Information about Barbie doll
Barbie’s full name: Barbie Millicent Roberts
Birthday: March 9, 1959
Height: 170cm
Weight: 50kg
Kenny’s full name: Ken Carson [Edit this paragraph] The controversy caused by “Barbie” Barbie’s popularity affirmed her The influence of Western children has led to a high degree of scrutiny, and criticism of her is based on the assumption that children will see Barbie as a role model and will try to imitate her.
1: In September 2003, the Middle Eastern country Saudi Arabia banned the sale of Barbie in the country, believing that Barbie was not in line with Islamic ideology. The committee's vice president of reproductive ethics and prevention said: "With her revealing clothing and shameful posture, the Jewish Barbie doll is a symbol of Western decadence. We should be aware of her dangers and be careful."
2: There is a doll called Fulla in the Middle East. Fulla is similar to Barbie but designed to cater to the Islamic market, and she is not produced by Mattel. In Iran, there are Sarah and Dara dolls to choose from alongside Barbie.
3: "Barbie" has become a derogatory slang term to describe a stupid woman. The most famous one is the song "Barbie Girl." In 1992, Mattel produced the talking Barbie. This series The doll's sentences include: "Are we going to have enough clothes?" "I love shopping!" and "Want a pizza party?" Each doll is programmed to speak four of the 270 sentences, so no two dolls should be alike. Although only 1.5% of the dolls said: "Math class is difficult!", it attracted criticism from the American Association of University Women (American Association of University Women). In October 1992, Mattel announced that the Teen Talk Barbie doll would no longer say this line of dialogue and would offer replacement dolls to owners.
4: Barbie’s Waist Size One of the most widespread criticisms of Barbie is that she promotes an unrealistic image of the female body, leading to anorexia in women who imitate Barbie. Criticism says that if a woman wants to have a Barbie figure, she needs to be 7 feet 2 inches tall, weigh 115 to 130 pounds, have hips of 30 to 36 inches, a waist of 18 to 23 inches, and a bust of 38 to 48 inches. At the same time, she will lack 17% to 22% of the fat necessary to maintain menstruation. After Barbie was redesigned in 1997, the waistline was increased, and Mattel stated that this change would make Barbie more suitable when wearing modern fashion designs.
5: "Colored" Francie was first produced in 1967. She is sometimes described as the first African-American Barbie. However, she is made from the mold of a Caucasian Francie doll, and does not have the correct racial appearance other than dark skin. Christy, who debuted in 1968, is often regarded as the first African-American Barbie doll. Black Barbie and Hispanic Barbie became available in the 1980s.
6: In 1997, Mattel cooperated with Nabisco to jointly promote Barbie and Oreo cookies. Oreo Fun Barbie is marketed as a doll that little girls can play with after school and share "America's Favorite Cookie," and Mattel follows suit by releasing white and black versions of the doll. Criticism has pointed out that in the African-American community, Oreo is a derogatory name, describing a cookie-like person: black on the outside but white on the inside. The doll was unsuccessful on the market, and Mattel took back unsold stock, sparking interest from collectors.
7: In May 1997, Mattel launched Share a Smile Becky, a doll in a pink wheelchair. Kjersti Johnson, a 17-year-old high school student in Tacoma, Washington, who has cerebral palsy, pointed out that the doll could not enter the lift in the Barbie doll house. Later, Mattel announced that it would redesign the doll house to accommodate the doll in the future.
8: In December 2005, Dr. Agnes Nairn of the University of Bath in the UK published a research report stating that girls usually go through a stage of hating Barbie, and they treat Barbie with different punishments, including beheading and killing. Put the doll in the microwave. He said that denying Barbie was like a ritual of denying his own past.
[Edit this paragraph] "Barbie" was born. Ruth Handler was the founder of "Barbie", the longest-selling toy in the world toy market. She later founded Mattel Toy Company and was the most successful woman in the United States. One of the entrepreneurs. Now, "Barbie" dolls have been sold to more than 150 countries in the world, with total sales exceeding 1 billion yuan.
On April 28, 2002, major newspapers and magazines forwarded a shocking news: the 85-year-old Ruth Handler, the creator of Barbie, passed away. For half a century, the Barbie doll created by Ruth has become a favorite of little girls almost all over the world. With the popularity of this toy doll with big eyes and long hair, today's "Barbie" is not only a toy, it is a symbol of American women and a symbol of American culture, just like McDonald's and KFC all over the world. As the creator of this brand, Ruth used her life's efforts to give dreams and hope to women around the world.
In 1916, Ruth Handler was born in Denver, the capital of Colorado, USA. Her parents were originally Polish. In order to avoid military service, like countless immigrants who came to the United States to pursue their dreams, they took a hot and dirty steamship to the other side of the ocean.
Ruth’s father was a blacksmith who relied on a meager income to support Ruth and her nine sisters. Her mother worked hard for the family all day long, but the hardships of life seemed not to matter. It brought too much harm to this big family, and the father and mother never lost their temper with the children. Ruth Handler later recalled that as the youngest child, she never lacked pampering while growing up. And it is precisely because she grew up with so much love that she has the childlike innocence of a child and designed the lovely "Barbie".
At the age of 19, Ruth was in her second year of college. She was not tall, but full of curiosity. Out of curiosity about movies, she came to Hollywood alone, but she came to this world full of temptations. She went to school not to be a movie star, but to study industrial design. Fortunately, she found a job on the famous Paramount Film Studio. Here she met the love of her life, Elliot Handler, and they quickly fell in love and married soon after.
In 1942, the ambitious Handlers founded their company in a garage. The initial product was wooden picture frames. Elliott developed samples and Ruth was responsible for sales.
By chance, Handler tried to make small furniture using the scraps left over from making picture frames, and found that the sales were good, so the company added another business, designing and manufacturing furniture for children's playrooms. After a few years, the company began to make money and its main business shifted to producing toys. In 1945, the Handlers and their friend Mantleson founded a company that later became the most famous and successful company producing rag dolls. The company was named Mattel (MATTEL), MATT was taken from Mantelson's name, and EL was taken from Elliott's name.
At that time, Ruth already had a daughter. As a mother and a toy businessman, she attached great importance to her children's ideas. One day, she suddenly saw her daughter Barbara playing with paper-cut dolls with a little boy. These paper-cut dolls were not the common babies at the time, but teenagers with their own careers and identities, which made her daughter very obsessed. "Why not make a more mature doll?" Ruth's mind burst out with inspiration.
Although I have the inspiration, the journey to realize it is arduous. Before the birth of Barbie, most of the toys for little girls on the American market were cute little angels, chubby and chubby, similar to the screen image of the famous child star Shirley Temple. This was an adult's response to children's toys. However, judging from the interests of older children, this kind of toy is a bit "childish". What they need is a playmate of their own age, not a baby.
What should you make your doll look like? Ruth thought hard. At this time, she needed to go to Europe for a business trip, so Ruth came to Germany. Here, she saw a doll named "Lili". Lily was very beautiful and was first made in 1955. It is based on a famous cartoon image in the "Westdeutsche Zeitung Beard". Lili is made of hard plastic and is 18 to 30 centimeters tall. Her long hair was tied into a ponytail and dragged behind her head, and she was wearing a gorgeous dress. The figure is impeccable, all the physical signs are present, and the clothes are very "revealing".
So Ruth bought three "Lilys" and brought them back to the United States. She told her male colleagues in the company that she wanted to design a "mature" toy, but they thought "Lilys" Li's clothing is too revealing and is a product to satisfy men's fantasies. It is not suitable for children.
Ruth was not discouraged. She thought, why can't I combine these two points? What the children need is a doll that grows up but is not exposed. A little girl not only needs a doll that is similar to her own age, but also an ideal image of her when she grows up. As a result, the appearance of "Barbie" became more and more mature in Ruth's mind. With the help of the company's technicians and engineers, Barbie was born!
With the care of a woman, Ruth then invited costume designer Charlotte Johnson to design clothes for Barbie. In 1958, they obtained the patent rights to produce Barbie. This kind of doll will change an era. She is different from the previous dolls. She was a grown-up, with long, fresh limbs, a figure that was tightly wrapped in beautiful clothes, and a face that looked as mysterious as Marilyn Monroe's, even though she was only 11.5 inches tall. Finally, Ruth gave the cute doll the nickname "Barbie" after her daughter Barbara. [Edit this paragraph] Growing up with "Barbie" The first batch of Barbie dolls were made in Japan and made their debut at the 1959 American Toy Fair under the title "Barbie - a role model for girls". But to Ruth's surprise, "Barbie" was not sold out, but received a cold reception from toy dealers. After all, she is a brand new thing and a risk. The dealers are unwilling to do this and only reluctantly buy a few.
But the market proved that Ruth’s judgment was correct. The “Barbie” placed in the corner of the dealer’s shelf was warmly welcomed by children, and more and more people began to buy this refreshing product. It is a gratifying toy, especially little girls, who are extremely enthusiastic about it, and 350,000 units were sold in the first year.
In 1960, dealers completely changed their minds, and orders came to Mattel like a snowflake. It took the company several years to meet demand for Barbie, and in 10 years the public spent $500 million on Barbie.
However, while "Barbie" is widely welcomed by the public, it has also been criticized from all sides. The American Women's Organization first stated that Barbie was too "sexy" and too "perfect" and set unattainable goals for little girls. The end result was that it hurt their self-esteem and made them feel inferior to their appearance and figure. Therefore, she It is not a symbol of women's liberation, but plays the role of "persecuting women". Ruth doesn't think so. "Barbie" is a girl's idol, and the idol is naturally perfect. Little girls will not feel inferior because of their idol.
To prove that "Barbie" is not an empty-minded vase, but a career woman. Ruth has designed more kinds of "Barbie", and she has more identities. She can be a doctor, an astronaut, a female entrepreneur, a police officer, an athlete, and even a volunteer for the United Nations Children's Fund. So far, She has more than 80 professions; she can be Chinese, Indian, black, and she represents 45 ethnic groups; her pets now have more than 40 kinds, and the first pet is called "Dancer" ) horse; she has her own boyfriend "Ken", who is named after Ruth's son; she also has her own three sisters, namely Qiaobi, which was launched in 1964, Stacey, who was launched in 1992, and Kelly debuted in 1995.
This is an ordinary toy, but so real. On the one hand, she is incredibly beautiful and is a "girl with a thousand faces." On the other hand, she is so close to us because she is like anyone else. Just like a little girl, she has her own preferences.
Opposition will still sound, but as a market image, "Barbie" is so successful. According to statistics from Mattel, an 11-year-old American girl may own 10 Barbie dolls, while a French girl of the same age owns 5. In addition to children, millions of adult women buy Barbie. "To them, no matter their age, she is not just a doll," Ruth said. "She has become a part of them." And Barbie collectors It’s even more gender-neutral: a Barbie doll priced at $3 in 1959 might be worth $5,000 now if it’s in good condition.
The first batch of Barbie dolls were made in Japan and debuted at the 1959 American Toy Fair under the title "Barbie - a role model for girls". The debut of Barbie was gradually welcomed by children, and more and more people began to buy this doll. 350,000 were sold in the first year. In the next 10 years, the amount of money purchased by the public for Barbie reached 500 million US dollars. [Edit this paragraph] The Development of "Barbie" Rose Handler discovered that her daughter Barbara (Barbie for short) liked to play with paper dolls, and she preferred to play with toys that looked like adults rather than babies or children, and Most of the three-dimensional dolls at that time appeared in the image of babies or children. Rose knew that there was room for market development of adult dolls, so she and her husband, Eli, one of the founders of Mattel, proposed the idea of Barbie. Unfortunately, Eli and other decision-makers in the company were not interested in the project. Not big. Rose Handler said, "Being able to play with a doll with breasts is very important to a little girl's self-image."
In 1956, Rose was with Barbara and Kenneth. While in Switzerland, she discovered a German doll called the Bild Lilli doll in a shop window in Lucerne. This kind of adult-like doll coincided with the doll Ruth Handler had in mind, so she bought three Bild Lilli dolls. She gave one to Barbara and the other two to Mattel. The Lilli doll is based on a popular comic character who appeared in Reinhard Beuthin's newspaper comic column as an independent career woman. The Lilli doll was first sold in Germany in 1955. It was originally targeted at adults, but later became popular with children because they could dress up the doll with separately sold clothing.
After returning to the United States, Rose, with the help of engineer Jack Ryan, started designing the doll again and named the doll Barbie after her daughter Barbara. Barbie was first revealed at the American International Toy Fair in New York on March 9, 1959, which became Barbie's official birthday. After Mattel obtained the copyright of the Bild Lilli doll in 1964, the Bild Lilli doll was officially discontinued. The first Barbie doll had a ponytail, a black and white zebra print swimsuit, and came in blonde or brunette hair. In the early days, Barbie was nicknamed "Youth Fashion Model" and her clothes were designed by Mattel's fashion designer Charlotte Johnson. About 350,000 Barbie dolls were sold in the first year after its launch.
Rose believes that Barbie’s adult appearance is very important. Initial market research shows that some parents do not like the doll's obvious breasts. Barbie's appearance changed many times. The most obvious one was that in 1971, Barbie's eyes were adjusted to look forward instead of looking sideways like they originally did.
Barbie was one of the first toys to use television for promotion, and this model was later widely used by other toys. According to statistics, Barbie dolls are sold in more than 150 countries and have sold more than 1 billion boxes. Mattel claims that 3 Barbie dolls are sold every second.
The standard ratio of Barbie dolls and related products is about one to six. This ratio is also called playscale. Barbie's products are not limited to dolls and doll clothing, but also include products under the Barbie brand, such as books, fashion and video games. Barbie has appeared in a series of animated films, including a cameo in the 1999 animated film "Toy Story 2."
Another unique thing about Barbie is that she has become a cultural icon and has received a rare honor in the toy industry. In 1974, a portion of Times Square in New York City was named "Barbie Avenue" for a week. In 1985, postmodern artist Andy Warhol created an image of Barbie. [Edit this paragraph] Setting of "Barbie" Barbie's full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts. Over the years, she has been given quite a few companions, the most well-known of which is her handsome boyfriend Ken (Ken Carson). She debuted in 1961. Like Barbie, Ken was named after Rose Handler's son.
Barbie and Ken had a well-known on-again, off-again relationship, and they announced their temporary separation in 2004. Other long-term friends of different races in Barbie's social circle include Hispanic Teresa, African-Americans Christie and Steven (Christie's boyfriend), and Kayla. Barbie's complete list of friends can be found at List of Barbie's friends and family.
According to the 1960s Random House novel, Barbie's parents were George and Margaret Trobbs, both of whom came from A fictional town called Wayross, Wisconsin, where Barbie attends Wayross High School in Wayross, Wisconsin, and Manhattan International High School in New York City, which is based on Stuyvesant High School.
Barbie has recorded pets. There have been more than 43 kinds of pets for Barbie, including 21 dogs, 12 horses, 3 ponies, 6 cats, a parrot, a baby chimpanzee, A panda, a lion cub, a giraffe and a zebra. . She owns a pink convertible, a trailer, a Jeep...and more. She also holds a pilot's license and when she is not serving as a flight attendant in the cabin, she operates commercial airliners. [ [Edit this paragraph] From doll to cultural symbol From the day the first Barbie was born, it has been continuously improved and innovated. Barbie's appearance has gone through more than 500 revisions and improvements to become what it is today. The latest appearance is based on the famous American Chinese athlete Michelle Kwan. In order to provide "Barbie" with beautiful fashions, more than 1 billion pieces of clothes have been produced since 1995, and about 100 new Barbie clothes are launched every year. Now "Barbie" is sold in 150 countries around the world, with total sales exceeding 1 billion. This American girl, who is between a little girl and an adult woman, is the best-selling toy in the world toy market and has become a favorite of men, women and children all over the world.
Now, Barbie is 50 years old this year, but she is still young. She will live longer than the Cabbage Patch Dolls and Teddy Bears that were once popular. No one knows why, not even her creator, Ruth Handler, can explain it. Whether in the toy world or in real life, longevity is a mysterious and elusive thing. Someone once asked Ruth Handler: Why is Barbie so good? She just smiled and replied: "I am a marketing genius." However, Mattel also produces many other types of toys, not only none of which perform as well as Barbie, but many of them die young. It should be said that Ruth's original inspiration gave this doll eternal life. She was the "Mother of Barbie" who was close to life and truly created "Barbie" for children.
Barbie has gone far beyond the definition of a toy and has become an immortal cultural symbol. She caught the attention of pop guru Andy Warhol, whose fascination with "Barbie" was no less than his fascination with Marilyn Monroe; for a period in the late 1990s, "Barbie" lived almost every day On American radios, although the singer singing "Barbie" is a Danish singing group; she is a representative of 20th century life, a symbol of American women, and the modern Mona Lisa. Even those who regard themselves as serious The academy, too, had to condescend to study the “Barbie phenomenon.” Students in social studies class were asked to complete an assignment like this: What criticisms have been made of Barbie as a role model? Do you think manufacturers should consider these criticisms? Although there may never be a "right" answer to these questions.
No matter what kind of discussion and praise it causes, one thing is certain, "Barbie" is the first living woman born in the doll design industry, and is no longer a passive child. The adult design of "Barbie" opens up the horizons of little girls. They can perceive the world outside kindergarten through "Barbie" and experience all aspects of adult life with "Barbie". From beach girl to politician, Barbie's ever-changing image sparked the imagination of children who wanted to be like her when they grew up.
Barbie’s success brought a lot of wealth to Mattel. In 1966, when Ruth was 50 years old, Mattel had already dominated the highly competitive toy world. It controlled a US$2 billion toy market in the United States12 % share. Ruth said: “I had my career, my husband, my kids and Barbie and Ken. I was on top of the world.
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But Ruth’s life did not go smoothly thereafter. In 1970, Ruth was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy. At the same time, Mattel’s new executive began to diversify the company’s products. This policy eventually forced Ruth and her husband to step away from the business they had founded. In 1975, Ruth resigned as president and left the company she and her husband founded.