Curvy Barbie

As a person working for women's rights in the 60s and beyond, Barbie and I have had a long, somewhat troubled, relationship.  My daughters had Barbies but it wasn't easy for me.  Especially since my youngest child swallowed several Barbie shoes when he was crawling around the house.  You can imagine how I discovered this.

Later, I justified to myself buying "career" Barbies for my granddaughters.  But that long, slender, overdressed blond still got on my nerves.

Here are some Barbie highlights:

• 1956 - Did you know that Barbie is based on a German doll named Lilli who was based on a call girl character?
• 1963-Barbie comes with a tiny book titled How To Lose Weight that recommends "Don't eat."
• 1970-One National Orgainization for Women slogan was "I Am Not a Barbie Doll."
• 1980-Multicultural versions of Barbie are introduced but all of their features are caucasian.  
• 1994-In a Simpsons episode Lisa challenges Barbie's creators to make a less sexist doll, suggesting Gertrude Stein.
• 2012-Valeria Lukyanova has cosmetic surgery to become the "human Barbie."  Others follow which starts talk of "Barbie flu."
• 2015-Curvy bodies are in - think Kardashian.

Big changes have now come to Barbie.  You can have one in curvy, tall and petite.  I hope little girls will want one that looks more like them.

I prefer the short, curvy Barbie featured on the cover of this weeks' Time.  For obvious reasons.



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