Barbie Is 50 Today!

My favorite Barbie joke goes something like this: “Hey, have you seen the new ‘Divorce Barbie’? Yeah, it comes with all of Ken’s things!”

The fact that a 50 year old man (me) could HAVE a “favorite” Barbie joke shows just how much of a cultural icon Barbie has become. Imagine telling a “Beanie baby” joke…..just NOT FUNNY. Barbie was first introduced to the public on this date in 1959 at the American Toy Fair in New York. Originally modeled after a German toy aimed at MEN as a racy gag gift, the Barbie doll became the first adult doll mass marketed to little girls, making Mattel millions in the process.

Of course, Barbie also generated tons of negative publicity-as her proportions-if on a real woman, would have made her a 36-18-38. These dimensions were blamed for causing negative body images among young girls. On the flip side, Barbie also represented a departure from the 1950’s role models-as Barbie was represented in careers not traditionally open to women.

Below is the TV Commercial for Barbie-and the aforementioned Ken-who was actually not introduced until 1961, but this is too hilarious to wait:




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5pcyHT838g

It is estimated that over 800 million Barbies have been sold in the last 50 years! That almost 3 dolls for every man, woman and child in the United States! Having had a young daughter to spoil, I think my Christina had at least a half dozen! I can’t speak to all the negative—or positive aspects of Barbie…after all, at the end of the day…it is a DOLL.

One that has made millions of girls happy for a half a century-and there’s some value in that, no?

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