Mattel’s enlightenment is arriving 50+ years late

So I saw the Barbie movie…

It was in seeing this pink-apalooza that I realized why I had only a very short time in my life when I played with actual Barbie dolls. For about a month, maybe. I hadn’t thought much about Barbie for 50 years until this movie. It was while I was exiting the theater that I realized it: I hated Barbie. She couldn’t stand on her own (like, she literally could not stand up, because her feet were (and most still are) shaped to fit only high heels). If you tried to get her to stand up, she would fall on her face. She couldn’t sit on her own. She couldn’t bend her arms or her legs or her feet or hands. She only had frilly, often tiny, clothes and towering high heels available for her Barbie “dream” wardrobe. Her dimensions were grotesque and absurd — literally unobtainable for any woman unless she’s had plastic surgery.

God bless my mom so many years ago for seeing me, and realizing that Barbie was not the role model her 6 year old active little girl needed. The minute the Dinah-mite doll came out from Mego Corporation in 1972, my mother bought me one.

Her packaging said it all. “Just look what Dinah-mite can do. She sits or stands just like you. Pose her on one leg or two. 1000 ways. It’s up to you.” Dinah-mite really was dynamite.

I played with her until her clothing frayed. I took her all over the neighborhood, hung her from tree limbs, gymnastics-ized her in every which way imaginable. I even put a superhero cape on her at one point. She was beautiful, yes, and athletic and fun. And clearly smart and ambitious, I thought. She was made for adventure. She could stand, sit, and do all the amazing things that girls and women are supposed to do. She was my friend, and she helped me envision all of the amazing things that *I* could do with my life.

Barbie, you had great hair (for which you provided ample brushes and other accessories). But sorry, you never helped me envision the amazing life I could create. I had to get that elsewhere. In fact, it took many years to fill my little heart and head with more positive images of what becoming a woman could be.

There’s so much hoopla around the progressive, supposedly feminist values expressed in the film and the progress Mattel has made in showing that Barbie can be and do all kinds of things — from Astronaut Barbie, Dr. Barbie, and Diplomat Barbie to Judge Barbie, Mermaid Barbie, and President Barbie. There’s even a Barbie fashioned after one of my idols, Dr. Jane Goodall. Good on ya’, Mattel! You’re at long last trying to say that real women and girls come in all shapes, sizes, and colors and can do and be whatever they can dream. Gee, ya’ think? And I bet you’re making some coin while you’re at it.

Need I mention that it’s 2023 and most Barbies still cannot stand up on their own. Yes, here we are again with Stereotypical Barbie, the one that actress Margot Robbie plays in the film. She can finally flatten her feet, meaning she can walk without high heels, much to her horror. No such luck for Stereotypical Barbie in the package. She still falls on her face.

For many of us women who grew up in the 60s and 70s with only “Stereotypical Barbie” (the original and her friends), Mattel’s recent progress came 50+ years late. I remember my six year old self with my Sterotypical Barbie literally asking myself, “Is this what I’m supposed to look like when I grow up?” Damage done.

Many people loved the movie. You might be one of them. Before you applaud Mattel too loudly, let’s remember that Mattel has slowed women’s progress for over 50 years. Good luck, Mattel. Let’s see what you can do to make up for lost time.