My world of imagination started with Barbie. With endless outfits and accessories, I changed her to be anything from a news anchor to a ballerina to a veterinarian, in order to mirror the aspirations I had for myself at the time. Even as a child, I understood that she was not just a doll but rather a symbol of empowerment and chasing one’s dreams, making me eternally grateful to her. The “Barbie: A Cultural Icon” exhibit at the Museum of Arts and Design took my appreciation a step further in revealing the cultural influence of the iconic toy that spans over six decades.
This exhibit invites visitors to celebrate the doll’s 65th anniversary by following along on Barbie’s journey from start to finish, going as far as showcasing how the doll is physically created from head to foot. One of the most surprising details of this part of the exhibit was how difficult and intricate it was to create a three-dimensional doll. While one of the controversies of Barbie is her unrealistic body proportions, the exhibit highlights that the model was carefully developed by rocket scientists and engineers to make a patented toy that could be mass-produced. It is clear that Ruth Handler, the creator of Barbie, was more concerned with Barbie’s purpose rather than representation. Instead of girls’ imaginations being limited to playing mother with their baby dolls, Handler created an adult doll for girls to play out their future selves. Thankfully, change happens with time, and Barbie now has the most diverse doll line in the world with different skin tones, hairstyles and body types.
I found that the main purpose of the exhibit is to showcase how Barbie has evolved over time and reflected the changes throughout the decades. Some parts of the exhibit truly felt like a women’s history lesson because there are sections on the careers Barbie added to her resume for each decade. The plaques even explained why each job was important for women of the time. For instance, Barbie in the ’60s was a nurse, flight attendant and designer. Showing Barbie in the workforce was important for the time because new technology and a “baby bust” allowed women more time to explore career options. The ’80s launched a “We Can Do Anything” Barbie advertisement campaign to reflect how women were entering boardrooms and courthouses after more females graduated from higher education. The ’90s saw women within more specialized practices, so Barbie became a pilot, doctor, paleontologist and many other things, all the while looking good doing it.
It is no question that Barbie is known for her fashion sense in addition to her many careers. Barbie mirrored the changing trends just as much as the changing times. This doll became so influential that real life fashion designers used her as a model for their craft. Oscar De La Renta was the first to create a partnership with Barbie in 1985. Today, the doll has collaborated with over 100 designers. The exhibit displays some of these showstoping creations from designers such as Coach, Versace and Karl Lagerfield.
My greatest takeaway from the exhibit was experiencing the cultural impact of Barbie. I realized that Barbie not only reflected the real world, but was also the innovative one. A few years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Barbie launched the first Black doll named Christie. Barbie and Christie became friends before people of different races did in real life. Barbie also went to space during the space race period, specifically four years before man landed on the moon in 1969. Barbie even owned her own dream house years before women in real life were able to open their own bank accounts.
After getting these insights into Barbie’s life, I realized that the world is too quick to judge her, just like it is with real women. Some people judge her as the “stereotypical blonde” but do not understand that her blonde head wears many hats. Some see her body proportions and ignore the genuine efforts of creating more representation along with the fact that some women do have that body type. We already learned that Barbie is much more than a pretty face when Greta Gerwig’s movie “Barbie” came out in 2023, and you can experience this again by going to Barbie’s anniversary exhibit until it closes on March 16. I truly recommend going because it was such a joy to walk through the history of the Barbie doll that I loved so much as a young girl.
