The range was launched on International Women鈥檚 Day in 2018, part of Mattel鈥檚 response to mothers鈥 concerns about their daughters鈥 role models. Others in the series include civil rights activist Rosa Parks, disability advocate Helen Keller, author Maya Angelou, medical reformer Florence Nightingale and suffragist Susan B. Anthony.
Each doll comes with information about their namesake鈥檚 achievements and influence. Instead of being generic plastic bodies to be clothed and posed, the听听as 鈥渞eal鈥 women, with Mattel engaged in 鈥渟hining a light on empowering role models past and present in an effort to inspire more girls鈥.
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What makes a heroine?
Barbie has certainly come a long way since she was first manufactured in 1959 and became synonymous with what feminists saw as the objectification and commodification of women.
But the fact some of the world鈥檚 most famous and groundbreaking women 鈥 who sought careers outside their physical appearance 鈥 were now being re-imagined as plastic dolls also interested me professionally.
My new book,听, examines the patterns that underpin the construction of heroines over the past 200 years. In it I argue that representations of women who have rebelled, rocked, shaken and changed the world are constrained through casting them as either 鈥渟uper-womanly鈥 or 鈥渉onorary men鈥.
Taking the individual stories of women, including those now appearing as Barbies, I explore a series of archetypal themes, revealing how heroines are produced by the hetero-sexist societies that surround them.
Despite many advances for women, the persistence and reinvention of heroic iconography for women continues to value image over substance. And because of their iconic appeal, throughout history it has been common for heroines to be used for commercial purposes.
In the 19th century, for example, British sea heroine Grace Darling鈥檚 image appeared on chocolate boxes and was used to advertise soap. Since her death in 1954, Frida Kahlo鈥檚 face has promoted everything from tequila to lip gloss. And Marilyn Monroe鈥檚 image has endured to sell any number of products.
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Antithesis of feminism?
So the appropriation of heroic women of substance as plastic Barbies should not surprise us.
Dolls have a long and rich history, after all. They鈥檝e appeared as representational figures, including gods and royalty, or dressed in distinct costumes representing national identities. They鈥檝e served as lucky charms and voodoo talismans.
As they evolved from eclectic homemade rag, woollen and wooden figures to mass-produced commercial objects, they became important in children鈥檚 gender role play. Rehearsing for their adult years, boys played with toy soldiers, action figures and superheroes, while girls had baby dolls to tend to and model figures to dress and groom alluringly.
In a sense, then, the Inspiring Women series can be seen as a positive development, encouraging empowerment by including a diverse range of ethnicities to appeal to girls whose communities were previously not represented as Barbies.
Overall, however, Barbie has a lot of work to do to overcome her image as the antithesis of the feminist goal of freeing girls and women from lives that cast them, in the words of writer Simone de Beauvoir, as 鈥渓iving dolls鈥.
In 1991, the author Susan Faludi even defined feminism by referencing Mattel鈥檚 famous product:
It is the simply worded sign hoisted by a little girl in the 1970 Women鈥檚 Strike for Equality: I AM NOT A BARBIE DOLL.
Barbie dolls have also been听听for promoting a white, idealised body type that advanced a kind of compulsory heterosexuality and subservience. The call was for women to听听as 鈥渟ex objects鈥 and instead to pursue 鈥渞eal鈥 lives and be recognised for their achievements.
And yet some women even underwent plastic surgery to mimic the Barbie body. As the feminist writer Martine Delvaux saw it, 鈥淏arbie is the image of what happens to women, their invisible and silent murder.鈥
Can dolls freighted with this much cultural baggage really honour inspiring women or serve as feminist role models? Or might it be better to view them as examples of what I term 鈥渄esigner feminism鈥 鈥 somewhere image and substance collide, but where valuing appearance ultimately underpins and contains achievement?
The clothing of these dolls may symbolise real lives, but underneath there is still a plastic body.
This article was originally published on .
