The Politics of Reclaiming Barbie and the Barbiecore Aesthetic

In this video essay I discuss the history of the Barbie doll and the Mattel corporation, their controversies and their progress. I also discuss Barbie’s history as a feminist icon and how radical Barbiecore is and why it matters.

Lastly, I talk about some of my predictions about Greta Gerwig’s upcoming Barbie movie adaptation starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling.

TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 Disclaimer
0:15 Content Note
0:33 Intro
2:20 Part 1: Barbie’s History and Boobs
10:13 Part 2: The ‘Other’-ed Barbies
18:40 Part 3: Barbie, Whiteness and Femininity
28:15 Conclusion

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Links:

ANNA MAY WONG BECOMES THE FIRST ASIAN AMERICAN DOLL IN BARBIE’S INSPIRING WOMEN SERIES

Barbie logo history

Oriental Barbie Doll

1980 Barbie Dolls

‘A little act of revolution’: How Mattel came to make the first Black Barbie

Launching a Toy Company

Why the new Barbie movie is the feminist epic we deserve

Francie (Barbie)

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Music:
all music is from the YouTube Audio Library

Dancing Star - Aakash Gandhi

Summer Breeze - Nate Blaze

[valeriarossini]

the criticism about Mattel being a giant corporation is valid, but I doubt Gerwing’s adaptation will explore it as Mattel seem to be quite involved with the movie

[neb.]

I wish that Barbie could bring back the pink and glitter, but still diverse. Every time a company “diversifies” their brand, they make everything basic and bland and they get rid of the glamour and sparkle. Just look at Victoria Secret.

[profscarlett]

Barbie is a femenist in the sense that she works, is independent, she owns property, she can be astronaut and even lawyee, fire fighter, and all. She drives her own car. She shows girls that they can do so much! And being a feminist is that: advocating for the rights of women. Women can be financially independent, and that’s great!

[sc]

I’ve got to say, as a very masculine woman (I literally get mistaken for a teenage boy quite often) I do appreciate that you reminded people that masculine women are far more often ridiculed than celebrated and that very feminine women not being taken seriously doesn’t mean that masculine women are taken seriously. I see too many video essays that equate female masculinity with “NLOG behavior” and it’s nice to have that explicitly shut down for once.

Also I played with a lot of Barbies as a kid in the 2000s and some extent the late 90s (1995 baby here so I was quite young in the late 90s) so I’m very hype for this movie.

[paolabetancourt]

Never understood why people felt insecure about Barbie’s body nor Disney princesses. I mean, I was insecure but not because of Barbie, because I was comparing myself with actual girls and women. Also, it’s time we stop vilified pink and hyperfemininity. Movies are so use to make the villainess a hyperfeminine woman when we talk about kids/teen movies, proving how they view femininity as something negative.
That’s why I love Barbie and Elle Woods, they are not vilified for their love for pink. They are kind, respectful and both of them have goals. You can love pink and be persevered, be who you want to be.

[solarmoth]

I really liked the idea of barbie being able to be anything she wanted when I was growing up. I’ve always felt barbie was a well rounded character especially after they let her make youtube vlogs. I always found it weird people used Barbie as an insult and to imply a particularly feminine woman was shallow and unintelligent. Barbie as a character is none of those things but the stereotypes associated with hyperfemininity and girl/womanhood automatically became associated with Barbie.

[whatalsaid]

I feel like if we could've had the diversity of modern Barbie, and the fashions of 2000s Barbie, we could have a perfect doll line.

[tecpaocelotl]

I remember I went to the store and saw a girl got excited about one of the diversified Barbie when it came out. She was dark skin. The doll looked like her. She shown it to her mom, but her mom said, "That's an ugly Barbie, wouldn't you want this Barbie?" The Barbie was the white blond Barbie. I tried not to make a scene, but i felt bad for the girl.

I bought a Barbie for my daughter. I didn't show it to my gf, and I mentioned I bought one. My gf grew out of Barbie. She grew up with the choice of either Black and White, so she thought it was one of them. I shown her the Barbie, and my gf's lit up. The Barbie was close to our daughter's skin and hair color. She was surprised Barbie made dolls like that.

[edgesidontknowher]

My issue is that just that they are diverse now, but no fashion forwardness like at all. I have a whole Pinterest board dedicated to older Barbies (even from the life and the dream house) and the fashion was AMAZING. The fact that they can’t give bigger bodies, disabled, dolls any cool and amazing outfits is crazy. Someone in the comments mentioned how Victoria secret did this too. Like why can’t bigger bodies ever have pretty things like it’s hard work to do 😒

[minako]

As soon as that Miko doll at 14:36 showed up, I recognized her outfit IMMEDIATELY. I had that exact doll as a little girl (although I recently came out as non-binary) in the early 1990's. My grandma is Japanese, and I remember her giving me this doll and saying her name was "Keiko", for some reason. Even though it appears as though Miko was marketed as Hawaiian, I think my grandma wanted me to think of her as Japanese so I could better identify with the doll.

[briannalee]

When I was a kid, Barbie didn't make me want to be sexy for men. I just had fun playing with a pretty doll I could dress up and play with. I didn't want to look like Barbie. I wanted a Barbie dream house and car, and hell, I wanted to be a fairy like one of my Barnies, but I knew it was fun and make believe. The way people get mad and panicked over a small plastic toy is ludicrous and every time I hear their concerns about Barbies "being sexualized" or "making girls want to look a certain way, " I always say, "That's b.s. Children don't think like that. Young girls just want to have a fun toy they can play make believe with so they can pretend to be a princess, rock star, mermaid, etc. Also Barbies are not sexualized. Just because a woman or female character has busts and hips doesn't mean they are sexualized. It's a woman's body and women's bodies are not inherently sexual. Besides I remember being a little girl and I can promise you, children never think about a person's or toy's body. They only know fat and skinny, not much else about them. Adults forget that kids don't obsess over bodies and have sexual thoughts like adults do. They mostly notice and pay attention to faces. The fact that there are people who are "offended" by the toy or see it as being "sexualized, " not only shows that they see a woman's body as a sexual object, but it also shows that people have way to much time on their hands and just want something to be outraged about.

Also in all the Barbie movies, she was kind and compassionate, yet authoritative and tough. She was fair and intelligent. Barbie showed me that women can be beautiful and feminine, but still be strong and intelligent. People seem to forget that beautiful women are human beings with hearts, minds, passions, and aspirations. The notion that a beautiful woman can't be a good role model is absurd.

[sharaineroberts]

I always loved Barbie and the color pink and fashion. Even though I am an African/black American woman. I am happy you discussed Barbie. I am excited about the movie. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I really appreciate it.

[korieno]

Im a big barbie collector and found you through your american girl video. I love barbie and im so glad that this video exists now. I never saw her as anti feminist. She was just fun!

[lasenoraquedibuja]

I'm an older millennial, so I grew up internalizing that hate towards dolls and girly stuff. My sister, mom, and my girlfriends all lived our lives making sure we were not "like other girls". But of course, I had Barbies, and barbie's bed, her beautiful shower, etc, and I felt so ashamed of liking this stuff. Now that I'm a full-grown woman and a writer I see the huge value of playing with dolls as a means to exercise your creativity and imagination, I used to make stories with my Barbie dolls and the only Ken that I had... I wish I could still make up so many stories with so simple characters such as my Ken 😅who, by the way, was surfer or something, so he only wore shorts. It was very inconvenient, I could never include him in important events of the plot.

[aaflesje]

Barbie is a reflection of us, we're not a reflection of Barbie.

[guruuvy]

I was a Barbie designer from 2007-2012 and my co-worker Stacey McBride created a Black Barbie line called So In Style that was released in 2009.

One of the characters was canonically Black and Korean, one character was Jamaican American, another character was African and another was Afro American, and the last character introduced was Puerto Rican.

So In Style as a line lasted from 2009-2014, with the last doll of the main character (Grace) being released as part of the Barbie Fashionistas line in 2015.

The line lasted five years (with only 1 commercial in the first year) because of its authenticity. We were Black designers speaking to the Black experience.

Now they assign all the Black dolls to non-Black designers because they have no Black people on the design team.

[lulusmith]

I think we all had that phase where we hated “girly” and feminine things. I had that phase when I was 12 and thought hating the color pink and “girly” stuff made me mature. I’m so happy I grew out of that phase. Growing up is realizing pink isn’t a bad color, it’s actually my favorite again! I have pink plushies, a pink switch lite and a pink bag

[grapeshot]

Yes self-hate has been extremely damaging for black people across the world. It's all about that eurocentric beauty standard. The need to conform to it has done great damage.

[CollaborativeDog]

I'm a borderline Gen X/Boomer. I enjoyed playing with Barbies with my sister and friends. Even though we had Kens, they rarely made an appearance. Their clothing was just a source of fun - we made our own - but it wasn't to impress men, they weren't going places to meet men or be with men. It was a woman's world...well, women and horses.😂

[dannizinn]

I'm a 29 year old doll collector mostly American Girl and Alexander dolls, then Barbie, and I remember being more or less pushed away from wearing sequins, bling accented clothing once I got to a certain age same with being teased about being a collector. Because of how I was raised, I'm a left leaning feminist, there's nothing wrong with being an attractive complex woman who continues to enjoy dolls and have a real world job.