proposals as the Monster High, the new Disney princess Frozen,... and the criticism are harsh. She is accuse of beeing frivolous, her "impossible body" is attacked, it's questioned the example and the image that she is giving to girls, is also criticized her role in our society,... In fact, a study of Helsinki University showed that a women with Barbie proportions will not have menstruation, could not breathe or stay up for the proportions between the small feet and the body size. We can say that Barbie is considered "the black beast" of the feminist and although Barbie may be the most desired doll, she is also the most parody! For all of this, the multinational has reconsidered the philosophy of the doll and they had decided to reinvent Barbie.
Over the years, the doll has suffered little changes related to clothing and fashion or with the shape of the face to infantilize it but this year is going to start one of the biggest and probably, the most important change of the doll since her appearance: the company has launched a big variety of Barbies with different bodies, with different shape combinations and also, with different hair and skin tones.
The doll has been through the different generations a global symbol of the American beauty, she has been reflecting an ideal of beauty and a lot of people think that she was created for teaching women what it's expected of them in society, for better or worse: since her creation, her proportions has been criticized but she also has been a businesswoman, an astronaut, a surgeon,... she had university degrees in a moment when the women were just housewives.
I think that it's good that the image of Barbie, finally, change and much more nowadays that the beauty ideals are developing: it has appeared iconic figures as Kim Kardashian, Christina Hendriks or Beyoncé with bodies quite far from the "perfect body" of Victoria Secret for instance, and the new Barbie dolls are not only bassed on this forms but they have different hair types, skin colors,... so they approach and reflect the new world of the young owners of the doll.
On the other hand, I considered that we have to think if we can entail social responsibilities to a doll, if we can accused a doll of not offered a positive model (is appearing a lot of dolls in wheelchair for example) so I would like to end up with a questions: Is the task of the tolls turning children into responsible citizens with good moral values?
