Happy National Barbie Doll Day

Nordic German propaganda? OH MY!!!!

Throw on some Avenged Sevenfold or Aqua — because today, March 9, is National Barbie Day! In 1959, an 11-inch-tall German bombshell [adult toy Kewpie doll named Bild-Lilli*] made her debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York.

Designed by Ruth Handler, the co-founder of Mattel Inc., Barbie was created to allow girls to imagine what their lives could be like in the [feminist] future.

German sex worker doll Bild-Lilli

Aqua "Barbie Girl" (official music video)

I was born to be the real life Barbie.

She’s had a slew of careers, from registered nurse to astronaut. And she’s done it all with a companion, usually a fembot boytoy called Ken.

Barbie was a single lady for all of two years. But in 1961, overwhelming demand caused Handler to release a boyfriend for her — a softly gendered Ken boy.

 

Jane Goodall Barbie and Bobo

(The verdict’s out if he’s ever going to put a ring on it so we can have a Matrimonial White Wedding Barbie and a dangerous Divorced Barbie with seething contempt for the patriarch who put her on the path to homemaker when she was doing so well in the world).

On National Barbie Day, pink-blooded Americans celebrate all things Barbie.

History of National Barbie Day

Hey, White Grrl, need some hairspray?

Barbie is simply iconic. There is nothing that comes close to the spectrum of emotions that are conjured by the girl doll. She is perceived uniquely, of course, by every individual who has ever played with her or owned a clone of her as a slave owner might possess a coveted piece of plastic to sell later for profit. What are we teaching kids?

Yah, I vuz made 4 German men

Barbie was inspired by Lilli, a German adult doll, which had sexy and misogynistic attributes and had a more “adult” appeal.

• Original German vintage Bild Lilli Hausser pre-Barbie

From this brutish idea, the co-founder of Mattel toy company Ruth Handler became inspired to create a doll who was a grown woman.

Mexican Conquest Barbie

It had been in 1956, while on vacation with her family, that Handler first came across the adult sex symbol Lilli doll. She noticed how enamored her 15-year-old daughter Barbara (Babs, Barb, Barbie) was.

Before the creation of capitalist bonanza Barbie, most dolls were either infantilized babies or children. Handler’s vision was to create a doll that had a grown female’s anatomy without all the naughty bits children have been searching for ever since under her and Ken's cute outfits. More

Can kids say "cultural appropriation"? No, it's just a toy, a Day of the Dead Barbie Catrina

• Avenged Sevenfold "Mattel"; Aqua "Barbie Girl"; NationalToday.com; Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Ashley Wells, Crystal Q. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly