I don’t expect you’ll actually read this on the air (and if you get adventuresome and do, please don’t give my name, to protect the innocent), but I couldn’t help but remember this.

It wasn’t just girls who found some level of meaning from the Barbie in their lives. I’ll never forget the day I found my little sister’s Barbie in my pre-teen brother’s room… with a raggedy patch of pubic hair glued on her plastic torso.

Maybe if Barbie had nipples, poor Ken would have been allowed a penis. It’s amazing how much in denial we are about body parts that are neccessary for our very existence. “Primitive cultures” celebrate these body parts! why can’t we?

I went to Duke Law School in the late ’80s. It was said that our Constitutional Law Professor, William Van Alystne was married to the real Barbie and was the prototype for Ken. He used to wear leather pants and ride a motorcycle. I wanted to ask the author if there is any truth to this.
Thanks,
Leora
Lexington

When I was a little girl I was Barbie crazy! My parents did not have a lot of money so every Christmas my mother made a wedding trousseau for my Barbie, right down to a pegnoir set. When I was 45 my mother found those clothes in the attic, cleaned them all up and sent them to me. One problem, I no longer had a Barbie doll. Well…10 years later I have about 20 Barbies (I pared them down a couple of years ago). I’ve spent 30 years in the car business but I’m a girly girl at heart! I never wanted to be Barbie but I always felt like she could be me if she wanted to because, duh, Barbie could do anything!

I was a little girl in the 1960 when Brabie was introduced. My younger sister and I wanted these dolls so badly – we begged our mother for one.

She refused – she believed the doll was way too provocative and sexual. We were instead allowed to have the Tammy doll, which was introduced around the same time as an alternative to Barbie. Tammy was about the same size, also with a wardrobe…but no big breasts!! We loved our Tammy dolls – I’m wondering if other listeners remember this doll?

I recall from an art history class years ago discussing the similarities of Barbie and Venus of Willendorf an ancient stone figurine as well as fertility goddess. Large bust and pointed toes. Every time I walk down the toy aisle I remember sitting in that class and discussing Barbie, a doll, for two hours in a class I paid to take! Here again I find myself consumed by the program spending more adult time with Barbie as an adult.

I was born 5 years after Barbie and grew up playing with the dolls. My comment is that my sister and I never once considered what Barbie looked like or what the “ideal” body type was. For us, it was entirely about the clothes! I probably couldn’t give you an accurate description of Barbie’s physical appearance, but I absolutely remember many of her outfits!!
I feel we as a society overthink the physical beauty of a doll and fail to notice the simple joy of having an affordable plaything.

Sex sells. Companies have no compunction selling sex to children in clothes, toys, and media. It’s good for the companies bottom line, but is it good for the children?

when i was in elementary school, in the 60s i had a crush on a boy in class. I remember not being popular and wanting to get his attention. I took one of my mother’s scarfs and tied it around my waist so tightly that it hurt because i knew from my barbies that tiny waists looked better and brought girls more attention. My ploy for attention backfired and classmates teased me harshly over my plain. shapeless body.

I loved my Barbie doll. I had one, not 3 or 4 Barbies,
which it seems is what the girls have now.

We did have Skipper and Ken and other dolls from the Barbie collection though. When Midge came out….the only colored Barbie doll…my colored girlfriends were
just elated that someone had actually invented something for them. Prior to that, not only had little girls been forced to play with a body perfect doll, they had to play with dolls that were not their color.

So let’s hear it for it Midge.

A LIFT FOR BARBIE’S LIFT

What goes up must surely come down,

Muzak acknowledges with a frown.

Fifty years it filled the air

Of each business elevatair

With a tamped-down mellow sound

Seeping in once leaving the ground

So by the time you reached your floor

Sleep had slipped down to your core.

Soon the muzak will be stilled,

Many folks are bound to be thrilled.

Sappy rides will be a thing

Of the past–Give a shout, give a ring!

Silence filling every lift,

Haters of noise will hug the gift.

Time to rejoice, a momentous matter–

Till replaced by cellphone chatter.

Growing up, Barbie was my favorite toy because of two things: her hair and clothes!
I could dress her anyone I wanted and practice various hair styles on her. In fact, I learned how to braid my own hair by practicing on Barbie (thanks Barbs). I never ONCE admired her body. Even as a child, I was smart enough to realize that Barbie was SHAPED specifically FOR her clothes. In fact, without clothes she looked ugly, odd and robotic. I felt bad leaving her naked. Her clothes were what made her fun and glamorous.
I was surprised later in life to discover that there were women who grew up thinking that Barbie was SUPPOSED to represent the “perfect” female body. Additionally, these women (and feminist writers) claimed to have experienced self-esteem issues due to Barbie!

Are you kidding me? There are people on this planet who think that a sexless odd-looking plastic product was a detriment to their lives? I always wanted to know if these women also grew-up hating their genitals since the “ideal” Barbie toy had none. Did they also feel that they should have Barbie “feet”?

If toys have such psychological programming on children, why aren’t men talking about their low self-esteem from wanting to look like G.I. Joe? Shouldn’t they also be crying that they can’t see through walls or fly like their super-man action figure?

I am now a young professional woman with a graduate degree and excellent self-esteem. Barbie was a wonderful part of my childhood. When I have children you can bet our house will be filled with Barbies!
Happy Birthday Barbie!

One has to wonder about someone still using the term “colored” in 21st century America (or anywhere on the planet Earth)to describe African-Americans.

First, Midge was not a colored doll. She was Barbie’s friend and in the 1980’s Mattel actually made a Black Barbie. Second, Barbie’s first black friend was “colored” Francie who was a Mod-ern cousin of Barbie. There was also Christie and othe black dolls produced later on. Mattel did it’s best to be politically correct with it’s dolls.Third , as an adult collector of vintage Barbie and Ken, what we find interesting today is how accurate Barbie has been able to portray women’s fashion through the years. Whe had Jackie Kennedy outfits in the 60’s and Mod wild stuff in the late 60’s and early 70’s. Almost anyone can remember having an article of clothing like something in Barbie’s wardrobe. She is a Fashion Icon that has lasted 50 years.

[...] 15, 2009 Listening to On Point this week, (http://www.onpointradio.org/shows/2009/02/barbie-turns-50/) I got to thinking about Barbie, my childhood, my feminism, and my future [...]

If Barbie had the psychological effect of low self esteem or relagating females to stereotypical roles then it would follow that her counterpart, GI Joe would have had a similar role in boys. Military toys of all types were common in the 1960’s. Even before GI Joe I had toy soldiers, guns, fatigues, helmet…. GI Joe had one job, Soldier. The only thing his hands could hold was a gun. The only accessories one could obtain were war related. My generation should have been gung ho to enter the Vietnam war but we were not.

[...] Barbie Turns 50 [...]

Long time Barbie collector here. The one who was profiled by the Globe on 1/3/09 as having to sell some of my collection to pay medical bills.

I have had Barbie dolls since I was a small child (still have that first doll) and I loved how she could be everything I never though I could be. People in my family just got married and had children. Barbie had careers, which gave me the idea that I could have one also. I finished high school, and kept my Barbie. I went to college and brought along a few Barbie’s to keep me company. got a great job, and starting collecting more Barbie’s.

Now I am retired, and dealing with a deadly disease (two of them – lupus and cancer) Barbie is with me still, helping me heal, helping me forget I am sick.

I would be lost without Barbie. Without all my Barbies.

[...] the media can barely contain [...]

[...] Barbie is 50. What a role model she has been. She has held up magnificently well, she continues to challenge herself by mastering different professions, keeps her style up to date and makes cutting edge fashions work for her. Yeah, I think she’s old enough to get a tattoo and put it anywhere she wants. [...]

Oh how I loved my Barbie, and Skipper and her best friend the redhaired flip curled freckeled face Midge..(AND my “liddle kiddles – does anyone remember Mattel’s liddle kiddles?) well my parents wouldn’t get me a Ken, until… they discovered I had cut off Midge’s hair and flattened her breasts on the concrete floor and dressed her as my Barbie boyfriend…got Ken, but I still loved my Midge too. Happy to be celebrating my 50th this year too and giving a couple select girlfriends turning 50 the $3 anniversary Barbie as a gift! I have 3 daughter’s and never let them play with MY Barbie collection – they got their own. I did buy them a Barbie car, because I used my fancy sunday school shoes as my Barbie car. Lots of fond memories -thanks Barbie!

[...] Barbie turns 50 today. What a role model she has been. She has held up magnificently well. She continues to challenge herself by mastering different professions. She has kept her style up to date and makes cutting edge fashions work for her. And, regardless of the public outrage, I think she’s old enough to get a tattoo and put it anywhere she wants. With skin that doesn’t age, why not? Barbie, fabulous at 50 [...]

Yes, I remember Tammy (& Penny Brite!)as well as Barbie. Have 3 Tammies,a Penny,2 Barbies (1 from about 1960,1 “Twist’n Turn” from c1968), a brunette Midge & blond Skipper.Yes,my mother allowed me the Tammies & Skipper but not the Barbies. I didn’t understand why then. All I knew was that she was forbidden so she had more allure. It was great elation to smuggle them into the house when older friends gave me theirs.When I had all of the above I loved them equally.All rather ugly otherwise, I loved how clothes looked on them,used to be fascinated by all their style catalogues,”sets” (oh, what ones could I buy?!)Loved the long hair models to style,loved to design & make knitted clothes for them.No clothes horse myself but they never made me feel ashamed.