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'I think that may be the secret to why she's endured so long: That she weathers the projections and the conflicting projections of so many people.' And people who irrationally adore this hunk of plastic are also puzzling to me,' Lord says. 'People who hate Barbie for one reason or another, one might say that they project their fears and prejudices onto the doll. Instead, she sees the doll as its own sort of Rorschach test.

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While Lord says the new movie is 'incredibly feminist,' she hesitates to apply that word to Barbie herself. In 1972, feminist groups gathered outside a toy fair to protest dolls that they said 'perpetuated sexual stereotypes by encouraging little girls to see themselves solely as manniquins, sex objects or housekeepers.' Decades later, in 2013, topless women's rights activists protested the opening of a life-size Barbie Dreamhouse in Berlin, burning a doll on a cross and chanting 'pink stinks.' There have also been protests focused on Barbie's embrace of traditional gender norms. Studies have linked playing with ultra-thin dolls to negative body image and increased risk of eating disorders in children. Much of it has focused on the dolls' unrealistic body image: Researchers have found that if Barbie were a real person, she would have to walk on all four because of her proportions. Ruth Handler co-founded Mattel and created the doll - which has held over 200 jobs, from astronaut to executive to president - to show girls like her own daughter that they could be anything.īut Handler would not describe herself as a feminist, says Lord, who once asked her that directly.Īnd Barbie has faced plenty of backlash over the years.

'It's almost shocking, in a way, to see such a powerful message in a highly stylized, campy movie with all that pink,' she tells Morning Edition's Leila Fadel.Īnd the film has stoked strong emotions, both from fans who feel seen by its takedown of the patriarchy and critics who have slammed it as overly woke (including conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, who set fire to two dolls in a widely panned protest).ĭirector Greta Gerwig, who has built a devoted following for such female-forward movies as Lady Bird and Little Women, has labeled Barbie 'most certainly a feminist film.' Mattel executives, on the other hand, have said the opposite.įittingly, the Barbie doll itself has been at the center of such a debate pretty much since its debut in 1959.

Lord, the author of Forever Barbie: The Unauthorized Biography of a Real Doll and co-host of the new Barbie podcast LA Made: The Barbie Tapes, describes it as an angry movie made palatable through the lens of childhood products. That's painted in stark contrast to the 'real world,' of course. Specifically, it has many asking: Has a doll long criticized for perpetuating outdated gender norms and unrealistic body image become a feminist icon? Has she always been one?įor context: The movie takes place largely in Barbieland, a candy-colored, women-centered utopia where Barbies hold the positions of power (all of the jobs, really, except for 'beach') and Kens are essentially peripheral. The Barbie movie has smashed box-office records, brought dress-up back and put feminism in the spotlight.

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