When I saw this book on several "Best of 2010" book lists, I knew I had to read it. I was a Barbie fan as a child. I have memories of spending hours locked in my room with Barbie and her Dream House. I used to spend most of the time just setting up the house...furniture in the right places, all of the miniature food set up properly in the refrigerator. Then Barbie would begin her day. She would wake up, take her bath, pick out her clothes, eat her breakfast, and hop in her convertible. But then she never really went anywhere. I was usually so tired by the time I did all that to make Barbie really work or do any other activities. But it didn't matter. That was all that I needed Barbie to do to fulfill my playtime with her.
There are several people mentioned in this book that have similar happy memories of Barbie, and others who hate her with a passion for various reasons. The book details how Barbie began, starting with the story of Ruth Handler, the creator of Barbie, who founded Mattel with her husband, Elliot, and a friend. From the start, Barbie was controversial. The fact that she had breasts was seen as wrong to many adults, though most girls instantly loved her. Barbie was marketed as a "teenaged fashion model" with all of the most fashionable clothes to show off her glamour. But that was only the beginning.
Stone does a good job of detailing the changes in Barbie's life over the last 50 years, as well as presenting the variety of opinions about her. There are those who hate Barbie and don't want children exposed to her perfectly proportioned, unachievable form for fear of creating complexes and eating disorders. Interestingly, most of those people are adults. While there are some children who have no interest in Barbie because of her perfection, most girls don't really pay attention to that. I know that I never did. I never felt like I had to look like Barbie. I just loved her fabulous clothes. Mattel changed her shape within the last 10 years to make her "more realistic", yet I feel like there is more of a problem now. Before, her shape was unattainable...ridiculous in it's proportions. Now, she still looks ridiculously thin, but in a way that people could actually look. It almost seems more dangerous now than it used to be.
But all in all, I felt in reading this book that people need to relax. While Barbie is undeniably an American icon, it's because we have put her there. In reality, she's a toy! Love her or hate her, that's all she is. Adults who are concerned with Barbie's influence on their children need to talk to their children about her. Once again, the problem is not the item, it's the lack of communication between parents and children. And, really, as the book states:
"...girls figure out who they want to be by trying things on for size, acting things out. By seeing how it feels to put on makeup, being a girly girl, being a tomboy, pretending to be a flight attendant, a race car driver, an astronaut, a housewife. Playing with Barbie lets them experiment with all things feminine. They impose their will upon Barbie - not the other way around. Girls are strong, and no plastic, eleven-and-a-half-inch doll could ever change that." (p. 107)
Barbie opens up new worlds to the girls who are interested in playing with her. This book does a fairly good job of showing all of that, though sometimes the information seems bunched together and somewhat rushed. There are more than enough opinions on the doll to present a balanced argument, and many of them come from emails sent to the author by children and teens. The pictures throughout the book are in black-and-white, except for the color photo section in the middle of the book. All in all, a worthy read for anyone interested in the history and controversy of Barbie.
Recommended for grades 6 and up.
(Photo from juniorlibraryguild.com)
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