Is it a Barbie world?
My third WILO:
I have just learned that Barbie has just celebrated her fiftieth birthday. I was surprised to learn that Barbie had been around since 1959, sometimes I have a difficult time realizing that things I experienced in my time may have existed before I did. Since I discovered that it was Barbie’s birthday I decided to see what other facts I could learn about the iconic doll. The following are my top ten facts:
1. Barbie’s full name is Barbie Millicent Roberts. She is from Willows, Wisconsin, and went to Willows High School. Not until 1964 did she find the ambition to continue on to college.
2. Barbie was named after the creators’ daughter, Barbara. Their son’s name was Ken.
Barbie’s first career was as a teenage fashion model. She has since had other careers including astronaut, rock star, paleontologist, presidential candidate, and Olympic ice skater, as well as somewhere between 80-110 others depending on your source and your definition of “career”. One site I visited listed “mermaid” as a career of Barbie’s.
4. More than 105 million yards of fabric have gone into making the fashions of Barbie, and her friends, making Mattel one of the largest apparel manufacturers in the world yet it until the early 1990’s they had never made human clothing. They now make “Princess Barbie” costumes for girls ages approximately 3-10.
5. When Barbie decided to join the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps (all at once), pentagon officials were consulted to ensure the most “realistic” costumes.
6. The “average” American girl owns approximately 7 Barbie dolls.
7. In 1992 and 2000 Barbie ran and was elected president in the U.S., at least in Barbie world.
8. Placed head to toe, Barbie dolls and family members sold since 1959 would circle the earth more than seven times.
9. Every second of every day 2-3 (depending on the resource you use) Barbie dolls are sold somewhere in the world. That calculates to approximately 94,670,778 Barbie dolls sold per year. Mattel, the maker of Barbie, brings in over 1.5 billion dollars yearly from the Barbie label alone.
10. Barbie was created by Ruth Handler who originally got the idea for an “adult like” three dimensional doll from a German doll named “Lilli” who was sold as a sex toy for men.
Amazingly, while I was studying up on my Barbie facts I also found that a large number of people who defend Barbie’s body as “ideal” and think that Barbie leaves no lasting impressions on young girls’ idea of the perfect woman. Most of the comments I found were in direct response to a BBC article written about how Barbie’s measurements would translate to a living human being. The article states that Barbie would NOT have enough body fat to menstruate yet nine of ten comments left by readers defended Barbie as a great toy for young girls with growing imaginations. I have a difficult time articulating how shocked I am by these average American impressions, but then again if I just simply look at the number of Barbie dolls sold I guess it is no surprise that I am the minority. Lastly one woman is quoted in the article as saying, “It's empowering for women to be who they want to be and not just live with the body and face they were born with.” Does she know the definition of “empowered”?
I have just learned that Barbie has just celebrated her fiftieth birthday. I was surprised to learn that Barbie had been around since 1959, sometimes I have a difficult time realizing that things I experienced in my time may have existed before I did. Since I discovered that it was Barbie’s birthday I decided to see what other facts I could learn about the iconic doll. The following are my top ten facts:
1. Barbie’s full name is Barbie Millicent Roberts. She is from Willows, Wisconsin, and went to Willows High School. Not until 1964 did she find the ambition to continue on to college.
2. Barbie was named after the creators’ daughter, Barbara. Their son’s name was Ken.
Barbie’s first career was as a teenage fashion model. She has since had other careers including astronaut, rock star, paleontologist, presidential candidate, and Olympic ice skater, as well as somewhere between 80-110 others depending on your source and your definition of “career”. One site I visited listed “mermaid” as a career of Barbie’s.
4. More than 105 million yards of fabric have gone into making the fashions of Barbie, and her friends, making Mattel one of the largest apparel manufacturers in the world yet it until the early 1990’s they had never made human clothing. They now make “Princess Barbie” costumes for girls ages approximately 3-10.
5. When Barbie decided to join the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps (all at once), pentagon officials were consulted to ensure the most “realistic” costumes.
6. The “average” American girl owns approximately 7 Barbie dolls.
7. In 1992 and 2000 Barbie ran and was elected president in the U.S., at least in Barbie world.
8. Placed head to toe, Barbie dolls and family members sold since 1959 would circle the earth more than seven times.
9. Every second of every day 2-3 (depending on the resource you use) Barbie dolls are sold somewhere in the world. That calculates to approximately 94,670,778 Barbie dolls sold per year. Mattel, the maker of Barbie, brings in over 1.5 billion dollars yearly from the Barbie label alone.
10. Barbie was created by Ruth Handler who originally got the idea for an “adult like” three dimensional doll from a German doll named “Lilli” who was sold as a sex toy for men.
Amazingly, while I was studying up on my Barbie facts I also found that a large number of people who defend Barbie’s body as “ideal” and think that Barbie leaves no lasting impressions on young girls’ idea of the perfect woman. Most of the comments I found were in direct response to a BBC article written about how Barbie’s measurements would translate to a living human being. The article states that Barbie would NOT have enough body fat to menstruate yet nine of ten comments left by readers defended Barbie as a great toy for young girls with growing imaginations. I have a difficult time articulating how shocked I am by these average American impressions, but then again if I just simply look at the number of Barbie dolls sold I guess it is no surprise that I am the minority. Lastly one woman is quoted in the article as saying, “It's empowering for women to be who they want to be and not just live with the body and face they were born with.” Does she know the definition of “empowered”?