Barbie: Is She A Cougar?

THE FOLLOWING IS AN UPDATED ENCORE TIM MOORE BLOG:

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….. 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.
Now that's she's celebrating her 52nd birthday today, I think she may be labelled officially a "cougar"!

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 52 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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