#lilli marlene

Lilli Marlene (1950). Haven't seen the movie but it's a good poster.

Earlier this month, a Barbie doll was featured in numerous new reports that had been built to the body type of the average woman in the United States.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/01/normal-barbie-nickolay-lamm_n_3529460.html

Long before the Bratz dolls and Monster High, Barbie was the rather quintessential toy for girls in the United States and occasionally abroad. She also attracted controversy from everything from her style of dress to her body proportions.  She's a toy lightning rod, if you will, for controversy, but much of it has been a result of the company refusing to move with the times, or making horrible mis-steps in their design department.  Some of the controversy is overblown, but when a toy such as this one has come to be synonymous with the American lifestyle, we can see how looking at this particular element of our culture might teach us more about ourselves.

Barbie actually has what is often referred to as a "Sordid" history.  While Mattel would like you to believe that she was the quaint invention of Ruth Handler that was introduced to the world in 1959, it's simply not true.

Barbie's American debut was in March 9, 1959 at a toy fair, and she initially had a poor showing with distributors.  However, once marketed directly to consumers, she took off to become the one of the toys that built the house of Mattel

For being hailed as an All-American girl, Barbie is actually from Germany, where she had originally been being produced since 1953.  Her original name was Bild Lilli and she was originally marketed in the US from Germany under this name before the Mattel version appeared.  Back further though, she was a cartoon character in the Bild-Zeitung tabloid, which is still published today.  The name translates to Picture Newspaper, so, Bild Lilli is "Picture Lilli," probably to make sure that fans of her comic would associated her with the doll.

Her creation was the combination of a baby face on a curvaceous woman's body.  A la, Betty Boop or Disney's Snow White.  (Did you know Betty Boop was meant to be 14 in her cartoons and Snow White was meant to be 16?  Both were also German)  There are some disputes about what Lilli was intended to actually be, but the best consensus is that she was a prostitute.  Marketed as a doll for children outside certain areas of Europe, within her own borders, she was a German seductress who seduced businessmen for money in the pages of her comic strip with her sex kitten body.  

Some have claimed that Lilli was simply sexually liberated and enjoyed using men for their money in the rebuilding, post-war phase of Germany.   This does have some evidence for it, since we clearly see it in the comics and such that money is being exchanged for sex, but that renders her, in our modern slang, a "sugar baby," who is operating under much the same principles as a prostitute.  Not to mention, we are judging their character by American standards, whereas Europeans may not look with such a critical eye at Lilli's arrangements.  We do know that the doll was a popular bachelor party gift and was sold as sort of a novelty item to men.  

A few reports have said that Lilli's original character had to have her nipples removed before she was transformed into Barbie for American markets.  This appears to be somewhat sensationalized, because many images of the doll without clothing suggest it didn't have prominent nipples that would merit removal.

Ruth Handler came across the Lilli dolls on her overseas trips and realized that she could create a version for American children.  Ruth's daughter, Barbara, was often playing with paper dolls, but they had no hard plastic equivalent on the market yet.  As a business woman, she realized the potential for sales of various dolls with exchangeable clothing, houses, and accessories.  

So, Lilli was toned down, and with her reputation kept tucked away overseas, Handler named the doll after her daughter and arguably the most famous doll in the world was born.

Mattel later even secured the rights to Lilli to shut down German distribution when Barbie began to take off, to prevent competition.

Here is an original Bild Lilli Doll

Here is the original Barbie:

The resemblance is such that Mattel was lucky to avoid an international lawsuit.

She attracted controversy in the American market almost immediately though, for her adult figure and proportions when parents were upset about the bathing costume and the large breasts.  

From then on, it hasn't been easy for Barbie in the presentation department.  An early version of Barbie took heat for containing a weight loss guidebook that declared "Don't Eat!" as it's best idea for young girls.  

While Barbie has stepped out into the working world, holding over 100 separate and diverse professions, it has been her appearance that has caused the most controversy.  Creators have updated her eyes to give a direct stare as opposed to her original demure sideways glance and her waist has only recently been widened.  She's also gotten in trouble for holding (in her early years) mostly stereotypical female jobs, and having pre-recorded phrases that were sexist or demeaning.  The famous "Math is hard" line that was parodied on The Simpsons.

The biggest issue comes from the fact that her proportions are not realistic, in so much that we know that if Barbie was a real person, she would collapse under her figure.  

But has this idealized unhealthy image caused damage to young female children in America?  There does appear to be evidence for that.  Certain individuals have gone under the knife to look more like Barbie, often resulting in strangely modified humans that appear to be unsettling to most people.  Researchers have also noticed a strange trend that while young girls identify with their Barbies in at younger ages, they have a distinct and active rebellion phase against the doll, wherein the famous decapitations and destruction of the body occur.  However, at that point, the damage may already be done.  Most recently though, we have what is called, "Barbie Syndrome," an identified disorder where the person wishes to look like Barbie, when the figure is completely unattainable to human women. (it physically cannot be supported, regardless of plastic surgery)  

It is more likely that Barbie is a contributing factor to an already unhealthy and non-body positive culture.  It would be hard to, outside of a few specific cases, really lay all of the body image issues in young women at Barbie's tiny feet.  Barbie has never purported to be the representation of American women, but she has called herself an "All-American girl."  There is a difference in those two statements, and that's where most people get confused.  Barbie was created before we took a real look at toys and games for children and how they might affect our self-worth, and while she has changed some over the years, she hasn't changed quickly, leading to backlash.  We do know for a fact that children model self-image on what they see is the predominate image; ergo, if they have a Barbie, see one type of person on television, see numerous ads, then they are getting a complete picture.  It's not the fault of one element in particular, but a combination of over-saturation and exposure to unrealistic images.  

Barbie has also gotten into trouble with race and ethnicity in America.  The first non-white Barbie, "Colored Francie" was introduced in 1967, which was made when Mattel just dyed their white Barbies a different color.  (She was also made to be from England, not the States) The first Barbie that is often considered to be African-American though, came in 1968, Christie.  (Lest you think this is not a problem anymore, Disney recently came under fire for marketing Princess Tiana dolls that were simply brown versions of stereotypical white princess faces - the doll was quickly pulled and fixed)  Mattel hadn't really even addressed the image of creating a doll with African-American features and varying skin tones until their "So In Style" line of Barbies, which appears to have come about very recently in their 2009-2010 lines, and these characters are only considered to be loosely connected to the Barbie line.  

Barbie also has a series of collector dolls known as the "Dolls of the World" series, which has drawn similar fire for creating stereotypical presentations of dress and culture.  Often, the criticism comes when one group is over generalized or dressed inappropriately, such as a recently released "Samurai Ken" doll that resembled a throw-back movie character, as opposed to an earlier Japanese Barbie that had taken more time with representing traditional costume and dress.  

1.  "Samurai Ken and Geisha Barbie"

2.  Japanese Barbie

Still despite ongoing controversy over her body image and her mis-steps on cultural presentation, Barbie remains big business.